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Movie Description
Todd Haynes (VELVET GOLDMINE, FAR FROM HEAVEN) delivers this dazzling, experimental take on the life of popular music's most revered and enigmatic artist: Bob Dylan. In keeping with the impossible-to-pin-down nature of Dylan himself, Haynes chose to cast six different actors to portray several incarnations of the groundbreaking troubadour. The result is a challenging, sprawling work that spans several decades and genres. Woody (Marcus Carl Franklin) is a young black child with a folk music obsession; Jack Rollins (Christian Bale) is an upstart folksinger whose protest songs have ignited an entire generation; Arthur (Ben Wishaw) is a Rimbaud-esque figure who has begun to embrace a new form of lyrical poetry; Robbie (Heath Ledger) is a well-known actor whose marriage to the lovely Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg) crumbles under the weight of his lifestyle; Billy (Richard Gere) is a slippery frontiersman who echoes Dylan's infatuation with the Old West and American folklore; and, finally, there is the substance-abusing, confrontational Jude (Cate Blanchett), who represents Dylan in the turbulent mid-1960s.
Much in the same way that Dylan appropriated a vast array of musical styles to create his own vernacular, Haynes does the same thing with I'M NOT THERE, using his expansive knowledge of movie history to pay homage to a variety of movements and genres (Godard, Fellini, Lester, etc.). The typically extraordinary cinematographer Edward Lachman outdoes even himself this time around, incorporating so many different visual styles that it's impossible to decide which is the most beautiful. While the cast all fare well in their roles, it is Cate Blanchett who runs away with the picture, proving once again that she is one of the finest actors the movies have ever seen.
Industry Reviews
"Haynes executes a fascinating fictional riff on the many faces of Bob Dylan....[He] lets his kaleidoscopic visual imagination dictate the narrative flow."
Box Office - Kevin Courrier (12/01/2007)
4 stars out of 5 -- "Carl Franklin is a sensation, Heath Leger outstanding...and Blanchett thrilling..."
Total Film - Jonathan Dean (01/01/2008)
"I'M NOT THERE is a fantasia, a tell-all, a biopic that's all high points, a folk-rock essay, and a dream, all wrapped into one. It plays like the headiest musical ever made." -- Grade: A
Entertainment Weekly - Owen Gleiberman (11/30/2007)
"[An] incandescent rebus of a movie inspired by Mr. Dylan's life and music....Among its many achievements, Mr. Haynes's film hurls a Molotov cocktail through the facade of the Hollywood biopic factory..."
New York Times - A. O. Scott (11/21/2007)
3.5 stars out of 4 -- "It's a feast for the eyes, the ears and the Dylanologist scratching around our minds and hearts....Blanchett extends the possibilities of acting. You won't see a better example of interpretive art this year..."
Rolling Stone - Peter Travers (11/29/2007)
4 stars out of 5 -- "Haynes has captured a sense of the strange figure who changed America..."
Empire - Ian Nathan (01/01/2008)
"I'M NOT THERE is airy, lithe, witty, never still -- and, for all its frenzy and flickered darkness, now and then strangely serene."
Sight and Sound - Mark Sinker (01/01/2008)
5 stars out of 5 -- "Haynes gets everything right and the result is electrifying -- an audaciously prismatic portrait of Dylan....An amazing film..."
Uncut - Allan Jones (01/01/2008)
"There are plenty of things to admire....Its artistic and intellectual ambitions, for starters....This movie burrows into your mind and stays there..."
Los Angeles Times - Carina Chocano (11/21/2007)
Ranked #9 in Rolling Stone's "10 Best Movies Of 2007" -- "[A] biopic that shatters all the rules of biopics."
Rolling Stone - Peter Travers (12/27/2007)
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