Review: I'm Not There

Rating: 10/10 (25 June 2008)

"I'm Not There" is Todd Haynes's ode to "the many lives of Bob Dylan". It's a film that reconstructs his body of work in a very idiosyncratic kind of way. While this film is not really about the life Bob Dylan himself, but merely his role that made an impact to American culture. After we've watched it, we might not have a clue who he really is. But please rest assures that we will definitely know what Bob Dylan means to this world.
Truth be told, I ain't familiar with his life and work. And with this ignorance that I have, it's causing me (and people like me) immensely confusion to the film. But that's not is an excuse to not watching this film. Instead, it will enthusiastically encourage people to find out any references that we've seen in the film. In fact, it affected me so deep that I'm ready for prepare Dylan's work in both off-screen and on-screen. There's 1967 D.A. Pennebaker's documentary "Don't Look Back," and Martin Scorsese's 2005 doc "No Direction Home: Bob Dylan" that I have yet to watch.
What succeed in Todd Heynes's "I'm Not There" is that he didn't bombard us with biographical information about Dylan's life. This is not "Ray" or "Walk the Line" (by all mean, those are good movies) which attempted to show us in both the man's life and his myths. "I'm Not There" isn't one of those movies. It didn't really care for the man's life, but only in his myths. Therefore the film is very loose and kind of a free-form to give an opinion about what we've just seen (which is absolutely relevant to the way Dylan lives his life). And it's emphasizing even more when the director employed the total of six actors to play many fractions of one titular character.
Speaking of Todd Heynes, I think he's pure breed of art-house director that has one special talent. And that's he really knows how to bring his artsy films into a mainstream. "Far From Heaven" is not only a film that ode to 50's Douglas Sirk's melodrama, but also explore a hidden gay subtext in those films. "Velvet Goldmine" is his ambition to re-imagine Orson Welles's "Citizen Kane", but with glam-rock extravaganza era. In my opinion, "I'm not There" is probably one of the most dedicated and ambition work so far.
This movie surely will pleased many ardent fans and will create some new fan base (like me). I think it's necessary that you should watch this film for a second times (deservedly experience, I would say). And please, please don't try to make sense with this film whatsoever. Because, in the end, you'll know it's not a point that this film trying to make after all.