Masked and Anonymous
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Movie Reviews of Masked and Anonymous
Movie Review: A Masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
You would probably have to go back to early Godard to find a movie as audacious, shockingly funny and brilliantly incisive in its analysis of the uneasy alliance between art and commerce as the sci-fi/film noir/spaghetti-western/Shakespearean musical-tragicomedy, Masked and Anonymous, the new movie from Bob Dylan and Larry Charles. As with some Godard, I can't say whether it's a comedy or a tragedy - but it's definitely a masterpiece.To direct the Hollywood cast to speak in the script's poetic, ornate language could not have been easy but the actors do an exemplary job. Nearly all of them manage to hit just the right note of cartoonish hysteria to give the film a sense of unity and harmony. Except, that is, for Bob Dylan. His character, Jack Fate, is the calm in the eye of the storm, the one rational character surrounded by a world of swirling insanity and director Charles gets a lot of comic mileage out of the contrast
between Dylan's deadpan delivery and the over-the-top performances of nearly everyone else; it's like taking a Humphrey Bogart character out of the '40's and plunking him down in the middle of a massively absurd science-fiction landscape - the resignation and world-weariness of the film noir hero remains hilariously intact. The very idea is inspired and the execution is flawless.
The performance footage of course is terrific. Dylan and His Band play eight songs live on camera and there is a warmth, an intimacy and a relaxed quality to the performances that you will only see at Dylan's best club shows. Although none of the songs are heard in their entirety, these sequences are nonetheless beautifully filmed. There is none of the rapid-fire editing and pointlessly roving camera that mars the filmed footage of so many live musical performances. Instead, Charles' strategy is to have the band crowd together and film them in close-up with a wide-angle lens. There are numerous long takes in which all of the band members can be seen and when the camera does move, it's deliberate and meaningful.
In a recent interview, Larry Charles said he never worried about
finding a distributor for the film and that Dylan had told him long ago not to worry about the film "in the short term." However the film _is_ received in the short term, the richly orchestrated tapestry of sound and image that is Masked and Anonymous is sure to keep Dylanologists and film fans alike busy for decades.
Movie Review: amazing film
Summary: 5 Stars
It's definitely not for everyone, but "Masked and Anonymous" is one of the most original films I've ever seen, and terrific on a number of levels. Admittedly, Bob Dylan is no actor, but his acting "method" (such as it is) is perfect for this role, that of a legendary, mysterious musical artist with a mysterious past, who has been released from prison (why he's there, we do not know) to perform a "benefit" concert. Dylan is a wraith, a cypher, the proverbial walking, talking mystery wrapped in a riddle wrapped in an enigma.The picture is an eerie, uncanny look at an America turned into a banana republic, a dictatorship embroiled in civil unrest and civil war, seemingly with no "good guys." (No doubt, this is the America we have to look forward to if we allow the Bush regime to hang on to power much longer, but that's another story for another time.)
The movie is chock full of memorable dialog and images, and outstanding performances by John Goodman, Jessica Lange and a host of others (Val Kilmer has an amazing, out of character cameo appearance). Bonus points for Dylan fans include little inside jokes and references (Dylan's character's name is Jack Fate, and the Jack Fate tribute band he hooks up with is called "Simple Twist of Fate," a song from his classic "Blood on the Tracks" album).
Then there's the music - I hope that this band tours with Dylan someday (they may well already have, I haven't seen him in concert in a number of years). Great, unexpected performances ("Dixie," which doesn't seem like it would be appropriate at all, is very haunting).
I repeat - this movie is not for everyone. For one thing, if you haven't seen or heard Dylan in years, you may be in for a shock. (Though, given that he's now over 60 years old, he doesn't look or sound too bad really.)
More importantly, this film is equal parts Fellini and Scorsese, with a healthy dose of David Lynch thrown in for good measure. It's easy to see why this movie was oftentimes panned by mainstream critics, and generally ignored by mainstream audiences. But Larry Charles has crafted an amazing, unique and criminally overlooked vision with "Masked and Anonymous."
Movie Review: Simple Twist of Fate
Summary: 5 Stars
To see this movie is to somewhat see another side of the enigmatic and mysterious Bob Dylan. A Dylan who has put up with the harshness of critics for 40 years. A Dylan, who like his namesake Jack Fate in the movie, who has been never been forgotten and has many loyal friends, followers, and fans. A Dylan who, like Fate, is released from the man built prison but must struggle to be free from the walls that life has built up to keep him down, to hold back the waters of the floodgates of the thoughts in his mind. Bob Dylan is a genius. And this movie helps to prove that. Too many movies nowadays try to push sex and violence to entertain forgetting that there are a few people whose intelligence is not turned on by a fast high speed car crash. This is a thinking man movie.
With an all star cast the plot line centers on John Goodman as a sleazy promoter(imagine that)named Uncle Sweetheart who is putting on a benefit concert to help support the poor people of an unnamed country which has been torn apart by corruption, wicked politics, rebel uprisings, and much violence.(Sounds like most countries today) Of course Sweetheart's main goal is to pay off his bad debts. Dylans character, Jack Fate, is freed from a prison to perform at the concert. Fate must deal with the sleaze that surrounds the benefit as well as wrestle with the demons of his past and reconcile with his father,the president of the country, who is on his deathbed. He must also deal with a hardcore drunken reporter whos last name is Friend but he is anything but. The questions he ask Fate are very well related to things Dylan has had to deal with throughout his career.
This movie features great acting, a well thought out story line if you get it, and excellent music as Dylan performs several updated versions of his great masterpieces live in the film with his band, the tightest back up band ever!
The movie shows Dylan as a natural at acting, makes several points that can ring home and that most anyone can relate to. This is a must for any Dylan fan and without giving away the ending, all I can say is it's a simple twist of fate!
Movie Review: Powerful, Poetic
Summary: 5 Stars
I watched this film probably six times before I arrived at a decision. I knew the first time, that I liked the movie, but I didn't know what the heck happened.
If you're a Bob Dylan fan, and you KNOW his lyrics, you're going to love the film. Bob isn't an actor; he's a poet and a great singer. Get over that. Nobody liked his voice the first time they heard it, but they came around when they realized they agreed with the things he said. Well, give him another chance and stick around to agree with the things that are said here.
The plot is mildly confusing the first couple of times. There's some unexplained war going on and not until you realize that the fact you don't know why there's a war, is a powerful statement, will you be able to overcome that step of the plot. It's an anonymous war, people are fighting and dying and nobody knows why. There's a line in the film, early on, where a character says "The last person that knew what they were fighting for died long ago."
This is like a two hour version of one of bob's better songs.
How many times do you listen to a song before you realize you've gone and fallen in love? If you watch this movie once and toss it aside, you need to suck it up and watch it like a poetic piece of art not like a Saturday night movie at home.
And the cinematography, breathtakingly beautiful. Stunning, dramatic and powerful stuff here with camera angles and lighting and just... everything.
And talk about an all star cast, not since Basquiat have I been so pleasantly surprised by familiar faces and wonderful performances.
Ed Harris, Giovanni Ribisi, John Goodman, Luke Wilson, Jeff Bridges, Christian Slater, Angela Bassett, Jessica Lange, Penelope Cruz, Mickey Rourke, just to name a few!!
To top it all off there are about five or six full length Bob Dylan songs to be heard.
Watch this movie. If you don't want to buy it, come over and watch it with me any night of the week.
Movie Review: Dylan as Virgil in the inferno of postmodern society
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a an ambitious film. It is dense with metaphor and allusion throughout, and I was left feeling that I comprehended a mere fraction. Repeated viewings would doubtless be rewarding, and I plan to watch it again, preferably with folks who know more about the history of the blues. Dylan is the "simple" bard making his way through an apocalyptic society torn by dictatorship, corruption, and civil war -- a contemporary Hell. (The sets have a prescient and eerie resemblance to footage coming out of Iraq.) If Dylan is Virgil, it is by virtue of the songs themselves, poetic ballads that address the profound questions, yet whose significance, as Dylan comments at the end of the film, remains in the eyes of the beholder. Hearing the songs covered by other artists provides a fresh window on their brilliance, and there is a little girl who will break your heart with her georgeously-phrased a cappella version of "The Times They Are A-Changin'." There are also some spectacular Pynchon-like stream of consciousness monologues by a cadre of talented actors on various themes, often punctuated at the end by a cryptic/irreverent/oracular comment from Dylan. I was entertained by the juxtaposition of silly humor, which in some instances resonated with the more nuanced literary points, such as the leopard joke ("What did the monkey say to the leopard at the card game? I thought you were a cheetah.")which nevertheless evokes the leopard Dante encounters in the first canto of The Inferno. And unlike some other reviewers, I found Dylan's acting pretty natural, and got the sense he actually did lay it on the line with respect to his personal viewpoint. This is not to say the film is a total success -- but rather even where it veers into obscure digression and fails to engage the audience, it fails nobly by aspiring to be all that film can be.