In his backdoor biopic, I'm Not There, director Todd Haynes paints a loopy and intoxicating mosaic of elusive rock & roll icon Bob Dylan that reads something like an abstract portrait made for the cinema. Dylan is represented through six different characters that embody different attributes from different periods of his life. None of them is specifically named "Bob Dylan" and hardly any one of their stories contains more than mere pencil sketches of actual truth, but they are each, in their own way, imaginative and emotive mini-masterpieces. I should also state that this is not a film depicted in clear cut segments but rather a montage tone poem that weaves strands of fact with strands of fiction and moments of joy with moments of sorrow. It doesn't really tell the story of Bob Dylan's life. It simply picks up all the shards of Dylan's many shattered public representations, both accurate and inaccurate, and melds them into one grand statement on the way people, particularly celebrities, have not one face but many.
Monday, May 05, 2008
DVD of the Week: I'm Not There
In his backdoor biopic, I'm Not There, director Todd Haynes paints a loopy and intoxicating mosaic of elusive rock & roll icon Bob Dylan that reads something like an abstract portrait made for the cinema. Dylan is represented through six different characters that embody different attributes from different periods of his life. None of them is specifically named "Bob Dylan" and hardly any one of their stories contains more than mere pencil sketches of actual truth, but they are each, in their own way, imaginative and emotive mini-masterpieces. I should also state that this is not a film depicted in clear cut segments but rather a montage tone poem that weaves strands of fact with strands of fiction and moments of joy with moments of sorrow. It doesn't really tell the story of Bob Dylan's life. It simply picks up all the shards of Dylan's many shattered public representations, both accurate and inaccurate, and melds them into one grand statement on the way people, particularly celebrities, have not one face but many.
