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By PAUL BRENNER
When I first spied a tidbit
in Variety a few years ago announcing that Bob
Dylan was to star in a film as Jack Fate, a rock
legend imprisoned in a third world jail who is
released to perform at a benefit for war victims
and that his co-stars would be Luke Wilson, John
Goodman, Jessica Lange, Jeff Bridges, Penelope
Cruz, and Val Kilmer and that the film would be
directed by Larry Charles of "Seinfeld" and "Curb
Your Enthusiasm" fame, I reacted by thinking that
it was a neat way to get a tax write off. Never
expecting this film project to see the light of
day, it was a shock to see that the film was
actually produced and made it into the theaters,
albeit for a radically short theatrical run.
Lambasted and ignored upon its release, the much
maligned "Masked and Anonymous" has finally found
a home in its DVD release by Columbia TriStar.
Expecting the worst, the reality is far from it.
"Masked and Anonymous" plays like John Sayles on
Paxil and boasts a rich, multilayered and funny
script by "Sergei Petrov and Rene Fontaine"
(pseudonyms for Dylan and Charles), an iconic and
charismatic performance by Dylan (whose deadpan is
like a cynical Buster Keaton in a Stetson) and a
rogues gallery of star turns by Goodman, Bridges,
Lange, Kilmer, Cruz, Wilson, Angela Bassett,
Mickey Rourke, and even Ed Harris in blackface;
the lesser roles are also taken by notable
Hollywood stars (in fact, I haven't seen so many
star names on a film roster since "The Greatest
Story Ever Told").
The pleasures of the film are immense. The
highlights include Goodman's introduction of
Dylan's opening act freak show made up of "a
shooting gallery of world leaders" like Mahatma
Gandhi, the Pope, and Abraham Lincoln, along with
Dali the Rubber Girl and the Great Eddie Quicksand
with Milo (if anyone recalls the album cover for
"The Basement Tapes" you will get the idea).
Dylan's delivery is also priceless (as in "You're
all skin and bones" "Aren't we all?" or "What
happened to you?" "What happened to me? How far
back do you want to go?"). Dylan also sneers out
hilariously foreboding Dylan koans like "Truth and
beauty are in the eye of the beholder," "It ain't
easy being human," and "Promises are hard to
fulfill."
Also how can a film go wrong with wall-to-wall
Dylan music? Dylan is in top form with his band,
grinding out raw-boned versions of "Cold Irons
Bound," "Down in the Flood," and "Dixie" (among
other great tunes). As if that weren't enough,
peppering the background are outré and obscure
cover versions of Dylan classics (a Japanese
version of "My Back Pages" and a Turkish version
of "One More Cup of Coffee" to name just two).
In other words, the film is a pure delight:
profound, banal, flippant, fierce, amateurish and
smoothly accomplished, frequently all at the same
time. What does the film mean? Meaning be damned.
As Dylan remarks in the film, "I stopped trying to
figure everything out a long time ago."
The DVD offers a number of special features: a
pretentious audio commentary by Charles, deleted
scenes, a featurette, and the theatrical trailer
(along with trailers for "My Life Without Me,"
Owning Mahoney," and "Laurel Canyon"). "Masked and
Anonymous" is subtitled in French and is in Dolby
Digital. |
