In honor of Bob Dylan’s 85th birthday, it’s a Million Dollar Bash!
Jokermen Podcast, Folk Yeah, and the Balboa Theater present a 35mm screening of Masked & Anonymous (2003), followed by a very special live conversation between director Larry Charles and Ian Grant of Jokermen. Pre-show Dylan deep cut DJ set courtesy of 52 Gypsies.
Set in a near-future, post-revolutionary Los Angeles, Masked & Anonymous stars Dylan as Jack Fate, a forgotten rock icon hired to perform at a supposed benefit concert put on by Uncle Sweetheart (John Goodman), a manipulator of crowds, and dream twister Nina Veronica (Jessica Lange). Equal parts neo-noir, concert film, and slapstick comedy, the narrative proceeds according to its own obscure logic, like a film adaptation of “Desolation Row.” Dylan appears alongside an extraordinary cast of stars, including Jeff Bridges, Luke Wilson, Angela Bassett, Penélope Cruz, Ed Harris, Bruce Dern, Christian Slater, Giovanni Ribisi, Mickey Rourke, Cheech Marin, and the late Val Kilmer. Charles intercuts these dramatic scenes with extraordinary footage of performances by Dylan and the legendary 2002 Never Ending Tour band, widely regarded as the best group of players Dylan ever assembled.
Dismissed at the time of its release as an impenetrable piece of outsider art, Masked & Anonymous has aged as well as Dylan himself. What seemed like fantasy in 2003 reads as hard reality in 2026. Here is a world of failed states and civil wars; a world of mad kings and refugees; a world of phonies, fakers, hustlers, and artists. A damned world, in other words—but a world worth saving. Dylan and Charles ultimately offer a message of hope, one predicated on a bone-deep belief in the eternally redemptive power of rock music.
Stranger than Dont Look Back, less precious than I’m Not There, just plain better than A Complete Unknown, Masked & Anonymous is the definitive Bob Dylan motion picture. Don’t You Dare Miss It!