I'm Not There - You May Wish You Weren't Either

Rating: Null/10 (9 February 2018)

Make way for a mega failure from the Weinstein company - written and directed by queer movie maker Todd Haynes. This mish-mash looks like a film school finalist effort and will please those very audience members who demand an unconventional (at any cost to the end result) approach to movie making. Film Festivals and academies will also be taken in by its pseudo academia and won't see the forest from the trees! Haynes also gives a nod to his own gender bending by casting a woman to play one of the many characters who make up the supposed Dylan interpretations. Here we have Blanchet camping it up to please the critics and 'certain' types of fans, etc. If this convoluted work is an homage to Dylan, then it's an unflattering one, if it's true to Dylan's personal attitudes then it shows him to be little more than a commercially marketed product.
His latter conversion to Christianity and leaving his old persona behind is presented in a very bland way indeed - probably reflecting Haynes thoughts on the matter (in fact this whole exercise could be more about Haynes than Bob?). The Richard Gere cowboy character seems to be from another story altogether and largely offers only symbolic connection to Dylan - this is probably the most interesting as well as the least successful of the piece. Some will love this over indulged tosh, others, as the box-office returns clearly show, will certainly not. For small specialist audiences only.