Buy I’m Not There dvd becomes another boomer ode to the cultural supremacy of the sixties. The film is embracingly original its also mystifying, overlong and at times nearly incoherent. Floating at a distance from its audience, it creates its own smoky logic. I appreciate Haynes craft and ambition. I love the Ledger/Gainsbourg scenes, which are sweet and sad and delicately shaded. And Blanchetts inspired not-quite-impersonation of Dylan is reason enough to tussle with the rest of it. Despite its artistic gambles and the intellectual arguments its sure to generate, Im Not There doesnt even have the power of a vacuum. Its all there on the surface. Im Not There offers up a daring conceit and then falls apart trying to fulfill it. What emerges is a speculative, critical essay about the 60s, weighted down in spots by political correctness and a conflicted desire to mock Dylans denseness while catering to his hardcore fans, but otherwise lively, fluid, and watchable.
May 06