I'm Not There

(2007)

Todd Says:

2.5 STARS

Let me start by saying that I AM a huge Dylan fan, but it just wasn't enough to make this movie work for me. I'm Not There feels too disjointed, and ends up being hard to follow. Which may have been Director Todd Haynes' intention. I know that the point was to show us how many times Bob Dylan reinvented himself throughout his ongoing career, but his method just didn't sit well with me.

To start with, Bob Dylan is not a character in this movie. Haynes invents totally separate persona's for each phase of Dylan's life, complete with new names. So this is, in effect, a movie about six or seven or eight (it's hard to keep up) different characters. I feel that this method detracts from Dylan's actually ability to grow as an artist, because we never see any of these different characters grow. We're just thrown back and forth in this sloppy time frame between one character and another.

With all of that said, the acting in this film, by the truly all-star cast, is phenomenal. Each actor does a great job of becoming the Dylan they are assigned, whether his name is Jack, Jude, or Billy the Kid. I'm Not There (possibly so named because Dylan isn't even in it) is a jumble of surreal imagery, at times beautiful and poetic and at other times dark and unsettling.

This movie is probably going to be a love-it or hate-it movie for you, so I will warn you to approach it cautiously. If you like surreal film than this is probably a safe bet, if you're looking for a straight forward biopic then not so much. The music is great.

Alexis says:

1 STAR

I was really looking forward to this film. I had heard great things about it, especially Cate Blanchett's performance and I really like Bob Dylan's music and had been listening to the I'm Not There soundtrack for months on and off and The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll is one of my all time favorite songs. With that said, I was rather disappointed in this film.

Cate Blanchett was great and so was the music but the rest of it was just blah. I just really didn't care for the idea. The movie's sequence was confusing and unflattering to the film and whole scenes and actors could have been completely cut from the film.

I wish we would have watched No Direction Home or The Other Side of The Mirror, which are more documentary style and I think would probably be much better. I can accept the fact that I didn't get Todd Haynes vision, but regardless, I didn't care much for this film.