AllMovie

Marcus Carl Franklin began his career as a child star with two demanding and memorable roles, essayed in the mid- to late 2000s. He took one of his first bows as Ruben Santiago Jr., the lead character in George C. Wolfe's heavily praised drama Lackawanna Blues (2005) -- an HBO period piece about a little boy coming of age in an upstate New York rooming house during the late '50s and early '60s. Then, two years later, Franklin played a young Bob Dylan, riding the rails to the tunes of Woody Guthrie, in Todd Haynes' daring, controversial, and experimental Dylan biopic I'm Not There (2007). Next, he went on to appear in the Michel Gondry comedy Be Kind Rewind (2008), with Jack Black, Mia Farrow, Mos Def, and Danny Glover.