comment #1

George Prager says ...

I can't wait for the sequel, where Freddie Highmore, Soleil Moon Frye, Shaquille O'Neal, Bindi Irwin, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Wincott, LeVar Burton, Walter Cronkite, Kate Bosworth, Danny Bonduce, Bai Ling, Kristen Stewart, Sherman Hemlsey, Dakota Fanning and Donovan Leitch all play Donovan.

comment #2

Craig Kennedy says ...

It's too bad people are probably going to line up to take the piss out of this film. It's an easy target for accusations of artsy-fartsy pretension, but it's really pretty amazing even to casual Dylan fans. Cate deserves all the praise she gets. She's got more than the quirks and mannerisms down. She's got the attitude.

You really do forget the gimmickry of it right away.

comment #3

Zimmergirl says ...

I agree that she's a real delight whenever she's on screen but part of that is that Dylan was at HIS most interesting during that phase and his most pretentious. The other Dylans were never as exciting, naturally. The whole movie is great - everyone gives marvelous performances but it's true, Blanchett steals the show all the way.

People can take a piss all they want it doesn't change anything.

comment #4

p.Vice says ...

I'm just wondering when Todd Solondz is going to get around to suing Haynes for plagiarism.

comment #5

drgogol says ...

"I'm Not There" plagiarizes "Palindromes" in the same way that a Michelin tire is a rip-off of the sort of stone wheel you see in a "B. C." comic strip. I think the reason Solondz used multiple actors in his film to play a single part is the same reason he's made multi-narrative movies for the last decade: he can't find anyone willing to stand his company for the length of a shoot.

comment #6

frankbooth says ...

But Haynes had already done something similar -- long before the Solondz film -- in Velvet Goldmine, in which the Bowie surrogate is played by two different actors.

And then there was that Spanish guy who used two different actresses in the same role back in '77...man, that dude was weird.

comment #7

Zimmergirl says ...

And anyway, of all of the dumbass things to say that pretty much tops it, P. Vice. Talk about missing the point. Haynes was working on his movie seven years ago. Not only that, these aren't different actors playing the same part - they are actors playing different characters one person created that end up being not about him at all, but about us.

comment #8

T. Holly says ...

Kris T. said there was a "crier" in the audience last night. I saw it so *long* ago, that I'm reading stuff to remember it.
http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/radio/cl-ca-dylan11nov11,0,2612090.story

I almost cried when Heath dropped his towel in the movie, and when I heard a phone message from Bob on Susan Ross' answering machine in the late '80s.

comment #9

jeffmcm says ...

I would agree with Drgogol except for that I think Palindromes is a masterpiece, the best thing that Solondz has ever done. (in other words, no agreement at all).

comment #10

Craig Kennedy says ...

Nothing against Todd Solondz, but if p.Vice saw I'm Not There, obviously he didn't 'see' it.

The multiple actors idea is so clearly not a gimmick so early in the movie you almost don't even think about it after awhile. It wasn't an attention grabbing move, it was the only real way to tell this story.

And Zimmergirl, you're right about Cate having the juiciest bit...but you have to admit she fucking nailed it. Taking nothing away from the other actors who were all amazing, but Cate really stood out. Fairly or not.

comment #11

silver says ...

Surprised that someone hasn't yet said that Haynes should be sued by the Fellini estate for all the bits lifted from 8½... Sheesh.

-------
Also, cjKennedy nailed it: it's Blanchett's *attitude* that sells that amazing performance. Probably going to see it again just to watch her.

comment #12

jackkerouac says ...

Cate Blanchett is the best actor on the planet. Put her in a movie with Daniel Day-Lewis and the universe will explode.

comment #13

Zimmergirl says ...

Oh, CJ, I do think she nailed it and then some. In fact, I've been watching her career now for a decade I suppose and I've been impressed with her, though she was great in the first Elizabeth and in The Aviator -- but this performance takes her to a whole different level, beyond her ability to morph into someone else It is a performance right up there with Javier Bardem's in No Country - it's THAT good.

And CJ, Haynes told Dylan's story the way Dylan would have told it in a song - full of surreal, sometimes funny, sometimes profound imagery, odd characters drifting in and out - I mean, it could be Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts. He also nailed something fundamental about Dylan that only die-hard fans would know - the career highs in Dylan's music were almost always, if not always, driven by his relationships, not by politics or anything else. He uses his divorce as a platform for Dylan's having done Blood on the Tracks. How do you reconcile a song like Idiot Wind (imo, the best Dylan song ever written)with a song like You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go. They are on the same album yet are vast landscapes apart. Anyway, Haynes "went there" in a big way and I'm tellin' you, it's a movie people will return to for years to come, held up as one of the greats - and one you could watch alongside Don't Look Back and get such a kick out of Blanchett. I'd also screen it with Stardust Memories and 81/2 as well.

comment #14

Craig Kennedy says ...

If your goal was to convince me to see it a second time Zimmergirl, you've succeeded.

comment #15

T. Holly says ...

Yeah, I think Harvey's going to get an Oscar any way he rolls the movie out, because it's so not a Sundance movie.

comment #16

T. Holly says ...

8120 words about Haynes and "I'm Not There;" word count via JavaScript web-based word counter.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9903E4DF123EF934A35753C1A9619C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all

comment #17

George Prager says ...

I'm trying to think of a more boring premise for a movie. Maybe a movie about Phil Collins or Madonna.

comment #18

drgogol says ...

Jeffmcm:

As this is a sentence I don't encounter every day -- "I think 'Palindromes' is a masterpiece, the best thing that Solondz has ever done" -- I'd sincerely and unironically appreciate if you'd expand on why you think so.

comment #19

Zimmergirl says ...

Oh, GeorgePrager then you must like American Gangster because that was dreadfully boring to me. And yeah, if you aren't interested in Dylan no point in seeing the movie. Stick to what you know.

comment #20

George Prager says ...

Haven't seen AMERICAN GANGSTER.
I have seen DON'T LOOK BACK about ten times and NO DIRECTION HOME, EAT THE DOCUMENT, etc., and I own every good Dylan LP and CD. I have no doubt that this movie will suck.

comment #21

George Prager says ...

Hey, do ya think Todd Haynes can make a movie about Jon Bon Jovi? That would be so awesome!!!!!!

comment #22

George Prager says ...

Adolescence
The culture, for reasons having to do with the working of the marketplace, did not make available any but the grimmest, most false-seeming adulthood. Childhood was provided. An amazing various childhood, full of the most extraordinary material possibilities. That was it, nothing more. Just childhood. An adolescence had to be improvised and it was. That it was improvised—mostly out of rock and roll music—so astounded the people who pulled it off that they rightly considered it the most important historical event of their times and have circled around it ever since.

comment #23

Terry McCarty says ...

Silver wrote:
Surprised that someone hasn't yet said that Haynes should be sued by the Fellini estate for all the bits lifted from 8½... Sheesh.

I saw I'M NOT THERE at a screening at the (five screens open for dress rehearsal) Sherman Oaks Arclight Saturday night. Haynes dropped by for Q and A (interviewed by Scott Foundas) and acknowledged being influenced by 8 1/2.

comment #24

BurmaShave says ...

GeorgePrager you sound like my dad. You sound like everyone's dad.

comment #25

George Prager says ...

This thread needs a Daddy!

comment #26

christian says ...

"I think 'Palindromes' is a masterpiece, the best thing that Solondz has ever done"

I saw PALINDROMES and it made me despise Solondoz all over again.

comment #27

Sean says ...

"Haynes was working on his movie seven years ago."

Zim - what makes you say that? I've seen Haynes say in multiple interviews that he took a road trip after "Far From Heaven" was released [2002], and he put in a Dylan mix tape that somebody had made for him. One of my big ifs about this movie is that Haynes specifically said that he wasn't a Dylan fan before that, but got into him then. So it would be less than five years from then till now.

Mind you, I'm still looking forward to it, but, then, I actively enjoy 'Masked and Anonymous'.

comment #28

drgogol says ...

Sean --

You've got the chronology wrong: Haynes' road trip with the Dylan music was *before* he wrote "FFH". There's an account of it early in this piece:

http://blog.oregonlive.com/madaboutmovies/2007/11/interview_todd_haynes_on_im_no.html