Mr. Zimmerman is back in town. If the pleasant and inoffensive "A Mighty Wind" got hammered here, I can hardly wait to see the reactions to this one!

By the end of the credits at the 6:40 show last Saturday night there were only seven of us left at one of the four theatres in the US currently playing "Masked and Anonymous." There were about ten people waiting to come in for the next showing as I left. Over at rottentomatoes.com there is only one favorable review out of eighteen.

If it doesn't achieve the rarified heights of human folly that "Renaldo and Clara" did, "Masked and Anonymous," starring and with a screenplay co-authored (under a pseudonym) by the Son of Hibbing, certainly does its bit within its two-hour timeframe.

Any film that opens with a cover of "My Back Pages" sung in Japanese can't be accused of not laying its cards on the table. Dylan actually does perform a few numbers, so maybe you'd be better off with the CD. He looks like a dessicated Richard Boone, except when standing next to John Goodman, who is so much larger that he makes Dylan look like Shirley Temple.

Dylan is Jack Fate, Goodman is Uncle Sweetheart, Luke Wilson is Bobby Cupid, Jessica Lange is Nina Veronica, Jeff Bridges is Tom Friend; with a cameo cast including Angela Bassett, Mickey Rourke, Cheech Marin, Bruce Dern, Val Kilmer and Ed Harris (in blackface).

Included are strange jokes on such things as "Mrs Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter;" the world's only Jack Fate cover band, Simple Twist of Fate; "Like a Rolling Stone" sung in Italian; and Dr. Benway from "Naked Lunch."

What's it about? Damned if I know. That, as Pagan Lace (Penelope Cruz) says, is Open to Interpretation.