Masked and Anonymous

Rating:
Summary: Dylan plays Dylan
Review: Two things will really add to the appreciation of thid film. 1. An extremely open mind and 2. a working knowledge of Bob Dyaln; his history, his philosophy, his music. This is not a high budget film. Think more surrealist art house film. It does have many stars that most people will recognize, but that isn't the focus, nor point of the movie. This is the highly metaphorical tale of a musician and how he can't control his place in a chaotic society, but can remain true to his own self amid the chaos.

The very loosely woven plot becomes secondary to the individual events which make up the film, each scene revealing a nugget of Dylan's perspevtive. Dylan often delivers comments that make the entire scene seem irrelevant. In this way this is, at times, a very funny film. Dylan seems relaxed, especially compared to the other films he has made. The feeling is much more "Don't Look Back", much less "Hearts of Fire". He does retain his wooden movement and he delivers his short lines as commentary more often than conversation.

The soundtrack is exceptional. The performances are a real treat. All Dylan songs, but unique versions which fit seemlessly into the texture of the movie. The little girl singing "The Times They are A-Changin" will at least choke you up a bit, and possibly help us to remeber exactly how much that song meant 41 years ago, and how much it still means today.

I certainly recommend this to Dylan fans, especially those who respect or admire his perspective on the world. Anyone who enjoys non formulatic surreal films may also find much enjoyment in this movie. There is too much to pick everything up in your first screening when looking for interesting comments or details. I would recommend trying to watch and a get a feel for the film initially. Don't drive yourself crazy trying to make sense of every detail. In that way it is like most of Dylan's music, to be experienced repeatedly.

Rating:
Summary: Explanations of the years of silence
Review: Many critics panned this movie simply because they have never really listened to Bob Dylan's words. This was a biography if i've ever seen one. "You can't change the world by singing" was one of John Goodman's lines in the film. "His whole life can be put on trial" was one of Jessica Lange's lines. This is Dylan's commentaries on the media, what they've done to him, and what he would like to do to them. It is also a commentary on the way our country is heading and the world as a whole. The movie had such memorable lines as "we are giving people new identities, and rewriting history books, and we will create a nation of lawbreakers and cash in on the guilt". This movie was took a genius to write, and if you don't get it, read the lyrics to 'My back pages' or Not Dark Yet', and you'll get an idea of what Dylan thinks of his career and the things he has regretably stood for.

Rating:
Summary: EZ 2 see without looking too far, not much is really sacred
Review: A good Bob Dylan song is like a good metaphor; it breathes in your own soul while it's an entity unto itself. "Masked and Anonymous" is that kind of Dylan song. His Bobness plays Jack Fate or perhaps Jack Fate plays Dylan, a reclusive musical legend whose glory days have passed. Spawn of a war lord, Fate comes out of sabatical to play a benefit concert for the forces who brought down his father. Dylan chose his own song list to perform and like the evolutionary he is, "Dixie" is delivered with a world weary ennui that seems both premonition and metaphor - the ultimate rebel anthem for the battered contrary who has been called Jesus then Judas by friend and foe alike. Fate knows he has no allies - not even amongst those he champions. His lone companion "cuts off the ear" of his enemy, and then runs for his life. Fate's fate and future becomes his past and his present. There are no heroes or villians, there are no failures or triumphs. A plethora of stars from Val Kilmer to Jessica Lang underscore Dylan's Chaplinesque tragedy. Art is a process, not a product. It is, in the end, only the journey matters.

Rating:
Summary: 30 or more years too late!
Review: Many people watching this film will not really know what they are looking at. Especially if they are of a post Baby-boom generation. It's pure '60's/70's Counter Culture, pure symbolisim, pure Dylan. I've been a fan of "Zimmie" since 1965 and know the "Dylanesque" when I see or hear it.
Even non-Dylan fans who watch this films remarked it is a "Pretty good flick." It's also interesting to note some viewers have commented that Dylan's acting is perfect for the role. I think he did a good job.
As another reviewer stated, it will take a few viewings to catch even some of the little clues and symbols. Much like his music, this film is for thinking people. It is Artistic expression and not for the screeching tires and explosion fans.
The film pokes an accusing finger in the direction of modern America: A President that can barely write his own name, a collapsing third world government pretending to be something it once was, and so on. The patent disgust of the present state of affairs can plainly be seen in Dylan's expressions when he is on the streets in a few scenes. A Great movie that's sure join the ranks of "Easy Rider" as a Counter Culture Classic. Thanks Bob!

Rating:
Summary: THE TRUTH!!!
Review: This movie is the truth! If you take about a year to do nothing but listen to Dylan cd's and watch this movie you might get that. Since it is extremely unlikely that you will do that (I wish I could) it is my suggestion that you sit with it, a glass of whatever, and a non-critical mind. Do that two or three times and you will be watching this movie until the day you die. It's funny, it's tragic, it's surreal. It is truth!

Rating:
Summary: Just a godawful mess of a film
Review: I want to preface my negative review by saying that Bob Dylan has always been one of my four or five greatest cultural heroes. I own thirty or forty of his albums, and have probably listened to his music more than anyother performer. I am a fan because he has consistently been the most interesting musical talent of the last half of the 20th century. But despite my being a huge fan, I can't endorse this film, which he supposedly helped script and in which he stars.

I saw this film at the Music Box, an art theater in Chicago, and couldn't disagree with the several people I heard leaving the theater saying things like "That was the worst movie I've ever seen!" or "Lord, that was awful." And it was. The film is getting mixed reviews from critics, some giving it great reviews, but many panning it as an incoherent mess. I went to the film hoping that I would agree with the former, but found myself leaning to the latter.

So what is wrong with this movie? I'd say that 90% of the problem is the script. There just doesn't appear to be one. Loosely, the film is about a benefit concert being produced in an unspecified Latin American country by a shady promoter played by John Goodman. The TV executive who also acts as liason between him and revolutionaries authorizing the concert is played by Jessica Lange. The lone performer they are able to get is Jack Fate, played in pure deadpan by Bob Dylan. The movie borrows a page from the old MGM musical THE BANDWAGON. In that film, Fred Astaire plays a formerly great musical star fallen on hard times, who goes to Broadway in an attempt to revive his flagging career. Here Dylan plays a formerly great musical performer who agrees to perform the benefit partly to get out of jail and partly to try to get his career back on track, or at least so say other characters in the film, because Dylan himself utters very few words in the film. Interestingly, all the "Jack Fate" songs performed in the course of the film are Bob Dylan classics.

The benefit provides the core of the plot, but really the plot is an excuse to string a long line of cameo performances. The cameos don't truly integrate with the rest of the film, so we are left with a long succession of poorly thought out performances by name stars that has little or nothing to do with the rest of the movie. A couple of the roles are more substantial than others. Jeff Bridges, normally one of my favorite actors, plays a particularly unlikable and belligerent journalist, who is followed by an eccentric Hispanic woman played by Penelope Cruz (whose talents are profoundly wasted, as are the talents of nearly all the performers in the film). Luke Wilson, apparently an old friend of Fate, leaves the bar where he is serving patron Fred Ward to join his friend. We get odd cameos of Angela Bassett as a prostitute, Val Kilmer as a philosophizing animal wrangler, Giovanni Ribisi as Fate's fellow bus passenger who details his constant shifting of political loyalties, an almost unrecognizable Mickey Rourke as the man who would be the next president with Steve Bauer as his aide, Cheech Marin as an old man on a bench, Chris Penn and Christian Slater as two stagehands, Ed Harris as a kind of ghostly minstral performer in blackface, Bruce Dern as Bridge's editor (who seems to have kept him under control with a monitoring device on his ankle, giving him the key to remove it upon sending him on assignment), and Dylan's real life back up band of the past couple of years as Simple Twist of Fate, a Jack Fate cover band. In the end, I found the parade of cameos to be a bit depressing, as if the makers were focusing on that instead of developing a compelling or coherent story.

Rating:
Summary: surreal and too much star power
Review: From the opening strains of a Japanese version of Dylan's age-old "My Back Pages" as the camera sweeps over the indigent homeless on the litter-strewn streets of L.A., "Masked and Anonymous" give promise of being a high-energy flick with a strong ethnic flavor. But because of too much star power and a sense of impending chaos that pervades the film, it fails to deliver on the promise.


There is much that is appealing about the camerawork in "Masked", as it captures some of the most appealing customs of Hispanic culture on film, much like at least 3 other films I could mention: Dennis Hopper's "Colors", Orson Welles' "Touch of Evil",or Keanu Reeves'Speed". But more than anything it resembles the Rolling Stones' video: "Undercover of the Night." All of these films and "Masked" use camerawork to bring out the best in any scene, or to create a mood: the large colorful graffiti wallpainting outside the jail; the scenes on the bus;the numerous ornate Catholic altars with their icons and brightly-lit candles;the numerous framed portraits of the President, a portly middle-aged moustached Hispanic gent wearing a military uniform weighed down by medals; the fact that Penelope Cruz has a major role in the film, and she avers, in her youth, that Dylan songs "can be interpreted in many ways."

But it is not only the Hispanic aspects that add to the film's appeal, since most of the lead actors are not Hispanic: John Goodman, Jessica Lange, Jeff Bridges, Dylan himself (although perhaps he wishes he were),Luke Wilson and numerous cameos by Angela Bassett, Val Kilmer, Ed Harris, and Cheech Marin, all of whom seem to bask in the glow of working with Dylan. But this is really too much star power. The dialogue is often very funny and at times quite serious so that it may take a couple of viewings to catch it all. This includes several long monologues: Val Kilmer's on animals, Ed Harris' as a blackface comedian, one by a revolutionary on the bus, and a seedy hotel clerk's, on the types of women available to Dylan.

And this is all apart from music, which is captivating and might be considerent the film's strong suit by many, particularly the a capella song by the child Tinashe Kachungwe, which has been pointed out by other reviewers. But I give this film only 3 stars because of the broken watches,crooked paintings, papers strewn on the floor, which may accurately reflect a 3rd World culture in chaos, but make the plot seem incoherent. .
I also do not necessarily agree with Roger Ebert's review of the film. He gives in only 1/2 star, saying that "Dylan has long since disappeared into his own persona." Dylan, however, says "I always let it all hang out" and I think we should take him at his word. Furthermore, he does show a lot of emotion--sadness and bitterness-- in the two scenes with Angela Bassett and with his dying father in which he laments how he has disappointed his father's expectations and how his fans have betrayed him--of course he has been saying this since "Positively Fourth Street." He also give 2 soliloquies which are full of obscurities, but they are at least some kind of response to reporter Tom Friend's claim that he is avoiding the press.

Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly good; Dylan fans add a star
Review: I'm not even going to attempt to describe this movie in any detail, it is too rich. You don't have to "get" Dylan in the first place to appreciate this movie, but it helps a lot. It is good for the same reasons Dylan's songs are; but you need a lot fewer fans to make a successful record than to make a successful movie. A million CDs sold is quite a success; a million tickets sold for a Hollywood film is a miserable failure.

The music is great, the acting is excellent, and the scenery and stock footage paint fascinating pictures; and the plot, while minimal, is quite enough to make the movie work. On its own terms, a big success; ignore the bad reviews and watch with an open mind.

Rating:
Summary: surreal and too much star power
Review: From the opening strains of a Japanese version of Dylan's "My Back Pages", as the camera sweeps over the indigent on the litter-strewn streets of L.A., "Masked and Anonymous" give promise of being a high-energy flick with a strong ethnic flavor. But because of too much star power and a sense of impending chaos that pervades the film, it fails to deliver completely on the promise.


There is much that is appealing about the camerawork in "Masked", as it captures some of the most appealing customs of Hispanic culture on film, much like at least 4 other films:Dennis Hopper's "Colors", Orson Welles' "Touch of Evil",or Keanu Reeves' "Speed", or even "21 Grams." But more than anything perhaps it resembles the Rolling Stones' video: "Undercover of the Night." All of these films and "Masked" use camerawork to bring out the best in any scene, or to create a mood: the large colorful graffiti wallpainting outside the jail; the scenes on the bus;the numerous ornate Catholic altars with their icons and brightly-lit candles;the numerous framed portraits of the President, a portly middle-aged moustached Hispanic gent wearing a military uniform weighed down by medals; the fact that Penelope Cruz has a major role in the film, and she avers, in her youth, that Dylan songs "can be interpreted in many ways."

Plotwise the film is about fate--Jack Fate--an aging rock star who is the headliner and only performer at a revolutionary benefit rock concert. John Goodman, Jessica Lange, Jeff Bridges,Luke Wilson and numerous cameos by Angela Bassett, Val Kilmer, Ed Harris, and Cheech Marin, all of whom seem to bask in the glow of working with Dylan, fill out the cast. But this is really too much star power. The dialogue is often very funny, perhaps the humour born of desperation, and at times quite serious so that it may take a couple of viewings to catch it all. This includes several long monologues: Val Kilmer's on animals, Ed Harris' as a blackface comedian, Giovanni Ribisi's revolutionary on the bus.

This is all apart from music, which is captivating and might be considered the film's strong suit, particularly the a capella song by the child Tinashe Kachungwe, which has been pointed out by other reviewers. But you have to be a Dylan fan and to recognize that Dylan cannot act. There are some who might say he can't sing. Dylan has been particularly adept in his later years at writing love songs or ballads, as compared to rockers:
"Not Dark Yet" and "I Remember You" are examples. Of course, any songwriter worth his mettle can do this. Consider the Jagger/Richards song "Out Of Tears" from "Voodoo Lounge" or the two fine ballads on the "Bridges To Babylon" album: "Already Over Me" and "Always Suffering".
But I give this film only 3 stars because of the broken watches,crooked paintings, papers strewn on the floor, which may accurately reflect a 3rd World culture in chaos, but make the plot seem incoherent. In the end a murder is committed, but it is not the accused--Jack Fate--who deals the fatal blows, as I recall: it is Luke Wilson with Blind Lemon's guitar as the murder weapon.
The murder victim is reporter Tom Friend, who has been repeatedly pestering Dylan with questions about his role in the 60's: "Where were you at Woodstock?" Earlier in the film, Friend also despairs of history to his girlfriend Cruz: "Did you know it was the Mau-Maus that brought AIDS to America??"
I also do not agree with film critic Roger Ebert's review of the film. He gives in only 1/2 star, saying that "Dylan has long since disappeared into his own persona." Dylan, however, says "I always let it all hang out" and I think we should take him at his word. Furthermore, he does show a lot of emotion--sadness and bitterness-- in the two scenes with Angela Bassett and with his dying father in which he laments how he has disappointed his father's expectations and how his fans have betrayed him--of course he has been saying this since "Positively Fourth Street." He also give 2 soliloquies which are full of obscurities, but they are at least some kind of response to reporter Tom Friend's claim that he is avoiding the press. One of these is Tolstoyan in its apparent profundity and disparaging of science and of human relationships.<"Reality is the commonplace", Fate avers.BR>Tolstoy was, particularly in his later years, a devout Russian Orthodox Christian mystic who was quite inimical to science, military leadership, bureaucrats, and to experts of all kinds. I wonder if Tolstoy would feel the same today with all the advances of modern science? Fate's other soliloquy is some sort of bluesman's homage to entropy: " Things fall apart, especially the neat order of rules and laws. How we view the world is the way we really are. Viewed at one level, the world looks like a friendly garden. Viewed from a higher level, all is plunder and destruction."

Rating:
Summary: "A Sci-Fi, Film Noir, Spaghetti Western," Surrealistic Film!
Review: Bob Dylan fans will love this surrealistic film, starring Bob Dylan, co-written by Bob Dylan (apparently under the pseudonym of "Rene Fontaine"), about Bob Dylan, with an extraordinary supporting cast of Hollywood royalty who all seem to revere Bob Dylan. It seems like everybody who is anybody in tinsel town, with an appropriately reverent attitude toward "Mr. Tambourine Man," wanted to be in the movie and act with the maestro. The "anybodys" in the cast include: John Goodman, Jessica Lange, Jeff Bridges as a bizarre reporter who grills interview subjects, Penélope Cruz as his supremely neurotic girlfriend with a 333 tattoo and an Incan wardrobe, Luke Wilson in snakeskin, Angela Bassett, Chris Penn, Christian Slater, Mickey Rourke, Ed Harris, Val Kilmer - very funny as a rabid animal activist, Bruce Dern, Cheech Marin, Giovanni Ribisi, and Fred Ward - Dylan groupies all. Larry Charles directed "Masked and Anonymous." He is an acclaimed television writer for Seinfeld and HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm." The movie is set in an unnamed third world country post disastrous counterrevolution...or, it could be the US turned third world country because of a disastrous counterrevolution. Dylan's song, "Desolation Row," was probably consulted and studied before the set designer went to work.

Music impresario Uncle Sweetheart, played by a sleazy John Goodman, decides to host a musical benefit for the children made miserable by the country's upheavals. He and his blowzy producer, (Jessica Lange), are unable to get any of their A-List performers to star. Paul McCartney, Springsteen, Billy Joel all just say "no." The only available musician willing to perform is Jack Fate, (played by guess who?), who has to be sprung from jail before he can show up. There is an underlying story about a despicable, dying dictator who looks just like Saddam Hussein, (Richard Sarafian), and could be Jack Fate's father. It really doesn't matter who he is, though, in the general scheme of things. If you like Bob Dylan, you won't mind the laid-back air of confusion surrounding whatever plot there is. Just go with the flow - a very 60s thing to do.

Much of the film's dialogue seems to come from Dylan's songs, some in-jokes that older fans, born before the 1960s, will undoubtedly understand, (I sure did), and wry commentary about almost everything. Some of the dialogue is quite funny. What isn't funny, however, are all the obviously aging stars - who share approximate birth dates with me. The aging process leave no one untouched. Mr. Dylan is totally deadpan, as usual. Has anyone ever seen him smile? It is difficult to understand much of what he says - but hey, I'm a Dylan fan, Bigtime! So, while I may feign a bit of disrespect and sarcasm, I was thrilled to see my favorite super-charismatic, anti-hero and musical genius on the big screen. He makes amazing music - still. His back-up is excellent. He performs six songs on camera, four of his own and two standards, "Diamond Joe" and "Dixie." And his version of "Dixie" is fab-uuu-lous!!! (although why he selected "Dixie" is beyond me).

Director Larry Charles described this movie to the press as, "Shakespeare done by John Cassavetes" - a "post-apocalyptic, sci-fi, film noir, spaghetti western." I'd have to agree with him. Again, I loved the movie - but I would love anything that featured Bob Dylan.
JANA