Unapologetically Audacious: Todd Haynes' Fractured Bob Dylan Portrait I'm Not There

This is a revived and revised version of a 2007 Amazon film review that dropped off the site over the years. This tends to happen when a home video release keeps appearing in new forms, like a special edition in 2008 or a two-disc collector's edition in 2019.

I'M NOT THERE 

(Todd Haynes, 2007, USA, 135 minutes) 

Unapologetically audacious, I'm Not There, Todd Haynes' fifth narrative feature, is more postmodern puzzle than by-the-numbers biopic. A title card sets the scene: "Inspired by the music and many lives of Bob Dylan." 

The film features no figure by that name. Instead, Haynes, in conjunction with cowriter Oren Moverman, presents six characters, each incarnating different stages in the artist's shape-shifting career. Perfume's Ben Whishaw, cast as black-clad poet Arthur Rimbaud, serves as the slippery narrator. 

The action begins with the wanderings of an 11-year-old Black runaway named "Woody Guthrie" (Marcus Carl Franklin)--his raucous duet with Richie Havens on 1965's "Tombstone Blues" is a highlight--and ends with a silver-haired Billy the Kid (Richard Gere) watching the Old West die before his very eyes. 

In the interim, there's the folk singer-turned-preacher (Christian Bale), the self-centered actor (Heath Ledger), and the puckish rock star (Cate Blanchett, who has Don't Look Back-era Dylan down to a science). 

The chronology is purposefully non-linear, and editor Jay Rabinowitz (8 Mile, Requiem for a Dream) cuts rapidly, Godard-style, between cinéma vérité B&W and saturated color, Richard Lester-like slapstick, and Fellini-inspired surrealism (Haynes regular Ed Lachman served as cinematographer).

What makes the picture fun for adventurous Dylan fans--and potentially frustrating for neophytes--is that every album and movie bears an alternate title. Ledger's Robbie, for instance, stars in "Grain of Sand," either or both a reference to Pete Seeger's lullaby "One Grain of Sand" from 1956 or (more likely) to Dylan's gospel-inspired "Every Grain of Sand" from 1981, a Shot of Love selection championed by admiring artists from Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash--it was performed at his funeral--to Patti Smith and Elvis Costello. 

As in Todd Haynes' 1998 glam rock reverie Velvet Goldmine, which also starred Christian Bale, the trickery involves the entire cast. While Julianne Moore plays former lover Alice, a dead ringer for Joan Baez; Michelle Williams embodies elusive scenester Coco, i.e. Edie Sedgwick. 

Just as the film brings together experienced actors and newcomers, the soundtrack mixes originals with covers and veterans with younger players, like Jim James's heartfelt "Goin' to Acapulco" from 1975's The Basement Tapes and Willie Nelson's tender "Señor (Tales of Yankee Power)" from 1978's Street Legal. In both cases, Calexico provides sympathetic backing.

If I'm Not There is less affecting than Anton Corbijn's cool-headed, chronological Ian Curtis biopic Control, the year's other notable musician portrait, it rewards repeat viewing like few previous biographical features.

For more: In 2023, I wrote about Bob Dylan's score for and performance in Sam Peckinpah's Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid on its 50th anniversary.

I'm Not There is available on numerous streaming platforms, including free services, like Tubi and Plex (with ads). Near as I can tell, the various home video versions are all out of print, though used copies abound, sometimes for ridiculous prices. Images from Ty Burr's Watch List (the six Dylans), SensCritique (Ben Whishaw), and The Metrograph (Cate Blanchett).