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.

I note that few other reviewers, if any, have connected the title to the movie. It is an apt description and a foretelling. The intentions are masked and anonymous, and it is up to us, the viewers, to unveil our own reality and interpretation of the movie.It is a series of vignettes strung together with and by Dylan, whose character walks through the chaos of the darkly futuristic and collapsed USA, largely unscathed and seemingly unaffected by the pandemonium and violence around him.He serves as a catalyst and MC - an enigmatic music legend who keeps coming back. In other words, he acts like Bob Dylan! Of course, he has a secret, he is the son of the current dictator, seemingly disowned by his father; he is a prince estranged from the land that would be his if he chose. He does not. He neither embraces nor combats it. He exists both below and above it.It has been said that the movie plays like a Dylan song. Perhaps it does. And if so, it will be fluid in meaning, and will change with each viewing and viewer. Not great as a movie, but good as an experience, and a must for Dylan fans.

Get in the right frame of mind to watch this movie. Bob Dylan has a unique ability for understatement, while at the same time doing broad irony. Here he stays in character. At least he looks right at the camera. Like a Dylan song. Don't look for the standard movie structure. Much seems to be about the doing rather then the getting it done. It's great fun watching the characters. They never looked better then in this film. Bob always attracted the best backing group. And then there's the music. It's the songs that make little sense that really set the tone. Those who don't get it never will. While it's not Dylan's greatest moment, it still holds interest since it's born of his determination and the draw of his energy.

The "mask" could be Dylan's face so stoically does he hold his expression. And the "anonymous" could be any tin horn banana republic dictator. As The Who phrased it years ago: "The new boss, just like the old boss." The surprising thing about this film is how good it is. Clearly experimental in form (which often equals boring) Masked and Anonymous is instead a fascinating work of art with outstanding performances amid a meandering chaos replete with cunning little speeches that defy analysis. I was not really surprised to learn that credited screenwriter "Sergei Petrov" is really Bob Dylan. Kudos to him and to "Rene Fontaine" (actually Larry Charles of "Seinfeld" fame) for coming up with this little gem.However I have to say that without Dylan's music and the fine cast this could have been an unmitigated disaster.One of the things I love about Bob Dylan is the intensity. It's always there. He never stops. It's as though the next lyric will be the line to end all lines (pun intended) or that the next musical hook will exhaust the music.Like Emily Dickinson he invented a new kind of poetry that confounded the poetic establishment and confused academia. When I first heard Dylan's lyrics in the sixties referred to as poetry, I was an undergraduate at UCLA and thought (apparently along with Carl Sandburg): this ain't poetry. It's all clichés. And it is. But what Bob Dylan did was to use the phrases and the clichés and the rhythms of our world as the poet uses words. The clichés became the building blocks of his poems. And of course they filled his head to overflowing, echoing and ricocheting around in his mind like the wares of Quinn the Eskimo running all around his brain. And they had to get out, and he tossed them out with tune after tune and a lyric to string them together, and he ended up writing some of best poetry of the latter half of the 20th century. But of course his poetry, like that of all song writers does not stand entirely alone without its music. Still his phrases that look into our soul and chronicle our times are as indelible as the color of our skin. It is no coincidence that in the age of the soundbite, Dylan wrote his poems in soundbites.Like the 19th century academics who wanted to edit Emily Dickinson's poetry and improve her meter and adjust her "imperfect" (slant) rhymes and normalize her punctuation, the academic world of the 20th century wanted to get Dylan to eschew cliché. But what they missed is the poet knows the language better than they and his clichés are in the modules of our minds. They are the wings of the zeitgeist and the linguist's meme.Goodman was perfect as Uncle Sweetheart who might be a deeply buried persona of Dylan with his cryptic one-liners and his desolation soul, his corrupted heart and his huge appetite for life. And Jessica Lange was also excellent as were the cameos by all sorts of name actors appearing on stage to confront a stoic Dylan. In a way they were intriguing and perhaps nothing more than that. Like Shakespearean players they came and had their time upon the stage and were heard no more.Yes, this film seems to signify in the final analysis not much, but, isn't that the point of life: there is no point. Life is that tale by an idiot signifying nothing.Here's a nice string of quotes from the cynic, Jack Fate, Dylan's alter ego: "I was always a singer and maybe no more than that. Sometimes it's not enough to know the meaning of things, sometimes we have to know what things don't mean as well...Things fall apart...The way we look at the world is what we really are. See it from a fair garden and everything looks cheerful. Climb to a higher plateau and you'll see plunder and murder. Truth and beauty are in the eye of the beholder...I don't pay much attention to my dreams...I stopped trying to figure everything out a long time ago..." I have only one criticism of this film: I wish there had been a lot more of the hauntingly beautiful Penelope Cruz.(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)