Kiwi Film Review: I'm Not There

IMDB: 7.0
Rotten Tomatoes: 77%
Roger Ebert: 3.5/4 stars

Release Date: 28 November 2007

Stars: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, Julianne Moore.

Written and Directed by: Todd Haynes.

Described by IMDB as: “Six incarnations of Bob Dylan: an actor, a folk singer, an electrified troubadour, Rimbaud, Billy the Kid, and Woody Guthrie. Put Dylan’s music behind their adventures, soliloquies, interviews, marriage, and infidelity. Recreate 1960s documentaries in black and white. Put each at a crossroads, the artist becoming someone else. Jack, the son of Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, finds Jesus; handsome Robbie falls in love then abandons Claire. Woody, a lad escaped from foster care, hobos the U.S. singing; Billy awakes in a valley threatened by a six-lane highway; Rimbaud talks. Jude, booed at Newport when he goes electric, fences with reporters, pundits, and fans. He won’t be classified.”

I’m not entirely sure what I think about this movie. If I sleep on it and wake up tomorrow and have a different opinion, I will do an update, but as for right now I think I’ll say, I just don’t know. Overall, I liked it, BUT, it was very difficult to follow. Maybe if I had known more about Bob Dylan before watching it would’ve been easier to understand everything. I thought the acting was amazing, as was the concept, I just though it was I dunno, maybe could’ve been done a little differently. I’m sort of confused by whether this is the actual story of his life, or if its mostly fiction. I think I would’ve liked it better if all of the actors still played him, but actually had his name and just portrayed him at different points in his career/life. Its uncanny how well Cate Blanchett was able to portray Dylan. Also, was it just me or did we catch a glimpse of Heath Ledger’s dong? Nice. I think this movie mostly made me want to see a biography about him just so I could find out. I really wish it was more a movie about his life rather then what it was. I also wish that if it really was a story about his life, that it had been in chronological order, I think thats what made it mostly confusing for me, just how over the place it was. I think overall I’d recommend it to people who really enjoy movies. Again, I think it was well done, just sort of confusing.. pay attention.

I think I’ll give it a… 7/10.

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