Set in a strange Latinized, banana republic America, masked and anonymous is as odd as you might expect from the combined creative efforts of Larry Charles, who came to fame as a writer on the epitomy of the big nothing, Seinfeld, and Bob Dylan (who co-wrote besides starring). The country is engulfed in a corrupt, eviscerated national gang war where no one can walk in a straight line or deliver one.
Because this is a Dylan movie, nearly all the parts are played by name, or at least recognizable, actors: Jeff Bridges, Penelope Cruz, Bruce Dern, Jessica Lange, Christian Slater, Chris Penn, Luke Wilson, Cheech Marin, Angela Bassett, Steven Bauer, Ed Harris, Val Kilmer, Fred Ward, Robert Wisdom and Tracy Walter.
The movie uses many of Dylan’s own songs, sung by him, sometimes by others, some even in other languages–Dylan plays a lost and now found ’60s singer named Jack Fate, pulled out of prison to be the star of a benefit concert put on by Goodman and Lange that no name star in masked‘s America is willing to play. Though unspecified higher ups require Jack to play a set filled with songs about rebellion and revolution, such as The Beatles’ Revolution, The Who’s Won’t Get Fooled Again, Elvis’s Jailhouse Rock; of course he performs none of them, the closest is his own Blowin’ in the Wind. Finally, Fate is the son of the country’s (dying) dictator though only he and a select few (seem to) know this.
Plenty of the dialog surely sounds like it could be Dylan lyrics. “Sometimes when I dream my dreams become my reality,” said Giovanni Ribisi. “Imagine yourself being reincarnated in the civil war in Babylon,” said John Goodman (who looks more like a whale than any famous mainstream actor since Marlon Brando in The Score). “The seeds won’t grow if you plant them on the carpet, or the hardwood floor,” says Jessica Lange. Hell, Wilson beats Bridges to death with an old bluesman’s acoustic guitar!
The big question is does Bob Dylan act in this film or just walk through it? To me that isn’t terribly meaningful–hasn’t he been acting out in public since the earliest days of his career?
recommended
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