Saw I’m Not There over Thanksgiving weekend. The film’s still rattling itself around in my head, and I think I’ll need to give it another viewing before reaching anything approaching a definite opinion. In lieu of that, though, I’m going to link (1)David Edelstein’s post surveying the film’s critical reception, which itself contains links to a number of other reviews ranging from glowing to condemnation; (2)Edelstein’s initial thoughts on the film, which raise some interesting questions in terms of comparing the film to Todd Haynes’s earlier Velvet Goldmine; (3)J. Hoberman’s Voice essay on the film in the context of Dylan’s career; (4)Matthew Perpetua’s take on the film, which is something of a rebuttal to Edelstein’s review.
The last of those starts a debate on whether there’s a place in the film for post-80s Dylan. I’m curious about this myself, and found it interesting that the Fellini/Lester-esque sequence — the most, I’d argue, “period” of all of the film — was also the only part in which music from Dylan’s late-90s-and-beyond work was heard. (If memory serves, his Love and Theft-era pencil-thin ‘stache was also evoked there.) No idea if I’m reading far too much into things here.
Toby, Toby, Toby. But what did YOU think?
[spoilers, for what it's worth]
I could’ve watched the “let’s watch the slow breakdown of the marriage of a movie star and a painter” segment for two hours — I really enjoyed how it referenced Dylan’s themes but was also the most standalone…though the concept of someone who rose to fame playing the idea of Bob Dylan has also sorts of resonance.
The Christian Bale segments felt weirdly unfinished; I was waiting for a little more than “And hey, now he’s a preacher!” Not really a shock if you know anything about Dylan or, hell, saw some of the posters the studio had done for the film.
Loved the Woody bits. Less into the Mr. B ones — though I do wonder whether that meant to stand for the Basement Tapes period, the Rolling Thunder tour, or — referencing the Fluxblog post — later Dylan. You can see all three, but that section also felt far and away the most dependent on the audience’s knowledge of Dylan.
Also — and I feel a weird “I’m Not There”/”Seven Soldiers” cross-argument coming on — I kept asking myself whether Bruce Greenwood’s antagonist wasn’t a kind of seventh Dylan. If someone says “I Don’t Believe You” in a film inspired by Dylan’s life, it makes you wonder.
[This was posted to my Livejournal feed; adding it here to go along with the discussion.]
The only Love and Theft track in the movie, High Water, plays during the Billy the Kid sequence. (Man in the Long Black Coat from 1989′s Oh Mercy also plays during this part.) I think this lends credence to the theory that Billy the Kid is supposed to evoke the hiding-in-plain-site Dylan of the Never-Ending tour as much as The Basement Tapes-era Dylan.
For more I’m Not There excitement, check out Rosenbaum’s guardedly positive review and the lively debate that follows:
http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/moviereviews/2007/071122/
[And my response.]
I was thinking more of the use of — I hope I’m not misremembering — “Love Sick” in one of the London scenes. (I know ‘Time Out of Mind’ better than ‘Love and Theft’, for what it’s worth.)