Only 23 More Months Until Graduation...

Is it wrong that during my marathon 9.5 hours of straight school today that I got some solace out of watching this video twice?



Just askin'.

Movie Review: "I'm Not There"

Todd Hayne's rambling biopic about the life of Bob Dylan, "I'm Not There", starts with an interesting premise: six different actors, each of them expressing a different aspect of Dylan's psyche. As the film goes on, unfortunately, it begins to ramble, and lasts much, much longer than the audience wished it had. The movie is also hard to follow, since all six of the characters are playing the same historical character, but each character has a different name (none of them are named Bob Dylan). Not to mention, all six of them are made up to look more or less like Dylan.

There are positive sides to the film. Ben Whishaw is great as Arthur Rimbaud, the poetic Dylan. He's young, sarcastic, nihilistic, and surly; a talented, fatalistic brat. Marcus Carl Franklin carries the toughest role in the film, as Woody Guthrie, an eleven-year-old blues prodigy; Franklin's character goes to visit the real Woody Guthrie on the folk hero's deathbed, just as a young Bob Dylan did. Christian Bale is good as Jack Rollins (aka "Pastor Jack"), who covers Dylan's spiritual uncertainty. Kris Kristofferson's narration is put together well with some solid camerawork from Edward Lachman. There's also a dynamite soundtrack consisting of Dylan covers, redone by names like the Millionaire Bashers (a supergroup featuring Sonic Youth stars Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley, Wilco guitarist Nels Cline, Television guitarist Tom Verlaine, Dylan bassist Tony Garnier, guitarist Smokey Hormel and keyboardist John Medeski), Sam Bush, Jeff Tweedy, Willie Nelson, Jim James, and Sufjan Stevens; Dylan's own version of the title track is officially released after years of being one of the most highly regarded outtakes of his entire career.

Cate Blanchett (as Jude Quinn/Strung-Out Dylan) and Heath Ledger (as Robbie Clark/Hollywood Dylan) are uneven and ultimately disappointing. Richard Gere's story suffered from the added weight of being nearly completely incomprehensible; as Billy the Kid (Aging Outlaw Dylan), Gere struggles in a freak-show/circus/wild-west town that is being destroyed by Commissioner Pat Garrett. With heavy doses of this crew, the second half of the movie falls apart, and limps toward the end of the film. At 2 hours and 20 minutes, it lasts a solid half-hour too long, and seems to end five or six times in the last half-hour; each time the full theater seemed to prepare to leave, only to settle back into their seats for another few minutes. I found myself doing likewise.

It takes a serious knowledge of Dylan's life to comprehend almost anything in this movie; I have (occasional) Pasty Quail contributor Nate to thank for being able to understand anything at all. A watchable movie for the hardcore Dylan fans; others would do better to stick with Scorsese's "No Direction Home".