I'm Not There

Today my wife and I went to the 10.30am session of I'm Not There at the Luna cinema in Leederville. Yep, 10.30am. Back when I was first hearing Bob Dylan I probably wouldn't have been up at that hour, but that's beyond the point.

This is one great film. Okay, I'm a Dylan fan and blind to a lot of his blemishes: maybe I would like it whatever it was. But I am also a fussy film goer and to get me to like a mainstream USAmerican movie is difficult. This film is brilliant. It is creative, it makes exceptional use of its medium, it surprises at every turn, even when you know most of the story before the film begins, and the acting is part of the high quality of the film. Cate Blanchett is a knock-out. You start out thinking, There's Cate as Bob, but quickly you think, you KNOW, that it is Bob Dylan. Amazing. I even had the presence of mind late in the film to pause in my belief and try to see Cate Blanchett in Dylan - but by then she was Dylan. Eerie. (What would he feel when he saw her as himself?)

I knew there were six actors playing different parts of Dylan before I arrived at the cinema and bought my choc-bomb. I knew it and thought these aspects of his character would be portrayed in chronological sequence. Wrong: they are shuffled skillfully and rhythmically, so that previous aspects of the film build on adjacent scenes by association(s). The wonderful example of an older Dylan character getting back in touch with his earlier more creative self through literally jumping back on the train worked extremely well, and I don't think it would have made such a connection if the young negro Woody Guthrie character had been way up the beginning of the film only.

The way the music is used is interesting, too. Sometimes, Dylan sings and the actor mimes; sometimes the actor sings, including the very young negro boy; other times the music is mixed into the background and builds up until the vocal buds forth; and, a couple of times, other pop music of the period is played as relevant TV news footage or some such is shown. I haven't investigated the soundtrack yet, so I'll tell you later what's on that.

There is one thing that seriously bothers me: if you didn't know enough about Dylan before you saw the movie, you'd be lost. Confused. You would be rattled by tarantulas walking across the screen and a motorbike crossing the screen and crashing, and the album covers and other recognisable photography aspects/visual data wouldn't carry the weight they do with recognition by the viewer.

Okay, I'm a one-eyed Dylan fan - but this also means I would be sorely disappointed if this biopic had been less than it is. This film is as creative, as surprising and entertaining, as an extended Dylan song - say, like Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands. Which reminds me - there are no obvious 'hits' in this movie. One song used I know was released as a single and never on a single album (maybe on compilations). Another was a re-orchestration of a Basement Tapes track. Interesting choices - needless to say, I loved 'em all (not so much the Christian track, but that's my bias showing through.)

If you have the chance, go and see I'm Not There. You won't be disappointed.