I'm Not There.
Metascore
73 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 35 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 28 out of 35
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 35
  3. Negative: 1 out of 35
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  1. Boston Globe
    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. Charlotte Observer
    Reviewed by: Lawrence Toppman
    88
    A lot of chaotic fun.
  3. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    88
    What Haynes does is take away the reassuring segues that argue everything flows and makes sense, and to show what's really chaos under the skin of the film.
  4. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    100
    I'm Not There lets you hear it again, more majestically than ever.
  5. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Jeff Beresford-Howe
    100
    What Haynes has essentially done is create a film that is a Bob Dylan song, one of his best.
  6. Newsweek
    Reviewed by: David Gates
    90
    Brilliantly strange, often funny and ultimately heartbreaking film.
  7. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    88
    A loopy, surreal, beguiling collage of a film, the writer-director's meta-biopic embraces its subject.
  8. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    91
    This film insists on being taken on its own terms -- the sort of demand, in other words, that defines the best art.
  9. Premiere
    Reviewed by: Glenn Kenny
    88
    Haynes's picture may not be perfect -- hell, I'm not even sure that perfection is a state it even aspires to -- but it's bold and individualistic and accomplished. A reason to take heart for the state of current American moviemaking.
  10. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    88
    So what if nothing is revealed. Todd Haynes is a mischievous visionary who puts the music and the myth of Bob Dylan before us in I'm Not There and dares us not to revel in the troubadour's poetic, contentious, ever-changing essence. It's a feast for the eyes, the ears and the Dylanologist scratching around our minds and hearts.
  11. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    90
    One of the most inventive and joyous movies of the year.
  12. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Sean Axmaker
    91
    Faced with an artist defined more by his lyrics than his life story, Haynes delivers a song-cycle of a movie: vivid, exaggerated, contradictory impressions of a man who confounds a culture still looking to define him.
  13. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Keith Phipps
    83
    An ingenious, maddening film inspired by the "many lives of Bob Dylan."
  14. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: A.O. Scott
    90
    Among its many achievements, Todd Haynes’s I’m Not There hurls a Molotov cocktail through the facade of the Hollywood biopic factory.
  15. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: J. Hoberman
    100
    I'm Not There is the movie of the year.

User Reviews

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User Score
6.5 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 100 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 33 out of 60
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 60
  3. Negative: 19 out of 60
  1. Compi24
    5
    It's got plenty of standout performances, such as like Cate Blanchett's utterly uncanny turn as "Jude Quinn," but "I'm Not There" is way too ambitious interpretive, oblique, and abstract to be construed as a coherent biography.… Full Review »
  2. tonyGreen
    9
    First things first; this is most definitely an 'art movie' and yes, it's pretty long. However if you have the ability to maintain your attention, this an enjoyable watch. It's pretty for one thing. And really very smart. I can't say I understood every detail. But the approach to the biography is well done. Bob Dylan is complex character (aren't we all?) who has had an extraordinary life. So we see a fragmented reality, each character an stand-in for different sides of the whole person, the truth residing somewhere within. The clue is in the title. A great soundtrack too ('natch')… Full Review »
  3. Greatbeallo
    5
    Let me preface my review by saying I'm a huge Bob Dylan fan. Love his music. Love his book. Love his style. He is iconic. I don't feel like this movie really captured Bob's spirit. I was really bored by it to be honest. It was creative, and I thought that Cate Blanchett totally knocked the ball out of the park, but it was just a drag to watch. They should have made a movie where Cate Blanchett played Bob for its entirety. The soundtrack is great, and I give the film points for Blanchett's stunning performance. The other actors weren't necessarily bad, they just didn't really speak to me as a Dylan fan . . .… Full Review »
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