Masked and Anonymous
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Movie Reviews of Masked and Anonymous
Movie Review: Dylan Movie
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a very odd and confusing movie. There's alot of good people in it. But this movie is valuable because of Dylan's singing performances and getting his image on film once again. Mostly this is for the true Dylan fan, which I am.Movie Review: the levee breaks.
Summary: 5 Stars
trip'd out film, cameo by cheech marin. a cast of heavyweights, a bit verbose at times but for all the right reasons. highly recommended.Movie Review: Don't miss it!
Summary: 5 Stars
It's the feel-good hit of the summer!!!Movie Review: "A Sci-Fi, Film Noir, Spaghetti Western," Surrealistic Film!
Summary: 4 Stars
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
Movie Review: Bob Dylan Rising
Summary: 4 Stars
Director Larry Charles works a lot on HBO producing and writing comedy. This film was a pet project for him, and somehow he recruited a plethora of excellent people to be involved in what became a clunky movie. It is a very dark Sci-Fi/Musical/Adventure/Comedy. It is part political allegory, and part fairy tale--with a healthy dash of rock video for zest.
Bob Dylan is the pivotal character, and gets the most screen time. I can't get over how much he is looking like a short Vincent Price these days, what with his thin haggard face and pencil thin goatee. Dylan is getting a lot of press these days, since Martin Scorsese released the new documentary on him--shown first on PBS, and released immediately in DVD.
The world of the near distant future seems to be a mess--rife with revolution and anarchy. The president of the US, who looks like a Central American dictator reject, is dying of a social disease secondary to his pedophilia. Bob Dylan is supposed to be his prodigal son--who once had a career as protest rock star (some stretch for Dylan), and who has been cooling his heels in a filthy prison as a political prisoner.
The film swarms with big stars doing cameos and small roles. It is the kind of independent small film that might have been a real classic, but has ended up a poorly edited mish-mash. Yet, having said that, I wouldn't be surprised if some day it reached a kind of cult status for its use of Bob Dylan and all those stars--kind of a grand and noble close call to greatness--a film almost impossible to fully comprehend--a plot almost too silly to reflect. Yet a movie that stays with you, irritating your intellect.
John Goodman rants and raves as a sleezy con man promoter. Jessica Lange looks great as his producer partner, although her dialogue makes very little sense. Giovanni Ribissi had a nice scene as a burned out freedom fighter. Jeff Bridges plays a burned out alcoholic reporter, who carries a gun, and gets beat up a lot--after spouting divers non-sequiters and poetry. Penelope Cruz wanders about lost as his religious zealot, ex-whore girlfriend--crossing herself hundreds of times just prior to and following all the scenes she is in. Mickey Rourke plays a gangster White House Chief of Staff, who takes over the country once the President dies. He is supposed to be a childhood friend of Dylan's--a foundling that El Presidente raised and kept beside him. Christian Slater and Chris Penn play philosophizing stage hands who do a poor imitation of a Greek Chorus--and mostly stand around with their arms crossed, looking perplexed.
But Bob Dylan is the focus--if there is one. He and his band perform 8 or 10 songs, and it is fun to watch him and listen to him--although he mumbles so much half of the lyrics are lost--even to the engineers who struggled to make them audible. This film will entertain you, and perplex you. I liked it, even though it played out like a rough cut, and the religious existential apocalyptic images do not mesh well. Give it a look for yourself.