Masked and Anonymous
2003 film directed by Larry Charles
Masked and Anonymous is a 2003 drama film directed by Larry Charles. The film was written by Larry Charles (as Sergei Petrov) and Bob Dylan (as Rene Fontaine). It stars Dylan alongside a star-heavy cast, including John Goodman, Jeff Bridges, Penélope Cruz, Val Kilmer, Mickey Rourke, Jessica Lange, Luke Wilson, Angela Bassett, Bruce Dern, Cheech Marin, Ed Harris, Chris Penn, Steven Bauer, Giovanni Ribisi, Michael Paul Chan, Christian Slater, and Fred Ward.
Plot
An iconic rock legend, Jack Fate (Dylan), is bailed out of prison to perform a one-man benefit concert for a decaying future North American society. The film touches on many subjects, from the futility of politics to the confusion of loosely strung government conspiracies, to the chaos created by both anarchy and Nineteen Eighty-Four-styled totalitarianism. It further reflects on life, dreams, and God's place in a seemingly increasingly chaotic world.
Fate makes it clear that he "was always a singer and maybe no more than that". He produces no solutions to any of the problems the film presents. Rather, he clarifies that he "stopped trying to figure everything out a long time ago".
Cast
Pre-production
In the late 1990s, Dylan was allegedly inspired by the films of Jerry Lewis and decided he wanted to write and star in a slapstick television show for the HBO network.
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q969428. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2003.
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This entry incorporates text from “Masked and Anonymous” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.