Six actors, portraying six diverse phases of Bob Dylan’s life. Under aliases, a half-dozen stories intertwine smoothly, roughly, and sometimes indescribably. Certainly, the creativity of the protagonist(s) and the director remain the film’s defining quality. Themes such as conformity, change, and challenges also abound, as illustrated by forums like a Macarthyism-style hearing, a 1960s documentary, and a fictional epilogue for Billy the Kid, if he survived Sherriff Garrett’s bullets.
Spectators draw their own unique conclusions, branches of the same tree. Everything is nothing without the people who define it. Je est un autre. Jane Jacobs argues that every city, neighbourhood, street, and building is different and blanket solutions do more harm than good. My Starbucks cup observes that everyone reacts differently to rules and conventions. Recently, I’ve found that my motivation and goals differ more than ever before from one day to another.
Elementary, of course. Coaches who don’t recognize individuality and address a million intricate problems with a million specialized solutions fail faster than guards with no handle. Whether running the screen and roll or coping with daily life, adapting to change creatively – whilst remaining true to one’s self – is imperative.
A Rotten Tomatoes critic suggested that I’m Not There is director Todd Haynes attempt to be Jean-Luc Godard. You can’t be what you are not. The film is hardly Dylan le fou but it could have used better editing. Half an hour removed and dozens of cuts reduced would have condensed the film’s greatness. Despite Cate Blanchett’s amazing, defiant, stubborn, failing, self-destructive, passionate, humourous, conventional, and counter-culture performance, the film tries to do to much at once, underachieves, and remains merely good.