Summary
Confused yet? Director [Todd Haynes] has a high-art reputation, but his films usually bear the distinct influences of others, from Velvet Goldmine (based on David Bowie's alter ego Ziggy Stardust and sharing the narrative structure of Citizen Kane) to the Douglas Sirk-inspired Far From Heaven. Haynes' new film, with its Hydra-headed [Bob Dylan], is an echo of Todd Solondz's Palindromes, but he also employs a menagerie of styles to represent each chapter of his story. For example, a rather tepid faux-documentary tells the tale of Jack Rollins (Christian Bale), representing Dylan during his early-1960s protest period, while [Richard Gere]'s Billy tableau is drawn from Sam Peckinpah's 1973 Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, in which Dylan appeared and wrote the score.
The overarching spirit of I'm Not There is in its enigmatic portrait of an enigma. Still, it's worth noting that Dylan's hipster indifference to celebrity has now been punctured by two officially sanctioned motion pictures this decade (the previous being 2003's woeful Mashed and Anonymous) that promote and capitalize on Dylan's iconography. Ultimately, Dylan has always been what he claims to be-a master songwriter and storyteller-and what he will not admit to being-a brilliant, strategic self-marketer. During this holiday season, you can log on to www.bobdylan.com and purchase Dylan-embossed hats, shirts, plush robes, coffee mugs and $20 teddy bears. The times might be achangin', but some things never do. -Neil MorrisThis film seems to have been genetically engineered for 12-year-old girls, and it will doubtlessly play well for the family crowd. Indeed, there's nothing overly bad about the film, it just misses a lot of opportunities for comedy. The opening sequence, animated in the style of a classic Disney cartoon (i.e. the kind they don't actually make anymore), doesn't do much beyond a few on-point references to the original Snow White, and the real-world version of New York City is so whitewashed that it's almost as unrealistic as the cartoon world. There's a bit of witty casting by aving Idina Menzel (the Witch from Broadway's Vtcked) as Dempse's girlfriend, but there's no haracter there.See the full content of this document
Extract
Across the Diamond Sky
A week of many movies: Reviews of I'm Not There, Enchanted and The Mist
To both its credit and detriment, Todd Haynes' Bob Dylan biopic I'M NOT THERE is an utter cinematic manifestation of its subject-elusive and surreal, yet strangely calculated and manipulative.The film's structure is nearly as abstruse as a free-associating Dylan lyric: Six actors, each cast under a different pseudonym (C...See the full content of this document
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