I'm Not There.
Weinstein Company, The | Release Date: November 21, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
73
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
28
Mixed:
6
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
I'm Not There lets you hear it again, more majestically than ever. Read full review
100
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
I'm Not There is the movie of the year. Read full review
100
Boston GlobeTy 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. Read full review
100
Film ThreatJeff Beresford-Howe
What Haynes has essentially done is create a film that is a Bob Dylan song, one of his best. Read full review
91
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean 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. Read full review
91
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
This film insists on being taken on its own terms -- the sort of demand, in other words, that defines the best art. Read full review
90
SalonStephanie Zacharek
One of the most inventive and joyous movies of the year. Read full review
90
NewsweekDavid Gates
Brilliantly strange, often funny and ultimately heartbreaking film. Read full review
90
The New York TimesA.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. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter 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. Read full review
88
PremiereGlenn 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. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger 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. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
A loopy, surreal, beguiling collage of a film, the writer-director's meta-biopic embraces its subject. Read full review
88
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
A lot of chaotic fun. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
An ingenious, maddening film inspired by the "many lives of Bob Dylan." Read full review
80
Washington PostAnn 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. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesCarina 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. Read full review
80
EmpireStaff (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. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleKimberley 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. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael 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. Read full review
75
New York PostStaff (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. Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
In the end it remains an academic exercise, though a dazzlingly ambitious one that’s well worth seeing. Read full review
75
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. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterRay 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. Read full review
70
SlateDana 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. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJonathan 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. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Some of it is brilliant, some is tedious and some is just plain incoherent. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldRene 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. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
Too often, it’s the MOVIE that isn’t there. What’s meant to be archetypal comes across as superficial. Read full review
50
VarietyTodd 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. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia 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. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunMichael 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. Read full review
40
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
It makes “Yellow Submarine” look like a miracle of sober narrative. Read full review
40
TimeRichard 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. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Anyone can make a bad movie, but it takes a good filmmaker to make one as bad as I'm Not There. Read full review
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