Masked and Anonymous

In a fictional America caught up in a civil war that is tearing the nation apart, a benefit concert is being organized. A traveling troubadour named Jack Fate is sprung from jail by his scheming former manager, Uncle Sweetheart, to headline a concert with the expectations to bring peace to a country that is entrenched by chaos, lawlessness and pandemonium.

For starters, Jack Fate is played by Bob Dylan, and Uncle Sweetheart by John Goodman. Add in stars Jeff Bridges, Penelope Cruz, Jessica Lange and Luke Wilson, and mix it with an ensemble cast of Angela Bassett, Steven Bauer, Bruce Dern, Ed Harris, Val Kilmer, Cheech Marin, Chris Penn, Giovanni Ribisi, Mickey Rourke, Richard Sarafian, Christian Slater, Susan Tyrrell, Tracey Walter, Fred Ward and Robert Wisdom, and you don’t even need an appearance by Shirley Jones as a prostitute to make it a movie!

Masked and Anonymous is the first movie Bob Dylan has done in 16 years or so, and it looks to be a little bit…strange. But that’s all right by me. I’d much rather sit through a movie trying to figure out what the hell a guy in minstrel black face, John Paul II, Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Ella the Fortuneteller and the Rubber Girl have to do with each other than snore through an hour waiting for some dude to get angry and turn green. As Dylan says in the trailer, “Sometimes it’s not enough to know the meaning of things. Sometimes we need to know what they don’t mean as well.” Besides, the soundtrack looks awesome.

It’s directed by Seinfeld’s Larry Charles, who will bring his own twisted vision to the mix, I am sure. I’m just afraid it won’t show up in any theaters around here, so I’ll have to wait for the DVD.