Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Movie review: I’m Not There

By Mike Orren

KRLD

David Johnson

My journalistic persona, represented by KRLD and Marketplace business analyst David Johnson*:

The assignment is to review that new biopic of Bob Dylan -- well, actually "inspired by the many lives of Bob Dylan." And, for those living under a rock, Dylan -- or at least the Dylan figure -- is played by six different actors, ranging from a young African-American boy, to Cate Blanchett to Richard Gere. You know, maybe the way to review it would be to do it in the voices of six different characters representing different parts of your persona. Maybe celebrities, maybe locals. Nice parallelism, eh?

My inner child, as played by young Mike look-alike Peter Billingsley:

The best movie to see this holiday season would be Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. I don't think that I'm Not There is a very good movie to see for the holidays. But I have to report on it, so here is what I learned from the movie:

Bob Dylan had a lot of different personalities. He started out as a folk singer and he might have told some fibs about his childhood in order to gain more street cred. Like he said he was a small black child named Woody Guthrie because he didn't want people to know that he was born to Minnesota yuppies. After a while he got tired of folk music and started playing rock, which some people liked but some people didn't. He got really famous, even if he isn't anymore. He was not always nice to women. Later on he got religious, and even later he went to some kind of place where people acted like it was the old West. That part of his life could have been interesting if there were more guns and maybe some Indians, but it wasn't.

The actors in the movie are all very different. Some are good, but especially in the beginning they sound like Flick in the Christmas pageant or the people in the play in Waiting for Guffman.

I would rather have seen Mr. Magorium or maybe Bee Movie or even Enchanted even though it looks like it has princesses and stuff. All of those tell more story than this did. It was very confusing watching six people play one person, especially when he kept changing his name throughout the movie. But I hope I get a good grade on this so I can get Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle for Christmas.

RB Cutler

My inner conspiracy theorist, as played by Conspiracy Museum founder R.B. Cutler:

Actually, this thing is a brilliant piece of work. See, director/co-writer Todd Haynes has made an indecipherable piece of claptrap that is unassailable because he and others have perpetuated the propaganda that it's all artsy and complex and multifaceted just like Dylan himself. So, if you say that you don't like it or it doesn't make sense, you sound simple. I'm sure that's got to have Harvey Weinstein tearing his hair out, as the sound of this $20 million train-wreck tanking in theaters will nearly be drowned out by the hordes of film-school wannabes droning on about its nods to Fellini, Peckinpah and Godard redeeming the biopic form after the pedestrian but narratively satisfying hit Ray.

I mean, even Haynes says “This film really shouldn’t hold up.” That's like saying it's OK that it is a mess because that's what he meant it to be.

This movie is really a test of intelligence and conformity. If you don't scream "WTF?" by the time the movie gets to its Richard Gere/Billy the Kid segment, it means that you're so intent on conforming to the vision of the artsy-fartsy crew that you've lost all free will. And then, even if you are self-aware enough to grok that, Haynes and company will try to tell you that such a realization is in ironic juxtaposed symmetry with the message of the lives of Bob Dylan.

There's a scene where the "movie star playing Dylan" character buys a motorcycle with his girlfriend and then follows her into town, getting out of his car and leaves the headlights on as they leave on the motorcycle. This is a clear nonsensical example of the filmmakers' hubris, or clear proof that Dylan actually killed Kennedy. You decide.

My global self, as played by a young Chinese girl working in a farming collective:

你们为什么要打扰我？这件事是没有意义的，在任何一种语言。离开了我。我真正的问题来处理。我已没有时间了自我，疯狂的摇滚明星和电影中是没有意义的。走！

My inner rock snob as played by ... Ladies and gentlemen, Bob Dylan himself!:

So here I am, playing Mike, reviewing a movie in which a bunch of different people play me. How perfectly meta. What a "Twist of Fate."

Well, anyways, you'd expect a movie that is presenting an off-kilter view of me and has a double-CD soundtrack of modern artists covering me to feature a lot of that music. But instead, it's mostly my originals. Except for a couple times in the movie where they use the stuff from the soundtrack.

So, you get a lot of my songs, sung by me, with about 10% of the music from the double CD soundtrack.

And that's all I have to say on that.

My "find a silver lining" side, as played by my Mom:

Now, there are some really nice things about this movie. The costumes, the sets and the cinematography are all very pretty, reminding me of Haynes' Far From Heaven. And despite everything else, you have to admit that Cate Blanchett's performance as the "famous Bob" (under the name Jude Quinn) is remarkable. I don't know if she's playing Dylan, herself, or something else altogether, but she's entertaining and deep -- she gives a riveting performance that manages to keep you in the theater.

There are some funny jokes, like where Blanchett introduces Brian Jones as being from "that groovy English cover band." And where she materializes in a puff of smoke running around with The Beatles in Help! mode is funny too.

And you like that Johnny Depp actor, right? Well he's not in this movie, but most of the actors playing Dylan think that the way to sound like him is to sound like Johnny Depp playing Hunter S. Thompson. So you've got that to look forward to.

You also like Kris Kristofferson, and he narrates the film. Or at least its first twenty seconds.

There's a bit of an explanation of the whole thing in a Richard Gere speech at the end, and that's also in the trailer. So you can really get the gist without spending the two-plus hours.

Now why don't you ever call me?

* With apologies to those who were asked to "play me." Don't blame any of them for this review, as all the words are mine alone. However, a special hat-tip to David Johnson is in order, as he gave me the multi-persona review idea at the Troy Dungan tribute lunch last week.

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See more stories in:

• Arts > Movies / Film > Independent Films

Comments

John Meyer Staff

Genius.

9 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Mike Orren Staff

Far better than the movie, catch streaming audio of the concert of the soundtrack:

http://www.stereogum.com/archives/str...

9 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Mike Orren Staff

Here is the best thing to come out of this film. Sheer genius:

9 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )