Chaos, Clocks, Watermelons

on i’m not there.

Mystery is a traditional fact. – Cate Blanchett as Jude Quinn as Bob Dylan, I’m Not There

Jim James in I’m Not There.

You need a Ph.D. in Dylanology to understand Todd Haynes’s I’m Not There fully. But even if you’re not part of the professoriat at the University of Bob, that doesn’t mean that you won’t find parts of the film achingly beautiful, especially the surreal Basement Tapes/Outlaw Richard Gere segment that comes late in the movie, when Jim James of My Morning Jacket and the band Calexico performs “Goin’ to Acapulco,” transforming the good-time throwaway number into a startling cry of purity and power.

And stay awake until the end of the movie, when Cate Blanchett’s brilliant last soliloquy explains what the whole shebang is about.

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  1. Pingback: songs Bob Dylan

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