Tonight: I’m Not There at AFI Silver Theatre

Matt Siblo — Fri, 20 May 2011 17:00:46 +0000

In the mid-aughts, it felt like every Tom, Dick, or Harriet who had ever picked up a guitar had a biopic bestowed upon them— Ray Charles (Ray), Joy Division's Ian Curtis (Control), and even California punk band The Germs (What We Do is Secret). That Bob Dylan’s story would make it to the big screen was inevitable; that it would be as mercurial as its subject was unlikely. Yet, Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There managed to be just that: a non-linear, engaging spectacle as taciturn and delightfully pretentious as Zimmerman himself. Screening within a career retrospective of Mr. Haynes—whose subversive first attempt at film biography came in 1987 with the Barbie-inspired Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story—I’m Not There eschews the formulaic rise and fall template for moody set pieces, nameless characters and intentionally jarring casting. It doesn’t all work, but the same can be said for Dylan’s discography. When done right—see Cate Blanchett’s bloody turn at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival—it captures the same indescribable cool that transcends genre.

The film shows at 9:10 p.m. tonight, 2:30 p.m. Saturday, and 8:45 p.m. Tuesday at the AFI Silver Theatre, 8663 Colesville Rd., Silver Spring. $11. www.afi.com/silver.

NoMa Summer Screen Kicks Off Tonight

Hilary Crowe — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:09:08 +0000

While Screen on the Green hangs in limbo, head to a slightly smaller green in D.C.'s northeast quadrant for some barbeque, dance jams by Fatback, and a summer full of rock docs. Tonight, the NoMa (north of Massachusetts Avenue) Business Improvement District hosts Martin Scorsese's 2005 film No Direction Home: Bob Dylan, the first in its free 2009 Summer Screen series. This year's theme: "Music in Pictures."

The film chronicles Dylan's rise to superstardom, from being booed by Guthrie purists at the Newport Folk Festival to getting mauled by fans in London. Scorcese culls footage from Dylan's 1961-1966 performances and press conferences, and interviews the ever cryptic icon. What emerges, despite Dylan's best efforts at obfuscation, is a portrait of the artist broader than D.A. Pennebaker's Don't Look Back (1967), yet more focused than Todd Haynes' I'm Not There.

NoMa screenings are held Wednesdays, 7 p.m.-midnight, on the large grassy lot on L Street between 2nd and 3rd Streets NE, one block from the New York Avenue Metro station. Series highlights include I Am Trying to Break Your Heart (on July 8) and Dig! (July 29).

Arts Desk » Todd Haynes

Tonight: I’m Not There at AFI Silver Theatre

NoMa Summer Screen Kicks Off Tonight