Masked & Anonymous

This must be one of the weirdest films in recent history. Possibly also one of the least known. I certainly didn't know it existed until I saw it playing on the screen in our local video shop. What strikes you mostly, apart from Bob Dylan's dazzling music, is the quality and number of actors in it, most of them making fun of themselves and their previous roles. Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Jessica Lange, Bruce Dern, Val Kilmer, Chris Penn, Christian Slater, Mickey Rourke, Ed Harris, Giovanni Ribisi and many more, including Dylan himself in a major role.
This is bizarre, strange and hugely entertaining most of the time. Some scenes does not make any sense whatsoever, neither in relation to the very hidden plot, nor as standalone scenes, but they do give the whole experience an unsettling quality.
In a way it is a dark, dark version of USA gone even more wrong than it has at the present time. In another way it seems like a Bob Dylan song suddenly sprung to life. The dialogue, man, the dialogue, there are some effed-up lines around, man, I tell you. A couple of examples:

"These animals can't learn anything from mankind. Man doesn't have a thing to teach 'em. Human kind disgusts me so much with their atom bombs, and blow dryers, and automobiles."

"What about, er, Hendrix? Remember...remember Hendrix at Woodstock? I'm just curious, you weren't there, were ya? You weren't at Woodstock. You weren't there with Hendrix. Why? Where were ya?"

"Do you know what really, really gets my goat, though? We always talk about race this, race that, ethnic this, ethnic that. I mean, when you come right down to it, there's really only two races: workers and bosses."

And finally, this little treat between Tom Friend (Jeff Bridges) and his girlfriend (Penelope Cruz):

Friend:
"What about the Vietnam war, huh? You ever hear of that? What if I told you it was lost in the whore houses of Saigon, instead of on the battlefield?"
Girlfriend:
"How do you know that?"
Friend (long sigh):
"Never reveal your sources."
Masked and Anonymous