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I'm Not There
The Weinstein Company


6.3

based on 35 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 68 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for language, some sexuality and nudity

Starring Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, Michelle Williams, Julianne Moore, Ben Whishaw, and Marcus Carl Franklin

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 through one life story, as dense and vibrant as the era it inspired. (The Weinstein Company)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Oren Moverman Todd Haynes
DIRECTED BY:	Todd Haynes
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: May 6, 2008 Theatrical: November 21, 2007
RUNNING TIME:	135 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA / Germany

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

I'm Not There lets you hear it again, more majestically than ever.

100

Village Voice J. Hoberman

I'm Not There is the movie of the year.

100

Boston Globe Ty Burr

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.

100

Film Threat Jeff Beresford-Howe

What Haynes has essentially done is create a film that is a Bob Dylan song, one of his best.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

This film insists on being taken on its own terms -- the sort of demand, in other words, that defines the best art.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

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.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

One of the most inventive and joyous movies of the year.

Newsweek David Gates

Brilliantly strange, often funny and ultimately heartbreaking film.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

Among its many achievements, Todd Haynes’s I’m Not There hurls a Molotov cocktail through the facade of the Hollywood biopic factory.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

A loopy, surreal, beguiling collage of a film, the writer-director's meta-biopic embraces its subject.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

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.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

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.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

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.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

A lot of chaotic fun.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

An ingenious, maddening film inspired by the "many lives of Bob Dylan."

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

A challenging film, one that I suspect can only benefit from multiple viewings. The success of its approaches varies, but its intent is unfailingly interesting.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

A fascinating experiment that, if the viewer is willing to surrender to Haynes's sometimes hermetic meditations on Dylan's life, heartily rewards the investment.

Empire Staff (Not credited)

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.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

There’s an undeniable thrill to watching something so experimental and yet totally accessible to those of us who speak only layman’s Dylanese, and it’s Haynes’ warmest film yet.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

I appreciate Haynes’ craft and ambition. I love the Ledger/Gainsbourg scenes, which are sweet and sad and delicately shaded. And Blanchett’s inspired not-quite-impersonation of Dylan is reason enough to tussle with the rest of it.

New York Post Staff (Not credited)

Bob Dylan would probably love I'm Not There, which may be all a Dylanist needs to know before seeing it. Non-devotees are in for puzzlement, if not exasperation.

TV Guide Ken Fox

In the end it remains an academic exercise, though a dazzlingly ambitious one that’s well worth seeing.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Even with new information provided in the film, however, his personality remains not so much elusive as cantankerous, particularly in contrast with the expansiveness of his songs. That gap gives I'm Not There something of a hollow centre.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

What emerges is a speculative, critical essay about the 60s, weighted down in spots by political correctness and a conflicted desire to mock Dylan's denseness while catering to his hardcore fans, but otherwise lively, fluid, and watchable.

Slate Dana Stevens

Like the singer's gnomic comments to the press, the movie can be maddeningly slippery; like his music, it's fierce, thrilling, and unapologetically itself.

The Hollywood Reporter Ray Bennett

The star of the show is undoubtedly Blanchett, who has great fun playing Dylan as a showboat who quite knowingly goes about creating his reputation for rebellious independence.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Only devout Dylan fans will be able to derive much sense out of it. Dylan novices can only sit back and surrender to the ride Haynes offers: It's a strange, surreal trip.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Some of it is brilliant, some is tedious and some is just plain incoherent.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

If any man should be more than the sum of his parts, it's an artist. But Todd Haynes' I'm Not There makes Bob Dylan less than the sum of his parts. It's like a tony art-school parlor game.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Stylistically audacious in the way it employs six different actors and assorted visual styles to depict various aspects of the troubadour's life and career, the film nevertheless lacks a narrative and a center, much like the "ghost" at its core.

USA Today Claudia Puig

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.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

Too often, it’s the MOVIE that isn’t there. What’s meant to be archetypal comes across as superficial.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

It makes “Yellow Submarine” look like a miracle of sober narrative.

Time Richard Schickel

It doesn't work. It is just a mess -- though the sound track, full of Dylan songs is, of course, good to hear. But it is not better than the track on Martin Scorsese's "No Direction Home" documentary of two years ago.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Anyone can make a bad movie, but it takes a good filmmaker to make one as bad as I'm Not There.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.3 (out of 10) based on 68 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Robert I. gave it a7:
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.

Jay H. gave it a4:
I was not impressed. All the different actors playing Bob Dylan didn't even look related. Cate Blanchett was a huge disappointment. She looked like Cate Blanchett and sounded like her, not Dylan. The direction was pretentious. The b&w/color was pointless. I have never been a fan of Bob Dylan as it is. The man can't sing and shouldn't be doing so. His songs are good, but his voice stinks.

Ryan D. gave it a10:
Most creative film of the year.

Daniel P. gave it a9:
I'm Not There is long, surreal and enigmatic, and overall a great movie. Cate Blanchett is obviously amazing, and Marcus Carl Franklin, Heath Ledger and Ben Whishaw are all great. Richard Gere is pretty good, but the role is under utilized and Christian Bale is so so. The visuals are great and varied, the soundtrack is top notch and you're in heaven if you're a Bobby Zimmerman fan.

Chris gave it a4:
I nearly left after 30 mins but hung in for another 60 I guess. I found the film went over the same angst filled void too many times to be really informative. pretty disappointing made even worse by Cate Blanchett's stereotypical performance. Hope Todd Haynes doesnt turn the lens on The Stones next

Michael E. gave it a6:
In spite of all its gobbledygook, really an ordinary biopic, with the same cloying tendencies as "Ray" and "Walk the Line." If the Fellini of the 1970s had directed either of those, undoubtedly this would have been the result, except it wouldn't have been so visually dull.

Frank L. gave it a9:
It’s more than a little tuff in trying to capture a 48-year career in a 2 hour movie, but the makers of this movie gave it a good shot. The movie has references (captured in images) to album cover drivel, reviews, Dylan’s poetry, and his songs. The best of this collage was captured by the Richard Gere section, where numerous images from Dylan’s songs/writing appear on film. The folks featured on the John Wesley Harding album cover are caught standing, looking at the Band- singing songs from the basement tapes, Big Pink, and etc. It would take a hardcore Dylanfile to catch even half the vague references in this movie. Kate Blanchett’s incredible talent was on display again as she portrayed the 65,66 Dylan. She among, all the actors, best captured his mannerisms. If you go to this movie because you are curious about Bob Dylan and wish to gain some insight into this enigma, you will not have the vaguest clue about what you are looking at.

I'm Not There The Weinstein Company

I'm Not There
The Weinstein Company