I'm Not There
Written/directed by Todd Haynes
Watching "I'm Not There" at the Film Forum (206 W. Houston) in the heart of Greenwich village, Dylan's old stomping ground (where hipsters, once roaming free, are now chained to $3000/mo studio walk-ups) was a perfect magical setting for a film that seems like a myth. I felt like a tourist in the land of "cool."
Bob Dylan is not my generation. I came in at the last gasp of his reign...where he looked more like craggly, grizzled Richard Gere than his stud reincarnations Heath Ledger and Christian Bale. Dylan might be a gap in my impressive pop cultural context (I know the lyrics to son Jakob Dylan's "One Headlight"--not quite the same). So can I still appreciate this film? The many ruminations of a storyteller whose stories I don't know?
"How can I answer that if you got the nerve to ask me?"
Empirically, a great soundtrack, terrific performances (Cate Blanchett is spot on!), bizarre art direction (the black outfits in a white room, the projection screens of Dylan), unique narrative weaving...
But ultimately, I am twenty years too late for this movie and this neighborhood.
Paired with a double shot espresso from Joe's: The Art of Coffee in Soho. Cause sleep's for dreamers.
1 comment:
Too bad none of that stuff was documented to allow you to catch up. Not one recording by the most influential songwriter of the last half-century, much less any book or documentary on him. You're too late, man.
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