Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
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.
Todd Haynes's fractured, kaleidoscopic portrait of Bob Dylan is one of cinema's boldest biographical experiments — six actors (including Cate Blanchett in an iconic turn) each embody a different facet of Dylan's persona, shot in varying visual styles that mirror the era and mood being evoked. The cinematography is genuinely extraordinary, shifting from lush color to grainy black-and-white Godardian footage with purpose and beauty. Acting is a standout, particularly Blanchett's uncanny, career-best performance. Novelty is extremely high — no biographical film has attempted this structural and conceptual approach with such conviction. The plot, however, is deliberately elliptical to the point of occasional opacity, rewarding Dylan devotees while alienating casual viewers. The ending dissipates rather than resolves, feeling more like the film simply stops than arrives at any satisfying conclusion, which is either a feature or a flaw depending on one's patience for pure abstraction.