Masked and Anonymous
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Movie Reviews of Masked and Anonymous
Movie Review: Dylan self-analyzes in public--but cryptically
Summary: 5 Stars
The "mask" could be Dylan's face so stoically does he hold his expression. And the "anonymous" could be any tin horn banana republic dictator. As The Who phrased it years ago: "The new boss, just like the old boss."
The surprising thing about this film is how good it is. Clearly experimental in form (which often equals boring) Masked and Anonymous is instead a fascinating work of art with outstanding performances amid a meandering chaos replete with cunning little speeches that defy analysis. I was not really surprised to learn that credited screenwriter "Sergei Petrov" is really Bob Dylan. Kudos to him and to "Rene Fontaine" (actually Larry Charles of "Seinfeld" fame) for coming up with this little gem.
However I have to say that without Dylan's music and the fine cast this could have been an unmitigated disaster.
One of the things I love about Bob Dylan is the intensity. It's always there. He never stops. It's as though the next lyric will be the line to end all lines (pun intended) or that the next musical hook will exhaust the music.
Like Emily Dickinson he invented a new kind of poetry that confounded the poetic establishment and confused academia. When I first heard Dylan's lyrics in the sixties referred to as poetry, I was an undergraduate at UCLA and thought (apparently along with Carl Sandburg): this ain't poetry. It's all cliches. And it is. But what Bob Dylan did was to use the phrases and the cliches and the rhythms of our world as the poet uses words. The cliches became the building blocks of his poems. And of course they filled his head to overflowing, echoing and ricocheting around in his mind like the wares of Quinn the Eskimo running all around his brain. And they had to get out, and he tossed them out with tune after tune and a lyric to string them together, and he ended up writing some of best poetry of the latter half of the 20th century. But of course his poetry, like that of all song writers does not stand entirely alone without its music. Still his phrases that look into our soul and chronicle our times are as indelible as the color of our skin. It is no coincidence that in the age of the soundbite, Dylan wrote his poems in soundbites.
Like the 19th century academics who wanted to edit Emily Dickinson's poetry and improve her meter and adjust her "imperfect" (slant) rhymes and normalize her punctuation, the academic world of the 20th century wanted to get Dylan to eschew cliche. But what they missed is the poet knows the language better than they and his cliches are in the modules of our minds. They are the wings of the zeitgeist and the linguist's meme.
Goodman was perfect as Uncle Sweetheart who might be a deeply buried persona of Dylan with his cryptic one-liners and his desolation soul, his corrupted heart and his huge appetite for life. And Jessica Lange was also excellent as were the cameos by all sorts of name actors appearing on stage to confront a stoic Dylan. In a way they were intriguing and perhaps nothing more than that. Like Shakespearean players they came and had their time upon the stage and were heard no more.
Yes, this film seems to signify in the final analysis not much, but, isn't that the point of life: there is no point. Life is that tale by an idiot signifying nothing.
Here's a nice string of quotes from the cynic, Jack Fate, Dylan's alter ego: "I was always a singer and maybe no more than that. Sometimes it's not enough to know the meaning of things, sometimes we have to know what things don't mean as well...Things fall apart...The way we look at the world is what we really are. See it from a fair garden and everything looks cheerful. Climb to a higher plateau and you'll see plunder and murder. Truth and beauty are in the eye of the beholder...I don't pay much attention to my dreams...I stopped trying to figure everything out a long time ago..."
I have only one criticism of this film: I wish there had been a lot more of the hauntingly beautiful Penelope Cruz.
Movie Review: For an audience bereft of political views
Summary: 5 Stars
I don't see much television or many movies, since action sequences only excite me when I have substantial reasons to link them to reality. Also, the forms of sentimentality that are more mainstream than comedy fail to connect with my sense of the world except in moments that are tearjerkers, and I don't feel that I need to spend big bucks to subject myself to that. Anyone whose main concern is for literary highs achieved by observing entertainment values might be too sympathetic to the reporter played by Jeff Bridges in this film. He strives to understand the world as whatever was making sense when Jimi Hendrix played the Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock, but Jack Fate does not play along with this by giving him a quote that any writer would be glad to share with readers. The actual events of "Masked and Anonymous" would make a poor story, even in the hands of the worn-out editor played by Bruce Dern. Jack Fate has been around long enough for a news reporter to expect some kind of response for the fall of everything, which seems more drastic in the settings of this movie than in the suburban world where people listen to recordings and might be familiar with the songs on the soundtrack of this movie.Having so many familiar songs sung in a foreign language might be a clue to how far this movie is stretching the reality assumed by the viewers most likely to appreciate these songs. Maybe this movie is trying to say that any revolution would be unworthy of the greatest songs of it age, considering how poorly revolutionary activities play on the big screen as incidents on a bus trip or in a television studio. The most unreal aspect of the movie is the attitude which all of its characters discreetly avoid saying aloud about the government, which has a president hanging onto life by a thread, while the second-in-command is itching to mess things up big time as soon as he can take charge. Jack Fate was in prison in the beginning of the movie, appearing first in a cell that might more appropriately be described as a hole, and those who convince themselves that this movie does have a plot might expect Jack Fate to be heading back to jail at the end, not on account of everything that happened, but just because of a few tiny incidents that hardly anyone was capable of believing when they saw them the first time. You might want to plan to see this movie twice, just to see if the same things keep happening after the movie as during the movie, but why wouldn't they? Well you might ask.
I didn't hear any new music in this movie, but none of the music was exactly the way I heard it the first time. I listen to my Bob Dylan albums, more to the studio versions than to live albums, but with a camera close in on the band, and a cardboard box instead of drums on some early songs, the music never had a concert sound; I love theater speakers and the music sounded like it had the audience sitting right in the middle of the band. The introduction to a few songs preceded the scene in which they started to make sense, but "Cold Irons Bound" was the song that matched the feel of the movie best. You might not consider this very entertaining. You might even find some aspect of the movie boring. My life is most boring when I am wondering if there will ever be a time and place where and when the things I think will make sense. "Masked and Anonymous" is the kind of movie where I hear a song coming as soon as the introduction gets into the soundtrack, and I can't help but feel, "It's about time; I always wanted to hear that song right now, and the movie makes it that time perfectly."
Movie Review: Art House Dylan
Summary: 5 Stars
This is rated PG-13, but it's a must for any Dylan fan. From the blurbs and reviews, one can piece together the story, so I won't recount it. It most reminds me of the Sam Shephard (sp.) plays I've seen performed and acted in. There's a bit that seems almost taken from T-Bone Burnett's Truth Decay album, and has the same intonation and delivery. There's a band that includes Charlie Sexton, who joined Dylan's band after recording two Tonio-K songs. Full of rare genius, this film has the usual suspects' fingerprints all over it.
The last three films I watched had John Goodman in them, but here he outdoes himself in a performance that may equal that in O Brother, Where Art Thou? Val Kilmer hints at hidden depths and could have excelled in a wider part. Jeff Bridges as the writer delivers a curiously muted performance. In my view, he simply doesn't have John Goodman's command of language. However, he could be playing The Big Lebowski (sp.), this so easily slips into Coen Bros. /T-Bone Burnett territory. The natural in this film, however, is Jessica Lange. Hers is an Oscar winning performance (if films like this were ever considered for Oscars).
What of Dylan? I most enjoyed watching him perform, and likely don't have the same view of that as some other reviewers. I thought he was rather forced on 'Dixie" and the other folk songs, mostly because people know how those go and expect a certain sort of rendering. But Dylan's originals are his own. There's a tremendous version of "I'll Remember You," unplugged and far slower than whatever album it appeared on. There's also one verse of "Blind Willie McTell", which is on the third disc of Bootleg Series Vol. 1-3. Also in that boxed CD set is a dazzling number called "Angelina". An instrumental version of "Angelina" plays near the end of the film, but the lyrics are never sung.
I eagerly searched for the CD soundtrack, thinking these songs would be on it, but they're not. Some critics have found this film to be pretentious and self-conscious. I found it anything but. There is some overdubbed talking, apparently in the first person by Dylan persona Jack Fate, which may fall into that category, and there is a Jeff Bridges monologue I would have edited out. Some of the Jack Fate parts sound like they could have been Dylan reading his autobiography. The actual character rarely speaks in the film, and doesn't seem too far removed from the riverboat gambler of Love and Theft. I would have liked T-Bone Burnett to have been in this film, but of course he's busy with his Coen Bros. projects, producing and, I hope, re-releasing Proof Through the Night and Trap Door for those of us who missed the Rhino limited edition release.
The photography is amazing. The iconography seems taken from the cover of the little heard Dylan album, Knocked Out Loaded, which perhaps helped inspire it. Dylan is one of the few performers at home in both French and Spanish culture. He regularly performs at the New Orleans jazz festivals, and is here at home among references to Hemmingway and other expatriates. Finally, the writing in this film is amazing. Where are you going? Jack Fate asks a fellow traveller at a bus stop. "This way," he replies. "Another good way is that way" or words to that effect. "Masked" captures Dylan in perhaps his most natural persona, and one to which many can relate, that of the wanderer. It walks into serious business indeed, without taking itself too seriously, and proves that art house need not be arty.
Movie Review: The Heroic Bob Dylan now also as a Movie Hero
Summary: 5 Stars
Masked and Anonymous (2003)
Writers: Bob Dylan (written by) &
Larry Charles (written by)
I did not know I had this movie. Sorting through old DVDs I found 5 movies starring Penelope Cruz. Then I looked more closely at the cover art - there he was - the living legend - Bob Dylan starring in a movie of his own (directed by Seinfeld director).
That was enough reason for anyone to watch this movie. Dylan starring as Jack Fate - an old forgotten heroic musician lost to the modern era. He is brought back on stage by a hustling friend (Goodman) who is organising a charity where none of the big stars want to play. Damn all LiveAids and the rest. This is in a country unknown with a war not understood at an unspecified year.
Now the fabulous star cast that bring more vigour to the solid presence of Dylan himself:
Bob Dylan ... Jack Fate
Jeff Bridges ... Tom Friend
Penélope Cruz ... Pagan Lace
John Goodman ... Uncle Sweetheart
Jessica Lange ... Nina Veronica
Luke Wilson ... Bobby Cupid
Angela Bassett ... Mistress
Steven Bauer ... Edgar
Michael Paul Chan ... Guard
Bruce Dern ... Editor
Ed Harris ... Oscar Vogel
Val Kilmer ... Animal Wrangler
Cheech Marin ... Prospero
Chris Penn ... Crew Guy #2
Giovanni Ribisi ... Soldier
They all are perfect in their characters.
I didn't recognise Mickey Rourke as the President's son and heir. But I recognised his voice of course - am a fan of that guy or rather the crazy people he plays in his movies.
So you think it is too heavily loaded with superstars to make it work?
Well the question you need to ask is :
Do you love every single Bob Dylan song he has ever written?
Affirmative!
The appeal of the movie is to people to whom his songs speak to. He sings about You, about Everyone. The movie has the same USP. And there are Dylan songs galore here even before they were released in Album format.
When the movie started with the legend's songs being covered by pop/hiphop style versions as background music I must say I was outraged. But these are good cover versions. And then of course Jack Fate (Dylan) is recruited to do the charity gig and he sings.........
Live Dylan and there are other beauties. Jessica as the stressed out media exec and Penelope as Jeff Bridges' Jesus fearing lady.
Incredible movie magic as Dylan kicks Jeff Bridges' a$$ to protect the hustler friend. Dylan floors him easily and the climax makes you ponder the futility of all Life everywhere.
There are incredible monologues in this movie. The one by Val Kilmer is an acting lesson and work of genius.
Then those by Dylan and then him reminiscing the horrible past and dead present.
Then there is that weird radio Jessica listens to which gives out News about discovering things at the Earth's crust and how hollow Earth's soul really is.
Yes Philosophy or Abstract Art - whatever you call it - its mesmerising and captivating.
Visit Wikipedia page to check out the fab music in this treasure of a movie:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masked_and_Anony mous
At IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0319829/
Movie Review: Several Reasons Why This Is A Terrific Movie
Summary: 5 Stars
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