movie review by Paul Grant Follower of Basho
Movie trailer at bottom of post
This movie is a wild trip of convoluted stories skillfully intertwined to give the viewer a series of perspectives on the life of musician, Bob Dylan, with multiple actors embodying different stages in the singer's life.
I have been told the more you know about Dylan, the more you will like this film. Roger Ebert writes: If you are not much familiar with Dylan, this film is likely to confuse or baffle."
A. O. Scott writes in the New York Times that "Devotees of Dylan lore will find their heads swimming with footnotes, as they track Mr. Haynes’s allusions not only to Mr. Dylan’s own music but also to the extensive secondary literature it has inspired, from books by David Hajdu and Greil Marcus to films, including D. A. Pennebaker’s 1967 documentary, “Don’t Look Back,” some of which Mr. Haynes remakes shot for shot."
And on top of being a Dylan buff, being a movie buff can make I'm not There' more enjoyable. (Haynes shoots the Blanchett sequences in a gritty black and white (aping the look of D.A. Pennebaker's 1967 Dylan film "Don't Look Back," with a few nods to Fellini) and the Bale section as a sub-Scorsese rock doc, but the Billy scenes are done up as a 1970s revisionist western - Altman's "McCabe & Mrs. Miller" by way of "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid," in which the singer appeared. Some commentators have found the Gere bits the weakest link in "I'm Not There," but if you know the films and you love "The Basement Tapes," they can seem terribly emotional: a ramshackle mini-movie in which Dylan the weary recluse presides over the death of the hippie dream.)(Ty Burr)
One of the actors is a young African-American boy (Marcus Carl Franklin) who claims to be Woody Guthrie; a second is Jack, a Greenwich Village folk singer (Christian Bale); a third is Robbie (Heath Ledger), appearing in a Hollywood film, who settles down, gets married and has kids; a fourth is Jude (Cate Blanchett), a hero who alienated his fans by switching from acoustic to electric guitar and from folk to folk rock; a fifth is an actor (Richard Gere) appearing in a Western about Billy the Kid; a sixth is a Dylan (Ben Whishaw) submitting to a contentious interview about his career, and then we double back again to Christian Bale, who plays either a seventh or a transformation of the first, Pastor Jack, a born-again Christian.
At one point the character comments that it takes a thief to catch a thief, and in some sense that reflects the idea that it takes an artist to catch an artist- in this case the artist /Director and co-writer Haynes trying to catch Dylan - without in any way possessing him. It seems clear that in Haynes 's opinion that if he were to make a straight bioptic about Dylan - it would be an attempt to own him and his story.
Using chaos and mystery and riddles Haynes gives us a series of Dylan's that Dylan would probably deny - one and all- with the simple- `thats not me- you don't know me." (“I couldn’t believe after all these years/You didn’t know me better than that” as Dylan sand in in “Idiot Wind”)
Beware, some have called it discordant, disjointed disappointment (Claudia Puig, USA TODAY)who also said it's not nearly as enjoyable as one of his rambling, meditative songs. While others believe it is :" a work of staggering cinematic craft that's part jigsaw puzzle and part meditation on the mysteries of art and stardom." ( Ty Burr, Boston Globe.)Mr. Burr also wrote : "Fair question: "Will any of this matter if the singer means little or nothing to you? Possibly not, although if you want to see our culture of celebrity engaged at its most primal level, or if you just enjoy supremely confident moviemaking, the film can't be dismissed."
Haynes is a formalist who likes to experiment, be it queer-world fantasy (Poison), glam rock (Velvet Goldmine), environmental terrorism (Safe {One of my personal all time favorite films}) or 1950s melodrama (Far From Heaven). Dylan thought enough of Haynes to give him rights to his music.
Cast & Credits
John/Jack: Christian Bale
Jude: Cate Blanchett
Woody: Marcus Carl Franklin
Billy: Richard Gere
Robbie: Heath Ledger
Arthur: Ben Whishaw
Claire: Charlotte Gainsbourg
Alice: Julianne Moore
The Weinstein Co. presents a film directed by Todd Haynes. Written by Haynes and Oren Moverman. Running time: 135 minutes. Rated R (for language, some sexuality and nudity).
Many people have covered Bob Dylan's songs over the years, but few quite like this. On the double-disc soundtrack that accompanies Todd Haynes' extremely confounding biopic of the already plenty confounding folk icon, we get the likes of Sonic Youth, Cat Power, Yo La Tengo, the Hold Steady, and Antony & The Johnsons doing their best Dylan impressions and often failing gloriously. Former Pavement frontman Stephen Malkmus does a particularly fine job oozing his way through "Ballad of a Thin Man," while Wilco's Jeff Tweedy draws the moody beauty out of "Simple Twist of Fate," and Sufjan Stevens lends his typically baroque touch to "Ring Them Bells." Special credit has to go to the Million Dollar Bashers, the unofficial house band that includes Steve Shelley on drums, John Medeski on piano, and Tom Verlaine on guitar, along with other notable musicians. The generous track list and dynamic set of contributors promises that this album will provide plenty of awe long after the film itself has been forgotten. --Aidin Vaziri
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