Masked and Anonymous

Rating:
Summary: In a word simply brilliant
Review: Bob Dylan has successfully done what Mariah Carey and Emimen
failed to do present a movie based on their own characters
and lead us into their world. Bob Dylan of course is not
just a Music Icon, he is American icon folks. Always speaking
the trouth from his heart, this is the one man, a true
celebrities that uses his skills as a musician to speak out
on everything from Vietnam, the corporation, America's dwindling
image and so forth.

Dylan plays a folk singer, touring with his band, and through
his journey he meets several whacky characters played by
guys like Jeff Bridges, Christian Slater, Val Kilmer and so forth.

In between Dylan acting the role, we are treated to great
musical performance by him as he tells us his story.

This is an amazing story, truly a labor of love.

Everything should be proud of what they did in this film

Rating:
Summary: Several Reasons Why This Is A Terrific Movie
Review: MASKED AND ANONYMOUS is not the typical genre of film that attracts this reviewer, but having taken the time to sit through the piece, think about it, and muse over why it was made in the first place, summons some ideas worth sharing.

Bob Dylan is an American Icon, a man whose music has interpreted much of the milieu of the 20th century in America, and the times they are a changing. Dylan wrote the script for this venture (with director Larry Charles whose credits include Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm etc) and the film is very much like a Dylan song: there are repeated phrases drawn from the gut-level of language and reaction to events, phrases that don't necessarily make a lot of sense taken out of context, and a lot of band covered vocalism that just seems to add atmosphere for the heck of it.

That is the manner in which this film reflects Dadaism and Nihilism and as such it truly is an art film. The story is meager: corrupt show people try to hold a fundraising concert for the corrupt government that is being overthrown by revolutionaries and counterrevolutionaries and the only Big Star they can hire is the jailed Jack Fate (Bob Dylan) who is less than the desired Hollywood extravaganza desired. The writing on the signs in the town of unknown origin are in every language and the characters who are in charge of the show and who are the populace of this oddly demented, strife ridden, war zone city are of every ethnic group imaginable. In other words, this 'political upheaval' place could be in Africa, Latin America, Middle East, Asia, ? the USA? - it is just somewhere (or everywhere!).

The film is obviously a work of love as it has the largest cast of fine actors even in the bit parts: Bob Dylan, John Goodman, Jessica Lange, Luke Wilson, Christian Slater, Val Kilmer, Mickey Rourke, Penelope Cruz, Giovanni Ribisi, Ed Harris, Angela Bassett, Cheech Marin, Steve Bauer, Bruce Dern, Michael Paul Chan - and others. The sets are obviously sets, the scenes seem like they had no rehearsal, the acting is intentionally crude, and the action simply is decor for some renderings of Dylan's songs. It is looney, weird, funny, puzzling, ridiculous, overlong, and altogether a tribute to the genius of Bob Dylan - and a frightening anti-political statement about where we are right now, right here.

Tune in and turn on and adjust your head controls for a wild ride that has a lot to say because it makes you think - and then questions the very process of intellectualizing the whole affair!
Grady Harp, November 2004

Rating:
Summary: dylan
Review: This film, thematically, is pure Dylan. If you love Dylan, you cannot help but love this film. If you do not understand Dylan or do not like his work, you are highly disposed to not liking this film. Everything is metaphorical, much of it is absurd, and like much of Dylan's work, the profound meaning of the work arises metaphorically out of the absurd. Such is life; the weird profundity, when you get to it, quakes with realism. The film captures this beautifully. The negative criticisms of the film I've seen all seem to be informed by a lack of any substantial understanding of Dylan and an expectation of the usual. This is art, not a commercial. It's Dylan, not Madonna. There is a world that Dylan reveals - here and elsewhere - simmering below the placating surface of the ordinary. Dylan invites his audience to dwell there. This film is like that.

Rating:
Summary: Dylan fans only please
Review: You have to know Bob's life, have read his interviews, have listened to the records, know his point of view on things, to fully enjoy this movie. For me, as a long time Dylan fan, this movie is a must, I have watched it over and over, always finding new things and new meanings to the characters and scenes. But if you are watching this movie and have not listened to Desolation Row, dont know who Blind Willie Mctell is, or felt the Idiot wind blowing before, well, dont waste your time here.

Rating:
Summary: Dylan transcends varied art forms
Review: Being a "Dylan Freak", I really enjoyed watching the Bobster star in his own feature length film. It is well written, acted, filmed, and produced. Probably Dylan's best film role since playing himself in "Don't Look Back", ("I'm glad I'm not me"). Great supporting perfromances and demonstrates just the right tone for classic underground, vagabound filmmaking. Great tributes to Dylan classics and a fine story set in a type of "Desolation Row". A masterpiece.

Rating:
Summary: fascinating, especially if you're a Dylan fan
Review: It would be almost cliche' at this point to liken "Masked and Anonymous" to one of Dylan's epic songs, since every other reviewer who has seen it has done so. But they're right, and if you're a Dylan fan, you'll appreciate the film so much more for just that reason.

"Masked and Anonymous" encompasses just about every theme we've heard Dylan deal with in his music for the past forty years - religion, corruption, oppression, injustice, love and, finally, redemption. Dylan, through the character of Jack Fate, portrays an image of himself that is familiar from his songs - at times in the film, he's the Jokerman, other times the Jack of Hearts. These are, of course, my own interpretations - you'll certainly have your own once you've seen this film as it's wide open to a million different interpretations.

The performances in this picture should not be overlooked either. The lead performances as well as cameos from a dozen or so A-list Hollywood actors are top-notch. Among these, Jeff Bridges as Tom Friendly, the cynical journalist, stands out as exceptional - oscar-worthy in my humble opinion - but since when does the academy give awards to the films and actors that really deserve to win??

But I digress ... Dylan is obviously the weakest actor in the film, but more than makes up for it with his powerful presence. In certain instances, as he recites lines like, "I don't pay any attention to my dreams" or "You've got to be born on my side, Sweetheart," he even upstages his very talented co-stars.

And, of course, the music. The film is packed with interpretations of Dylan's own songs, including foreign language translations of "Like a Rolling Stone" and "If You See Her, Say Hello". I was personally thrilled to hear "Blind Willie McTell" in the soundtrack, though it didn't particularly seem to fit the scene. And the instrumental version of "Angelina" over the film's final scene gave me a chill.

The bottom line is if you're a Dylan fan, as I am, you'll love this picture as a huge addition to Dylan's already legendary body of work.

Rating:
Summary: Like a Buick Six... Kinda
Review: So I was watching this very late and got to the point where Ed Harris appears in blackface as a banjo-toting ghost, and I said, "Okay--enough for tonight." Next day, it had gone back to the video store. "You didn't want to watch the rest of that thing, did you?"

Well yeah, I did. Not because I was particularly impressed or that it was in any way outstanding, but because my interest was held in spite of all that. "Masked and Anonymous" is something you don't often see these days, the kind of let's-turn-on-the-camera-and see-what-happens flick they stopped making around '72, for good reasons. (Anyone who has seen "Steelyard Blues" or "Brewster McCloud" knows exactly what I mean.) M&A is not going to revive the genre. It features most of the type's drawbacks--a perfunctory story that basically serves as a framework for various odd, disconnected events. Dismal camerawork, cinematography, and technical aspects done with that "throw out the rulebook' feel that's always marked this kind of film. ("I mean, Dylan did it that way back in the '60s, right?" Yeah, but Dylan replaced it with genius, and that was R&R.)

The acting is almost uniformly awful. The cast evidently took this as being on the order of a John Waters film and proceeded accordingly. M&A features THE worst Jeff Bridges performance. Lange spends the time channeling Cruella de Ville. Goodman carries most of the weight with much of his usual charm, but he seems tired at times. Not even the dependable Fred Ward comes out unscathed, managing to screw up a turn as an obnoxious drunk.
Exceptions include Basset, as adorable as ever, Luke Wilson, who doesn't have much to do, and Val Kilmer, who excels as a kind of postmodern Jeremiah. But I would have guessed he'd do that.

The difference, of course, lies with Dylan. No, he can't act, but that doesn't matter. All he does is walk around looking enigmatic and uttering oracular phrases, but that's Bob Dylan as he's been since 1961, and that's what you came to see. And it works, as it always has, even if he does look like Vincent Price after a rough night in the graveyard. When he's onscreen, your eye is glued to him, and nothing else registers. There are few at any given time who have that kind of presence. The rest of the cast may well have been aware of it, and simply decided not to compete. DeNiro might have been able to keep up, but he'd not in this one. (Bob has a couple good lines too, as in the beginning where somebody reports two eagles killing a rabbit. "Rabbit must have done something," Bob says.)

So for the moment, it's a three-and-a-half. But I will catch up with rest of it one of these days. I mean, where else can you see Ed Harris doing an Al Jolson schtick?