|   Masked and Anonymous | JazzHead
Jul 24, 2003 8:28 AM | | Saw it last night. Still don't know what to think. Dylan, who (allegedly) co-wrote the thing, plays a faded, but legendary singer-songwriter - in short, a version of himself, going by the name Jack Fate. The United States has devolved into a violent nation in a constant state of rebellion and counterrebellion, presided over by a distant and dying despot. Jack is released from prison to perform at a dubious war benefit concert pulled together by a sleazy pair of promoters played by John Goodman (channeling Dylan's former manager Albert Goodman) and Jessica Lange. Hijinks ensue.
I guess the best way to describe the movie is that it tries to be the cinematic equivalent of one of the Bobster's surreal story-songs, a la "Desolation Row," "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands," "Brownsville Girl," etc. It's full of non-sequiturs, puns, odd images and inscrutable characters (the concert bill includes a ventriloquist, a stongman carrying a legless fortuneteller, and three guys dressed up like Mohandas K. Gandhi, Pope John Paul II, and Abraham Lincoln). Dylan/Fate probably sums it up best when he observes that it's not what things mean that matters, it's what they don't mean. He spares no one, including himself - an especially funny scene has several characters listening to Dylan/Fate and his band perform "Drifter's Escape" and trying to make sense of it.
Unfortunately, the whole enterprise is poorly shot, edited, and paced. The focus is noticeably adjusted during some scenes; the camera occasionally moves as though someone bumped into the cameraman; and a couple of extended monologues are edited together from single lines and phrases, some repeated, with little concern about continuity of lighting or placement of characters (this spoils an otherwise wonderfully bizarre cameo by Val Kilmer as an animal lover who makes PETAheads look like the souls of reason). These may have been conscious artistic choices, but on the screen, they just look amateurish.
The undisputed highlight is the music. Dylan and his band perform about a half-dozen numbers on screen, including a stunning version of Stephen Foster's "Dixie," and the underscore contains a host of oddball interpretations of Dylan tunes (the first one heard is a Japanese-language rendition of "My Back Pages.")
Zimmy's acting is blessedly limited, for the most part, to reacting wordlessly to the ravings of other characters. He does seem to take a sly pleasure in his thespic shortcomings, delivering some of his lines in a dry monotone that underscores their twisted wit. Most of the time, he mumbles, swallows, and otherwise butchers the little dialogue given to him.
Strong and colorful supporting cast - Goodman, Lange and Kilmer; Jeff Bridges (looking in his first scene like the reincarnation of The Dude from "Big Lebowski") and Penelope Cruz as a lowlife journalist and his frightened girlfriend; and Chris Penn and Christian Slater as two stage electricians who would function as a Greek chorus if they had some more screen time. Luke Wilson is the only remotely sympathetic character, an old friend of Fate's who stands by, and up for, the singer. Giovanni Ribisi has a cameo as a confused soldier/rebel who can't make up his mind as to which side he is on. He also functions as Exposition Guy when, sitting in the rear seat of a bus with the just-released Fate, he explains the history of the ongoing civil war to the latter. Dylan, for his part, just sits there with a bemused and slightly bored look.
Dylan fans will probably want to check this out, if only for the musical performances. Anyone else, well... hard to say. The whole enterprise came off to me as something of a vanity project/in-joke, though a vastly preferable one compared to, say, "Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back."
peace,
jh. |
| Jay and Silent Bob was a Classic!!!! | Worf101
Jul 28, 2003 8:52 AM | | No, I'm kidding... thanks for the review. They've been pretty savage on this film all across the board. I guess between Madonna and Dylan, Hollywood will never give a musician another dime to make a film...
Yipes...
Thanks for the warning...
Da Worfster |
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