I'm Not There

2007 Directed by Todd Haynes

All I Can Do Is Be Me Whoever That Is

Six actors portray six personas of music legend Bob Dylan in scenes depicting various stages of his life, chronicling his rise from unknown folksinger to international icon and revealing how Dylan constantly reinvented himself.

Cate Blanchett Heath Ledger Julianne Moore Ben Whishaw Charlotte Gainsbourg Michelle Williams Marcus Carl Franklin Christian Bale Richard Gere David Cross Kris Kristofferson Don Francks Kim Roberts Peter Friedman Kim Gordon Bruce Greenwood Alison Folland Jim James Yolonda Ross

Alternative Titles

I'm Not There: Suppositions on a Film Concerning Dylan, Im Not There, 아임 낫 데어, I'm Not There.

music drama

135 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by J.W. Hendricks ★★★★

Cloud Atlas: Bob Dylan Edition
Review by laird ★★★★½ 2

"so full of mystery... contradictions... and chaos. Yes, it's chaos, clocks and watermelons... It's everything."
I have no idea what watching this is like without any point of reference or interest in Bob Dylan or 60s arthouse films, but I also don't care. If not for all of the footnotes needed, this would, I think, widely be considered one of the best movies of the new millennium. It's certainly one of the best movies about an artist or maybe just about artists in general or maybe about these things and history and identity, etc. There's a lot to unpack and it's deliberately messy and evasive, just like its subject. Cate Blanchett is supernaturally good in this. She seems more possessed than performing.
Review by brat pitt ★★★½

im back at my parents' house for winter break & halfway thru this movie my dad came in my room & said he could smell weed smoke from downstairs & to not smoke weed in the house even tho i was really careful & blew it out the window 😩 it was the first time ive ever gotten caught so now this movie will forever remind me of the embarrassment + shame i felt that fateful night of december 11th 2016.
anyway when will tilda swinton give cate blanchett her oscar back? just wondering :)
Review by fran hoepfner ★★★½ 4

maybe my fav Blanchett of all time?
Review by Daniel ★★★★½ 7

I'm beginning to think this film is barely about Bob Dylan. Identity seems to be a key point of question in Haynes' characters, and it's most certainly present here. "I'm Not Here" is a film about you. You're no one, yet everyone at the same time.

"I accept chaos, I'm not sure whether it accepts me" - Bob Dylan
Review by YI JIAN ★★★★★

This cate blanchett biopic is really out there, or maybe you can say it's not there, I should stop trying to be funny.
Review by Daniel ★★★★½ 3

Who was Bob Dylan?
Bob Dylan was a Romantic. (Marcus Carl Franklin)
Bob Dylan was a Revolutionary. (Cate Blanchett)
Bob Dylan was a Mystery. (Ben Whishaw)
Bob Dylan was a Lover. (Heath Ledger)
Bob Dylan was a Spiritualist. (Christian Bale)
Bob Dylan was a Recluse. (Richard Gere)
Bob Dylan was much, much more than just a musician.
Bob Dylan's legacy lives on. Haynes' anti-biopic homage to the life and work of Bob Dylan is a feast for the senses; a passionate, energetic, and playful love letter to the great artist that is a treat for his fans as well.
When someone influential to us passes on, we remember their very best qualities and attribute them to people or things to…
Review by russman ★★½

I never realized Bob Dylan was 1/6th female
Review by Dara K. Marzipan 1

Todd Haynes' gift is not that he's a maniacally detailed biographer — he is, but that's not his gift. No, what's really a treasure here is the way Haynes can fully accept and celebrate the mythology surrounding a public figure, whether it's self-made or not, while still teasing out the points of connection between that mythology and "real life". Not only that, he takes considerable risks as a filmmaker in order to depict those nexus points in meaningful and interesting ways, coming right out the gate with the simple but devastating decision to shoot Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story with Barbie dolls. Velvet Goldmine is a very good film, but because David Bowie refused to let his music or name…
Review by 🌻 lindsay 🌻 ★★★½ 4

This is easily one of the most creative biopics out there. 6 different people make up 6 different perspectives on Bob Dylan and the way their stories are interwoven is brilliant. I really enjoyed all the chaos and mystery. The editing was perfect.
Also to Cate Blanchett version of Bob Dylan, I’m free anytime if you wanna hang out.
Review by 𝕎𝕚𝕝𝕝𝕖𝕞 (𝕃𝕖𝕠) 𝕧𝕒𝕟 𝕕𝕖𝕣 ℤ𝕒𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕟 ★★★★★ 2

Short Review
The Ultimate Challenge - Film #13
Added to: .mpr.ss..n.sm .n F.lm
I'm Not There is a masterwork of creativity, a film that perfectly blends with Bob Dylan's all-encompassing persona while at the same time trying to grasp these many different sides in a kaleidoscopic, meta-film that seriously pushes the boundaries of biographical filmmaking.
Instead of simply passing through Dylan's life from A to Z, showing different, important stages in his life, Haynes opts for the undeniably wiser option of actually dissecting his life, showing the aspects that make him Bob Dylan (as far as that is even possible of course). Thus, as poetic as Dylan himself was, the film turns into a potpourri of his many different ways…
Review by Dolev Amitai ★★ 6

I'm Not There sounds like an interesting concept on paper.
Six different actors playing different versions of Bob Dylan, one of them an African American child and another a woman. (Due to Dylan being a white male).
And it starts off pretty well.
Marcus Carl Franklin acted really well, especially for a 14 year old (at the time).
But the more the film went on, it got a lot more confusing and weird.
I really don't mind films being complex. Some films especially take time, even after the ending, to make sense.
But sadly, I'm Not There. simply is all over the place.
There is nothing really connecting all the different versions.
I understood that they represent different times in…

Recent reviews

Review by chasnote ★★★★

It’s a movie like the book Cloud Atlas but with the many lives of Bob Dylan at the center. For example, Kate Blanchett is the Mighty Quinn and Richard Gere is Billy the Kid. David Cross plays a very convincing Alan Ginsburg—I need to look up if Ginsburg ever pulled up alongside Dylan’s car in a golf cart. And after that I’ll need to watch this movie a few more times to make sense of it, which is similar to the experience I’ve had with my favorite Bob Dylan songs.
Review by Mya Lyman ★★★

i got what they were trying no to do and appreciated it but that was the full extent
Review by Wyatt Pike ★★★★

I’m Not There presents the story and mythos of Bob Dylan through six different actors who all play a version or persona of Dylan in different scenarios. What this allows is for a biopic that is so utterly creative and original. I like how this is presented, simply because I love the concept of showing how Bob Dylan and his music are more than just himself. It’s in everyone and everything. He was the voice of a generation that still rings through today. Dylan always knew this. He always has never seemed to care about fame and fortune so much as just playing his music and sharing his message, so that aspect stays true to Dylan. With some great performances…
Review by Finny ★★★★★

Sometimes all you need for a good time is some acting and some beautiful tuuuuunes
Review by laila ★★★★

i was never really into bob dylan. trained as classical musician since i was seven, lyrics were always a bit superfluous to me — it didn’t matter if they were bad and if they were good that was a bonus. although i always liked novels i only started caring for poetry when i was around twelve and that was the start of my appreciation for lyrics. the fact that english is not my first language was another obstacle for understanding the verses of the artists i liked, so until i was like thirteen to go and search for poorly translated lyrics was too much trouble and i rarely care to do it.
bob dylan, as mainly a story teller (with…
Review by Claire ★★★★½

this was brilliantly original and creative. also, cate blanchett is an absolute STAR UGH WOWZA.
Review by nick ★★★

either be groovy or leave, man.
it has a shallow layer but it's still a good movie with good performances.
Review by Clayton Greis ★★★★

Finally a good fucking movie
Review by Maddy ★★★

Watch for the part where Cate Blanchett is unbelievably amazing and hot
Review by Pierre T.F. ★★★★★

Yeah, screw it, it gets a five. I really like this, and I'm not just saying that because it's Dylan. It certainly holds some weight into the quotient, but not 100%.
Review by palmiott ★★★★

Fuck Bohemian Rapsody
and fuck Rocketman
Review by BcuerWalrus ★★★½

cate blanchett holy fuck that was goat tier type shit. while i prefer her performance in carol, if you say this is her best, cannot argue,
as for the movie, this is like mank, where i didn't really understand shit, but i was enjoying it all the way through. Also its a very original idea for a biopic, i fucks wit it