Masked and Anonymous (2003)

Very well executed

Don't listen to the negative reviews

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

In a dystopian Latin-American future, cynical has-been rock star Jack Fate (really? Is that the best name you could come up with?) supplies the soundtrack to revolution, which is not televised, and isn't a real revolution anyway.You may remember the first time you ever heard one of Dylan's classic songs, and began to realise that it didn't matter that it made no sense. The point was just to let it wash over you and grin inwardly at the sharp sardonic points, the clever bad rhymes and the surreal metaphors. M&A is like that with moving pictures and stunt casting. Jessica Lange is the best, John Goodman (doing his usual crooked hard-drinkin' hustler shtick) is the worst. Bob himself is best when performing with the band, but if you remember that he was (only!) 60 when this was made, it's surprising how tired and frail he looks and sounds. No Bob, we don't like it when your singing sounds like you're going to cough something up, even if you do. And he still can't act, or should that be 'doesn't bother to act'? Masked and Anonymous is fun for Dylan fans and cameo-spotters - what more could a Dylan fan want? Just don't expect to be spoon-fed.

In MASKED AND ANONYMOUS, the 2003 movie by Larry Charles. Bob Dylan plays Jack Fate, a singer who is bailed out of jail (for an unspecified crime) by a couple of promoters, Sweetheart and Nina (John Goodman and Jessica Lange), to play a benefit concert (again unspecified) in an unnamed country. I felt that it was Central American country. Maybe like Nicaragua or Honduras. A dictatorship where the President is on his deathbed and parties are lurking for a takeover. Fate seems to know them all. Fate is hounded by a reporter, Tom Friend (Jeff Bridges) and aided by one of his close friends Bobby Cupid (Luke Wilson). There are various cameos by some rather famous actors, probably friends of Dylan and Charles who just wanted to be a part of the movie. Most of the action takes place in a large convention hall with a stage and a trailer for the 'promoters' , managers and band. Dylan and his band play tunes from his album 'Time Out of Mind' and various others from over the years.I imagined that Larry Charles left it to Bob Dylan to provide dialogue. Well, I felt like this was a memoir, travelogue. Bob Dylan has been around the world a few times, had the ear of and listened to many people, including more than a few politicians. I felt like the characters were composites of these people. Sweetheart and Nina, the business people, Tom Friend the press. The President and and his successor Edmund seemed be the politicians. I bet more than a few asked Dylan's advice. And of course he got to address you and me. And such music! Above all Bob Dylan is a master musician.

Bob Dylan is the greatest singer songwriter in musical history, but he's never been much of an actor and here he makes no attempt at all, mumbling his few lines, his expression immutable and Keaton-esque throughout. This is very much his film and this performance sets the tone: there's no plot, no comprehensible message, and it's all very dull. A big cast of solid actors, doubtless keen to appear alongside the great man, do their best, but even usually dependable performers like John Goodman and Jeff Bridges seem lost.The only hilight is the songs. Dylan's voice is ravaged now, but he still brings his magic with every word. Alas that magic is diminished here by his latest affectation of delivering great songs like 'John Wesley Harding' and 'The Times They are A-Changing' in a melody-free monotone.In the words of the master: "What's probably got you baffled more; Is what this thing here is for. It's nothing." (I Shall be Free No 10, Another Side of Bob Dylan, 1964).Move along, folks. There's nothing to see here.

OK, where to start? Depending on your disposition or frame of mind, this will either strike you as something brilliant or a complete waste of time. Maybe it could be both, I'm not sure. For one thing, it would help greatly if you've lived the last half century to get some takeaway from the picture. Dylan made his bones in the turbulent Sixties with songs that questioned dubious politics, war and even life itself. But what was the substance of his message? Most of the time he couldn't tell you because he was making music, music that reached out and conveyed an ethereal quality that was blowin' in the wind somewhere. Fans would get hung up on the meaning of an album cover when it was just an album cover. Sometimes it didn't get any deeper than that, but there was this hunger for some meaningful introspection that just wasn't there."Masked and Anonymous" is like that. With a backdrop of various Dylan tunes ("All of the songs are recognizable, even if they're not recognizable" - Uncle Sweetheart), the story meanders along hinting at a flash-point when the revolutionaries will turn everything upside down. But the fact is, everything's upside down anyway. Dylan himself looks like a Central American dictator, often back-dropped by characters looking like John Paul II, Ghandi and Abe Lincoln. The supporting cast is formidable, but they all seem to be in different movies. Of the bunch, Val Kilmer is brilliant as a visionary animal wrangler who deftly handles a poisonous coral snake and pretends to kill a rabbit. That it was a White Rabbit might have been another subtle attempt to bridge the past with the present, but then again, it might not.The one thing I can unquestionably say I enjoyed about the picture was Dylan's rendition of 'Dixie' - very cool. I groaned slightly when the young girl did 'The Times They are a Changin' because it was so expected. I think though, if Dylan really wants to tell us something, he should just come out and say it.