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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 6, 2007)
!24 #).%-!3 ,HZ[[O BY MOLLY TEMPLETON 6WDUWV )ULGD\ O[[W!IPQV\JPULTHZJVT \+MZ \QNQKI\M[ H /Q^M*QRW]/QN H NWZ\PM0WTQLIa[ +%*#'.#+0' 7&'#9 1LJKWO\6DW0DW It Ain’t He, Babe Heath Ledger as Robbie in I’m Not There THIS CHRISTMAS PG13 1:15, 4:10, 7:05, 10:00 THE GOLDEN COMPASS PG13 11:35, 12:35, 1:35, 2:35, 3:35, 4:35, 5;35, 6:35, 7:35, 8:35, 9:35, 10:35 AWAKE R 12:55, 3:15, 5:40, 7:55, 10:15 ENCHANTED PG 11:25, 12:40, 1:30, 2:10, 3:20, 4:15, 4:55, 6:15, 7:00, 7:45, 9:00, 9:50, 10:30 HITMAN R 2:20, 5:05, 7:50, 10:35 AUGUST RUSH PG 2:00, 4:45, 7:50, 10:25 NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN R 1:45, 4:40, 7:40, 10:40 THE MIST R 12:30, 3:25, 7:10, 10:15 BEOWULF PG13 11:15, 2:05, 4:50, 7:45, 10:30 MR MAGORIUM’S WONDER EMPORIUM G 12:00, 2:25, 5:00, 7:30, 10:00 FRED CLAUS PG 12:45, 3:40 BELLA PG13 7:35, 10:05 BEE MOVIE PG 11:30, 1:55, 4:25, 7:00, 9:35 AMERICAN GANGSTER R 11:55, 3:30, 7:10, 10:40 Think more than twice about Dylan pic 1LJKWO\6XQ0DW 3KLOLS6H\PRXU+RIIPDQ(WKDQ+DZNH 'LUHFWHGE\6\GQH\/XPHW 'RJ'D\$IWHUQRRQ1HWZRUN 5 1LJKWO\ 6XQ0DW &RPLQJ:KDW:RXOG-HVXV%X\" %,-28/$7(1,7( )5,'$<6$7 ´7KLVLPSHFFDEO HGFRPHG\KRUURU ILOPHFKRHV$Q \ILOP ULFDQ :HUHZROILQ /RQGRQDQGHDU $PH O\6DP5DLPLDQ G3HWHU -DFNVRQEXWLWKDVLWV RZQXQLTXHHQHUJ\ DQGLW VDPXVWVHHµ %/$&.6+((3 PLGQLJK WIULVDW VXQ I’M NOT THERE: Directed by Todd Haynes. Written by Haynes and Oren Moverman. Cinematography, Edward Lachman. Music su- pervisors, Randall Poster and Jim Dunbar. Starring Cate Blanchett, Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, Richard Gere, Marcus Carl Franklin, Ben Whishaw and Charlotte Gainsbourg. The Weinstein Company, 2007. R. 135 min. 44441 T here are more potential ways to re- view Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There than there are, within the film, ver- sions of a character rather like Bob Dylan. In the amount of space allotted to a review, I could focus solely on the acting, the casting, the details, the homages, the styles, the peo- ple and things seen in passing that it would take multiple viewings to catch. With each viewing, a different revew might emerge; this is not a film that encourages one hard, defini- tive take, though some look for it anyway. It’s an adventure and an idea, a conceptual mon- tage of life, fiction, themes and music. Dylan, and the many characters Haynes and cowriter Oren Moverman find in his life and songs, provides a base for a series of visions that get inside your head slowly and surely. The sur- face-level ideas about identity and mythol- ogy knot themselves together with Dylan’s songs (often, in the film, performed by oth- ers) until you find, later, that Haynes has worked a little trick: Listening to the Dylan albums that seem most analogous to the film’s inhabitants, you’re back in the film, the actors’ faces in your mind. The film follows six characters: a young boy, Woody (Marcus Carl Franklin), jumping trains in the 1950s and acting like he lives decades earlier; a sly poet, Arthur (Ben Whishaw), on trial (in a way) and narrating the film (in another way); a protest singer of the ’60s, Jack (Christian Bale, surprisingly out of his element) who later turns preacher; an actor, Robbie (Heath Ledger, bearing the lonely ghost of Ennis Del Mar), who strikes it big playing Jack in a film; an outlaw, Billy (Richard Gere), who lives in a metaphor in the guise of a town; and, in the piece that draws the straightest line from the real Dylan to its subject, skinny, fidgety Jude (Cate Blanchett), contrary and high. (At times, the fun of detail is too much to resist, and I found myself in awe of the familiarity of Blanchett’s mannerisms, Robbie’s bearing, Arthur’s speech patterns, Haynes’ remakes of scenes from Don’t Look Back; these mental snags all seem purposeful, as Haynes toys with expectations and specifics and the con- text of his stars playing another kind of star.) None of these characters is Bob Dylan; all of these characters are Bob Dylan. What Haynes is concerned with is a complex com- bination of identity and mythology, and the places the two intersect and separate. Each slim slice of his film theorizes about a Dylan that was or a Dylan that might have been, and each character builds a new mythology around and about an era in Dylan’s life. The myths shift, change, take on meanings of their own; what matters is less how they started than where they wound up. Billy gets the short end of this undeniably creative stick; his folklore-steeped Missouri town, where it’s always Halloween, tumbles into the absurd, becoming Deadwood by way of a dreaming Tim Burton, and the best thing to come out of that segment is a music-video- like scene of Jim James crooning “Goin’ to Acapulco” in his otherworldly voice at a fu- neral. Woody and Jack also have less than satisfying storylines, though it’s awkward to call them that, for Haynes isn’t often focused on narrative. Too much narrative would ob- scure the point; the point is in the ideas. Haynes takes the chameleonic existence of Dylan and shatters it into individual lives, which then only have the narrative push a sin- gle life, seen in a handful of scenes, carries. Robbie’s story is the most domestic, the most involved with other people, and there’s com- fort in its structure and emotional weight. Jude’s scenes are the most recognizable, and thus they have a different sort of resonance. But despite the differences, these people, their stories, all boil down to the possibilities of reinvention, of mythologizing a figure or that figure mythologizing itself (a fantastic scene involves Jude and Allen Ginsberg, as played by David Cross, shouting at a towering statue of Jesus on the cross). We’re all different peo- ple, but we aren’t all different people in the public eye, shifting and changing, building a tower of others’ observations and implications and presumptions. I’m Not There couldn’t have been about anyone else; it’s also not about anyone at all. ew I’m Not There ends Thursday, Dec. 6 at VRC Stadium 15. FEEL THE NOISE PG13 [12:35] 2:45, 4:55, 7:05, 9:25 FEAST OF LOVE R [12:10] 2:50, 5:15, 7:45, 10:25 SUPERBAD R [12:45] 4:45, 7:40, 10:20 MARTIAN CHILD PG [1:05] 4:25, 7:35, 10:30 3:10 TO YUMA R [1:00] 4:00, 7:15, 9:55 UNDERDOG PG [12:20] 2:30, 4:40, 6:55, 9:30 STARDUST PG13 [12:55] 4:10, 7:20, 10:10 HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX PG13 [12:50], 3:55, 7:00, 10:05 THE BOURNE ULTIMA- TUM PG13 [12:30] 4:15, 7:25, 10:15 RATATOUILLE G [12:40] 4:30, 7:10, 9:50 GOOD LUCK CHUCK R [12:15] 2:35, 5:00, 7:50, 10:35 DRAGON WARS PG13 [12:25] 2:40, 4:50, 7:30, 9:45 [ ] FRIDAY THRU SUNDAY ONLY 5 85' $< 681 '$< 5L^ 7YPU[ /DE\ULQWK IULVDW VXQ 6$70$7 COOL GETS HOT: Climate Change and Oregon Wine Harry Peterson- Nedry Managing Partner, Chehalem Wines Adv. Tix on Sale I AM LEGEND (PG-13) ★ Adv. Tix on Sale NATIONAL TREASURE: BOOK OF SECRETS (PG) ★ Adv. Tix on Sale HANNAH MONTANA CONCERT 3D (NR) ★ THE GOLDEN COMPASS (PG-13) ★ (1100 1130 145 215 430 500) 715 745 1000 1030 AWAKE (R) - ID REQ'D (1155 230 445) 725 940 ENCHANTED (PG) (1105 1145 140 225 425 505) 710 740 950 1020 HITMAN (R) - ID REQ'D (1200 235 510) 730 1010 AUGUST RUSH (PG) (1110 200 450) 735 1025 NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (R) - ID REQ'D(1215 415) 720 1015 BEOWULF DIGITAL 3D - $2.50 FEE FOR 3D (PG-13) (1125 210 455) 750 1035 MR. MAGORIUM'S WONDER EMPORIUM (G) (1115 155 420) 645 925 FRED CLAUS (PG) (1210 405) 655 945 AMERICAN GANGSTER (R) - ID REQ'D (1135 300) 635 1005 BEE MOVIE (PG) (1150 220 440) 700 930 DAN IN REAL LIFE (PG-13) (1120 205 435) 705 935 ACROSS THE UNIVERSE (PG-13) (1205 345) 650 955 Adv. Tix on Sale I AM LEGEND (PG-13) ★ Adv. Tix on Sale NATIONAL TREASURE: BOOK OF SECRETS (PG) ★ THE GOLDEN COMPASS (PG-13) ★ (1100 140 425) 710 955 HITMAN (R) - ID REQ'D (1225 240 510) 740 1000 THE MIST (R) - ID REQ'D (100 350) 640 930 ENCHANTED (PG) (1100 135 415) 650 925 BEOWULF (PG-13) (1145 220 455) 730 1005 MR. MAGORIUM'S WONDER EMPORIUM (G) (1220 230 500) 720 935 FRED CLAUS (PG) (1110 145 420) 700 940 Adv. Tix on Sale NATIONAL TREASURE: BOOK OF SECRETS (PG) ★ I'M NOT THERE (R) - ID REQ'D Fri. (330) 640 930 Sat. & Sun. (1140 330) 640 930 MR. MAGORIUM'S WONDER EMPORIUM (G) Fri. (200 440) 730 1010 Sat. & Sun. (1120 200 440) 730 1010 NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (R) - ID REQ'D Fri. (130 410) 700 940 Sat. & Sun. (1050 130 410) 700 940 FRED CLAUS (PG) Fri. (140) 710 Sat. & Sun. (1100 140) 710 BELLA (PG-13) (420) 950 Times For 12/7 - 12/9 ©2007 FRIDAY, DEC. 7 TH • 11:50 AM EUGENE HILTON $3 admission • Free to City Club Members 485-7433 www.cityclubofeugene.org Seasonal Gifts • Amber & Silver Jewelry • Candles • Incense • Meditation Cushions • Yoga Mats • Journals • Books • Aroma Therapy Products • Prayer Flags RUBY CHASM 152 W 5th @ Charnelton 344-4074 M-Sa 10-6 • Su 12-5 DECEMBER 6, 2007 39
