Tuesday, December 11, 2007
I'm Not There
You will believe that an 11 year-old African American boy can be Bob Dylan! You will believe no other person than a British woman could portray the American folk singer so authentically! You will believe that no other filmmaker other than Todd Haynes could have made this film!
All the previous statements are true but as much as the last one. Haynes has made everything from the biopic Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (starring nothing but Barbie dolls) to the 1950's melodrama Far From Heaven and they all seemed to be preparation for this film. A free form movie that glides from one genre to another all while fitting, somehow, within a whole.
This film is probably more about Bob Dylan than any straight forward biopic could have been. It not only covers the many personas that he has appeared as, in some cases, covers a persona of his persona. We are told lies and half truths and it all makes you know more about Dylan than you ever expected.
This is also a film lovers dream, with numerous homages to various films and eras. You almost feel like you are watching a Fellini film one moment, only to switch gears and be treated to something that feels like a Sam Peckinpah western. Not that Haynes has left his own style out, he takes all these tributes and makes them his own. This feels more like a French New Wave film than anything since Pulp Fiction. Something Godard could have made about one of his American musical idols.
Not that the film is perfect though. Just like any Dylan album there are certain sections that are better than others but there are so many individual scenes or shots that completely make up for any dip in entertainment. A few of my favorites; Jim James singing at a small girls funeral, Cate Blanchett's entire performance, Christian Bale as a born again Christian singing to his congregation, The entire sequence starring Christian Bale and Charlotte Gainsbourg, Richard Gere's final words to his dog, Marcus Carl Franklin and a whale, Allen Ginsberg, The Band with sub machine guns...
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