Wednesday, June 4, 2008

I'm Not There


Now, I'm the furthest thing from a Bob Dylan fan. In fact, I didn't know anything about the dude until I saw this flick, but only because I was so fucking confused that I had to make a mad dash to Wikipedia and enlighten myself. This helped. Sort of. I'm Not There is pretty much an artsy fartsy, mish mosh of beautiful imagery, great music, and a wank fest of stars: you've got yourself Christian "I'm Batman!" Bale, Cate "I can speak elven" Blanchett, Richard "I rescue hookers from the street" Gere, the late Heath Ledger, and the crowd pleasing David "I just blue myself" Cross. As Allen Ginsberg. Fucking weird, right? Well, that's pretty much what the entire movie is like. Just bizarre beyond belief, which is either a testament to the life and times of Bob Dylan or the desperate attempts to make this flick something other than an attempt to get a Dylan biography on the big screen without it seeming boring.

The flick follows six different aspects of Bob Dylan's life as protrayed by six different actors in six different non-linear timeframes with six different ways to confuse you. One second you're watching Blanchett play Dylan at the height of his popularity doing drugs in hotel rooms and then all of a sudden you're on a horse with Richard Gere trying to find his lost dog, like fucking Homeward Bound. This was cool and all because this meant I could see so many actors I like in the same movie without there being some kind of casino heist involved. The only problem was that this got tired quicker than Ben Stiller's entire filmography. Fuck that guy. Anyway, as we're strung along through different elements of the singer/songwriter's lifestyle - folksinger, activist, struggling musician, and recluse - we're also privy to surreal dreamscapes that paint the wacky world of Bob Dylan. It's clear through the images onscreen that there's some kind of inner turmoil that plagues Dylan and unfortunately his creativity as an artist only makes things worse. He's misunderstood, full of raw emotion, and does his best to express himself to a world that's eating itself alive. Dylan's dealing with an unpopular war all over the television, pop music stealing the limelight, and a President that's dropping the ball like it was New Year's eve. Sounds a little familiar.

I'm Not There
wasn't bad, but it's just way too long for someone who isn't a Dylan fan, and frankly, I think that's being a little generous. The random juxtaposition of Dylan personas is just plain confusing. Unless you've got a crib sheet right next to you during this flick, you're better off just looking at all the pretty pictures and marveling at the heavy handed Bob Dylan quotes that saturate this movie. That and you get to see a whale eat a little boy. And with that...


1. How many fucking cigarettes did Bob Dylan smoke a day?
2. What are the odds of surviving a hobo dive from a moving train into a huge river?
3. Did The Beatles really just appear out of thin air in a big poof of smoke?