I'm Not There

I am perhaps the biggest Dylan fan on the planet. I took this movie as an insult to his talent, his genius, and his legacy. Dylan is soiled by this movie. If anyone is unfamiliar with Dylan and sees only this, they will run for cover, missing the genuine treat of his achievements. Julianne Moore mimicking Joan Baez' interview from No Direction Home was an insult to Baez (and Scorsese). Christian Bale's talentless renditions of Dylan works was an insult to Dylan and me. And, sorry, I can't tolerate a dykelike Cate Blanchett (who I love) mugging her way about as Dylan. She looks no more like a man than ... Charo! They don't use Dylan's name in this slimy film; were they afraid of being sued for defamation? I need a shower.

Take all the music, everything you've heard, read, seen in documentaries about Bob and throw them in a blender and pull them out and what you get is "I'm not there" And it's a tasty concoction of a movie that comes off like a dream of everything that's publicly known about his life. Perhaps even Bob himself dreaming about the course of his life. The more you do know about what's out there about Bob the more you'll be able to make the connections with the scenes in this beautiful montage about the poet, songwriter, and musician genius of the last 60 plus years. This is a great film about a very complicated artist who could never be pinned down as representing any one ideology or persona although he seemed to imply many. I suppose Dylan will always be the great enigma and this film only helps to perpetuate it, which is part of what makes it so successful but as we all now know there's no success like failure and failure's no success at all.

Saw this at the Toronto Film Festival. I really liked it, although maybe the Richard Gere scenes are the one's to skip, though it's not really his fault. Cate Blanchett is getting a lot of buzz for her performance, and she deserves it. The actors are all playing versions of Dylan, though their characters have different names. Blanchett plays an incarnation of Dylan that would be right around the time of "Don't Look Back". Although I think Todd Haynes is mostly successful here, I fear that this will be a film that will really interest people who already know about Bob Dylan, and that it will sort of fly over the heads of everyone else. A good movie, and a nice place to start if you're a young movie lover who wants to expand and see something less conventional.

If you are thinking about seeing this movie I would suggest that you research Dylan first; otherwise you will be lost from the get-go, like I was. You need to know that the characters all represent different aspects of Dylan, and that even though they are "Dylan" they have different names. Some of the Dylan aspects are personified as a young black boy using the name Woody Guthrie, a woman, and a middle-aged Billy the Kidd, for example. And the film jumps from character to character and then back again, frequently. Chances are, if you are not an art film aficionado, you won't care for this one. On the other hand, if you do your Dylan homework, you may very well enjoy it even though it isn't typical mainstream movie fare.

Positively dreadful film. Probably must be ranked as one of the all-time worst viewed by yours truly. The film depicts the life of Bob Dylan at various stages of his life. The film is terribly uneven with different characters just made to bounce around makes for a totally uninteresting affect. Yes, Cate Blanchett does give a solid performance but you just keep wondering and wondering what this is all about. The backdrops of the struggle for civil rights is lost in the absolute nonsense generated by the characters in this ensemble cast. Problem is that the writing is so atrocious, the uneven plot is never permitted to gel. A simply awful production of the worst character imaginable.

This movie can be difficult to follow if you are not familiar with Bob Dylan, but it is in fact a carefully and lovingly crafted tribute, that aims to reflect the essence of the artist's work and life. It is a fun take on its subject, though in order to be fully appreciated, one has to know what is being explored. Otherwise, it may seem a tedious watch, but perhaps that is appropriate as in order to fully appreciate Bob Dylan, one has to pay attention, and then it becomes quite rewarding. The shape-shifting nature of Bob Dylan has been portrayed, quite fittingly, by several actors of various backgrounds, ages, sexes and races - in that respect, it is as original and unexpected as its subject. All in all, an interesting, artistic and original but perhaps somewhat inaccessible - to an uninitiated viewer - tribute to one of the greatest artistic geniuses Americana has ever reared.