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Generally favorable reviews - based on 35 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 100 Ratings

  • Starring: Cate Blanchett, Christian Bale, Heath Ledger
  • Summary: I'm Not There is a film that dramatizes the life and music of Bob Dylan as a series of shifting personae, each performed by a different actor—poet, prophet, outlaw, fake, star of electricity, rock and roll, martyr born-again Christian—seven identities braided together, seven organs pumping tng through one life story, as dense and vibrant as the era it inspired. (The Weinstein Company) Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 28 out of 35
  2. Negative: 1 out of 35
  1. Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    100
    The strangest thing about Todd Haynes's new movie isn't that he cast six actors to play the various faces and phases of Bob Dylan. It's that he needed only six.
  2. Reviewed by: Staff (Not credited)
    80
    An extraordinary attempt to encapsulate the many faces of Bob Dylan that plays better to the convert than the sceptic. Like the nasal twang of the man in question, the film finally beguiles more than it irritates.
  3. Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    50
    It's not nearly as enjoyable as one of his rambling, meditative songs, though perhaps it is aspiring to be the cinematic equivalent. Give me "Tangled Up in Blue" any day over this incoherent, tangled trip.
  4. Anyone can make a bad movie, but it takes a good filmmaker to make one as bad as I'm Not There.

See all 35 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 33 out of 60
  2. Negative: 19 out of 60
  1. NicholasK
    10
    A Stunning example of Arthouse film, and while a lot of people understandably will not understand it (Arthouse is aimed at a niche audience). The acting is wonderful and the cinematography is beautifully mastered. A must see for art house lovers and the open minded, but if you're not an art house fan or are a piece of "Hollywood brainwashing" then this is not for you. Expand
  2. A brilliant and original idea for a biopic. The 6 different arms of Dylans personality have their part to play, especially Cate Blanchett who proves herself to be a diverse and complete actress. How she manages to capture that druggy and care free spirit of the 60's like nobody else before her. Richard Gere dissapointed me slightly and was the least memorable of the 6 but Marcus Carl Franklin was a complete shock as 'Woody Guthrie' who is pursuing his dream to become a singer. Todd Haynes did a great job to get the rights to Dylans music let alone produce a movie as innovative as this. Expand
  3. RobertI.
    7
    three cheers for ambition, but ultimately too hard to engage with. The elliptical tracks can bore or lose you too easily. But it beats Ray by a mile.
  4. The many faces & phases of Bob Dylan.
    It's painfully pretentious, gruellingly long & quite disjointed.
    It's saving graces, however, are great
    performances by Heath Ledger & Cate Blanchett & of course the fantastic music.
    The film though just didn't work for me at all.
    Expand

See all 60 User Reviews

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