Masked and Eponymous

ROLLING THUNDER: A BOB DYLAN FILM BY MARTIN SCORSESE (C+) - I can't give a passing grade to a fogeyish prank. This excavation of footage from Bob Dylan's monumental tour of 1975-76 through the northeast portion of post-Watergate America doesn't need embellishment. In fact, it needs as much footage as possible from Dylan and his troupe of merry pranksters during, arguably, the height of Dylan's powers and sensibilities.

Instead, Dylan and Martin Scorsese clutter the 143-minute excursion with faux footage and silly made-up stories. The goofs, listed and analyzed well by Variety, are embarrassing and pointless. Needless distractions. And that's a shame, because some of the footage, on stage and off, can be riveting. Scorsese, to his credit, gives us a few full songs, including the epic "Isis." Dylan seems possessed when onstage, his eyes burning with a punk-era conviction.

But the flab here cannot be ignored. As a curator, Scorsese is guilty of cinematic malpractice. Dylan, who has been pranking us all ever since he left Minnesota and Robert Zimmerman behind nearly 60 years ago, oversees the fakery sans a wink or wit. By the midpoint, you can't tell what is true and what is not, and you probably won't care. Dylan, however, doesn't mind being slathered with praise by his cohorts, whether it was back then or in bland talking-head interviews. Check it out for the music, because it is in those moments that Dylan and his bandmates -- including the indelible violin sounds of Scarlet Rivera -- live up to the hype.

BOB DYLAN: ROADS RAPIDLY CHANGING (B-minus) - This serviceable documentary chronicle's Dylan's folk days, right up until he plugged in and let loose with "Bringing It All Back Home" in 1965. We're spared footage of Pete Seeger threatening to take a hatchet to Dylan's electrified sound at the Newport Folk Festival, in favor of some heartfelt stories from Dylan's contemporaries in the pre-Beatles New York folk scene.

One talking head, a true Dylanologist, makes the point that I've made for decades -- Dylan could very well be last century's Shakespeare. It's hard to believe that his fevered run of six albums from 1963 to '66, through "Blonde on Blonde," can ever be matched.

"Rolling Thunder" is a Netflix original, and "Roads" is streaming on Amazon Prime.