Masked and Anonymous

I had read so many bad reviews of this movie. I'd read it was impossible to follow; I'd read that the dialogue was banal; Roger Ebert gave it half a star, claiming it was too ambiguous. So, when I saw Masked & Anonymous, I was prepared for the worse.

Instead, as soon as the movie began, and that Spanish Version of My Back Pages started playing to bomb explosions and imagery of a future gone wrong, I realize: I'm going to like this movie.

First, the plot, far too incredible to really explain here (And it sort of depends on your point of view anyways) is very creative in that it conveys an incredible amount of symbolism. On one hand, this is a movie that mocks rock music (Think of the scene where Uncle Sweetheart tells Fate "You're gonna play rock and roll get rich launch your career and bring world peace all at the same time!") On the other hand, this could be Dylan's way of telling us who he really is. "Maybe I'm just a singer and nothing more" he tells us. He's tired of being made to be a counter cultural liberal protester. He's tired of people who think he only writes anti-war songs. Think of the scene where a woman brings her daughter to see Dylan. When Dylan learns that the little girl knows all his lyrics he asks "What'd she do that for?" And the mother quickly responds "Because I made her." This movie is about so many things: You just have to see it and every time you see it again you'll see more.

Concerning the dialogue. Many people say the dialogue is contrived, banal, or mindlessly poetic. To such people I reccomend they read Shakespeare (He's in the alley). Dylan has been hailed as a modern Shakespeare, so it is not wonder that this movie has the same beautiful poetry that his songs do.

But I will grant this: Bad actors would never be able to pull off this script. And this was probably the movie's strongest feature: Incredible acting. John Goodman deserves an Emmy for his portrayal of the scheming Uncle Sweetheart. Val Kilmer shocked me with his ability to portray the crazed Animal Wrangler. Jessica Lange gave the best performance of her career. The list goes on... Mickey Rourke, Ed Harris, Christian Slater, all surprised me with brilliant acting.

If you have the chance to see this movie, just once, do so. And forgive its few shortcomings-- it was made on short notice, and its messages were meant to transcend all imperfections for movie rookie director Larry Charles. This movie will probably be forgotten one day, which is unfortunate, because rarely is a movie this original.

There was a time when music mattered, and the people that made that music mattered too. Bob Dylan was one of those people. Dylan has floated in and out of the public eye over the years, but has made somewhat of a return with the release of his 2001 album Love and Theft. He has tried to increase his current comeback, and extend his hand into another form of art, by written and staring in a new film.

Masked and Anonymous is good no matter what your opinion of Bob Dylan may be. For Dylan fans this is a tour de force of film making. Written like a Dylan epic tune, think Desolation Row, Masked stays just out of reach of the explainable. Coupled with great cameos, Val Kilmer is far and away the best of many, Masked delivers. John Goodman and Jeff Bridges hold supply the majority of the nessecary acting with Luke Wilson helping out on occasion. However this is the Wilson of Old School, and a far cry from the Wilson of the Royla Tennebaums. None of that really matters, however, because this film was made for Bob Dylan, and he is the single most important character on screen.

In Jack Fate Dylan has created a chracter that personifies his style. Fate, an aging rock star returning home for a benefit concert, symbolizes what h as become of Dylan's career as a musician. Masked isn't really the story of Bob Dylan's life, no more then any of his songs are, it can be, however, his response to what his life has been like. The story itself lacks a little and the characters are never fully defined, but like the supporting acting none of that matters. The important part of Masked and Anonymous, and the only reason it was ever made, is Bob Dylan. Taken that way, Masked and Anonymous is a truly excellent, and original, piece of film.

A puzzling, very dark, far-fetched and totally abstract political satire that is revealed through the film's dialogue and the contents in the 7 songs of Dylan's Jack Fate. Fate (supposedly to be a pun?), a faded (looks kind of jaded in his looks,too!) cult-singer gets out of prison to play at a benefit concert for the victims of wars. Fate performs with a band, called Twist of Fate. The film offers an ‘Armageddon' view of an artist's loss of creative freedom to a consumer-consumed corrupted and politically-correct society. Will Fate forgo his freedom of artistic expressions to satisfy the commercial ideals of the corporate world. The themes of government corruption, female deceit, and the need for a messiah are also constantly evoked. It's Fate's concept of a world of madness and perfidy, and the corruption of society. There doesn't seem to be any plot in this film, but it sure feels like it does have loads of messages to pass on! The location (with ‘science-fiction' landscapes of a crumbling society) may be "Somewhere in America" - a notice, at the beginning, seems to suggest so. There are unexplainable groups, rioting or carrying out terrorist acts or even military operations. There are canvas images of a dictator-like "President" (a reminder of Saddam Hussein?) scattered in between scenes. Is the location totalitarian? The film does imply that the location has nothing positive to offer – bringing to mind the Orwellian Dystopia! The viewer does get to see this location turn into a police state.

The relationship between all characters, except for that between Fate and Luke Wilson's Bobby Cupid, seem cold and ugly. Art vs. commerce is metaphorically represented by the roles of John Goodman and Jessica Lange. There are several references to contemporary news. Giovanni Ribisi plays a confused man eager to join the insurgents, and discovers their funding is by the government they are hoping to topple. Perhaps, a John Walker Lindh? Jeff Bridges plays an aggressive journalist. "I'm on your side," he tells Jack. Jack responds with: "That depends on your point of view." Take heed of the wisdom of Ed Harris' blackfaced ‘Al Jolson' minstrel-show character – to avoid Fate's fate! The film's finale occurs as a result of a ‘Pretender' presiding over the location. That strikes me as the most powerful ending I've seen this year!

It's a complex film that cries for opinionated answers – even harder to analyze than Jean-Luc Godard's ‘60s movie or Fellini's La Dolce Vita – or even Mulholland Drive! One would see it as a brilliant attempt, or hate it without any ‘buts'!

I actually hated the movie at the end of it, but given time, discussion and re-thinking, I've found this film excitingly interesting and clever!

yes, this is a film about cousin bob. this is the authorized bio of captain Dylan...most of the humor, the comedy of it is centered around the archetypes of humanity dying to know or, believing to know this man they want to know. hardcore Dylan fans have come out to say a resounding 'no'. and why not? when was this man ever pegged down? every actor is endowed with great lines and greater motivation, the screenplay is awesome for an actor: there is a deleted scene where goodman tells Wilson about Alexander the great that is, like most scenes, profound but hilarious--it is a tight rope to walk. and in the background of that scene, there is again the vision of the giant rabbit. it's quite possible that the logic of this film confounds more than a few because it is expected to make sense like the sense we have been relying on for centuries... but sense was never really established concretely. the pitfall of this film is to expect something from it, to not realize the little things: Luke Wilson says 'the glass is always empty, so is the place where the money should be.' ribisi's speech on changing sides; goodman says later to Dylan 'i'm on your side' and Dylan counters 'you have to be born on my side, sweetheart', dylans lines about what cows can digest. and this film is chock full of wonderful, little things... mickey roarkes speech after the president dies, the montage of friend grilling fate, they are all hysterical, the whole script is so dead on, you cannot hold back the laughter. this is a tragic comedy if ever there was one. if one were to witness the last of a species, a specimen that had never been seen before, it would appear strange and without a base, a reason; this film is that. every character is carefully written, carefully acted to breathe life into the archetypes they represent and they all want something from fate and they use whatever wiles they have to get it, but fate does nothing but let them choose their fates, respectively. he is the thing they want and cannot have. the thing, that if only they could nail it down, it could be done and buried. but fate says he has a few songs left. the story of his life, right?

Sure, Masked and Anonymous (or M&A, as I fondly like to call it) is convoluted and pretentious. Sure, it has ridiculously banal dialogue that makes Forrest Gump sound like an intellectual. Sure, there are preposterously-named characters (Jack Fate, Tom Friend, Uncle Sweetheart, et al) and let's face it, no one actually has a coherent conversation throughout the entire proceeding. But it's not predictable - that counts for something in my book, anyway, and it has Bob Dylan (looking more and more like Salvador Dali in every scene - all he needed was the mustache wax), and Jeff Bridges always rocks. Here's the bottom line for me, though: any film that has a bearded, bare-armed and derangedly disheveled Val Kilmer deliver the title phrase (while fondling a bunny rabbit) can't be all bad.