Mask

1985 "They told 16 year old Rocky Dennis he could never be like everyone else. So he was determined to be better."
7.2| 2h0m| PG-13| en| More Info
Released: 08 March 1985 Released
Producted By: Universal Pictures
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

A boy with a massive facial skull deformity and his biker gang mother attempt to live as normal a life as possible under the circumstances.

Genre

Drama

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Mask (1985) is currently not available on any services.

Director

Peter Bogdanovich

Production Companies

Universal Pictures

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Mask Audience Reviews

Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.
ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.
Executscan Expected more
Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
TheBlueHairedLawyer Rocky is your average teenager; he loves baseball cards, dreams of traveling and has a loving mother. His mother's name is Rusty and she's a member of a biker gang. She's a no-nonsense, tough-as-nails woman but the exact opposite when it comes to Rocky; he's everything to her and she wants him to have every advantage to enjoy life even if other people just don't care. And one more thing... Rocky's life is supposedly on the line because he's severely deformed, with a facial skull deformity... so maybe he's not exactly your average teenager but he's no less of a person. He's extremely intelligent and kind towards everyone, and he loves his biker gang friends. After being enrolled in high school, this movie shows his complicated and dysfunctional yet adventurous and fun life, until something tragic happens that makes all people who were helped or affected by Rocky realize just how special he was.Mask is what movies today should be. When I walk past the movie theater and see titles like The Hunger Games (ugh, The Hunger Games is cr*p), I think back to powerful movies like Mask and wonder where they went. These days movies are all about cheaply making some fast cash, not telling an amazing story. Mask had actors like Cher (Cher is a singer also known for her roles in movies like Silkwood and Mermaids). Eric Stoltz did an outstanding job, one of the best acting jobs I've seen in some time (although my favorite actor is William B. Davis from The X-Files). It can't be denied that the plot of Mask is imaginative, with an original plot that movie producers today would probably just overlook. The soundtrack was great; it's not that annoying pop or dubstep music and it fits the movie's story.Anyway, please don't pass this movie up for some other garbage like The Hunger Games or Frozen, because Mask is a movie with a message that everybody needs in life: don't judge a person based on outside appearances, have a look inside their life first and then reevaluate your own life, see how much you take for granted every day. This is a movie everyone should see at some point and I'd stick by it over the crud coming out in theaters now any day.
Aaron1375 This movie is the true story of a teen who is deformed named Rocky Dennis. I do not know how true it is, they usually change a lot of things around in Hollywood, but I am willing to guess a good portion of it is true with a few indulgences here and there to add some extra drama and stuff. I am guessing his friendship with the blind girl was made out to be more than it was. The make-up job was really good here as I saw a picture of the real Rocky Dennis and it is fairly close. The story follows Rocky through some events as you see how his daily life is up to a point. Nothing more to it than that really, you see how he is a rather smart guy with a likable personality. His mother, played excellently by Cher is a woman who loves her son, but it is thanks to her drug use that he was possibly born this way. Rocky tries to get his mom off the drugs using not so subtle means. Sam Elliot plays Gar, I believe his name was, a guy who is sort of a friend of Rocky's mom and a guy that Rocky seemed to look up to. The movie has some humor here and there and some drama too and quite a few scenes to make one feel a bit sad. A rather good film with generally good acting throughout the duration.
eric262003 It's easy to point out that this story is based on actual events once the cameras start rolling. It is also backed up by excellent performances by Cher and Eric Stoltz. "Mask" is a tender, heart-warming story of a young teenager named Rocky Dennis who is very intelligent and emotionally sensitive as well. However, he is scarred badly due to a rare disease that has disfigured his face since he was born. As always people who pass him by or approach him a first glance feel slightly intimidated by his deformity. But by not letting these fears get to him, he becomes well over with his peers as they learn to accept him for who he is, not by what he looks like. Rocky also gets a boost of confidence from his mother, Rusty Dennis, played with sheer excellence by Cher. Rusty is a gorgeous, single mother with problems of her own too. She spends most of her time hanging around with biker gangs, she drinks, smokes, is addicted to drugs, but in spite of her problems, she continues to love her son and will bend over backwards to defend him from anyone who puts him to a lesser degree. For example, when the school principal who recommended that her deformed son be placed in a "special" school and how she told him off to his face that he will thrive with the normal students and threatened to sue him, shows that her love for her son will always be first before her. But with his progress and his strong academic showings, Rocky graduates as valedictorian of his class.Ever since he was born, Rusty delivered tough love towards her son, not to the point where he'll suffer a nervous breakdown, but just as way to keep him motivated and to blend in with people his own age like as though he was a normal child, without taking advantage of his deformity. And Rocky continued that legacy, from the morning he wakes up to face the world, inflate his self-confidence, keeping the glass half-full and just be happy with the world around him in what little time he has on this Earth. And eventually through tiring persuasion to get his mother to clean up her act, the audience finds more ways to love Rocky for what he really is. You love him because Rocky is a kid who loves people back which to this day is a precious commodity that you rarely see these days.I have seen "Mask" many times and every time I watch the movie, tissue paper is never behind. It is a coming-of-age story that deals with triumphs and failures of having an incurable disease and is handled in a believable and sensitive approach. But the great center in the story is not entirely centered on the kid's physical illness, but the bonding between a mother and her son.
sddavis63 An excellent portrayal of the last year or so in the life of Rocky Dennis (played by Eric Stoltz), a teenager who lives with a hideously deformed face as the result of a rare disease. This is a movie that you cannot help but be pulled in by. It's funny in places, emotional virtually all the way through and bittersweet at the end. Rocky clearly had challenges to overcome - and not all of them revolved around his face. His mom Rusty (Cher) has a drug problem and has a poor relationship with her own parents, and he spends his time hanging out mostly with a rather tough looking group of bikers, at least some of whom are also into drugs. And yet, this is his world, and - for all their problems - these people are his family; they're the ones who accept him and love him unconditionally and look out for him. Seeing this relationship with the bikers (and especially the voiceless Dozer, played by Dennis Burkley) is almost as fascinating as anything else in the movie. Rocky has been told he doesn't have much time to live, but he does have dreams: a bike trip to Europe with a friend, and he wants to fall in love with someone. It's almost as if the dreams keep him going. He goes to a summer camp for blind children as a counsellor, and falls in love with Diana (Laura Dern) - a beautiful but blind girl who's able to see the beauty inside him. But then he goes home, and it all falls apart. His friend moves to Michigan, and the dream of Europe is gone; his new girlfriend's parents don't want her to have anything to do with him, and his dream of love is gone. With his dreams shattered, there's not much left for Rocky to look forward to. The shattering of his dreams is perfectly depicted by the scene in which he pulls the tacks off the map of Europe where he's been marking all the places he wanted to visit. You know it's happening, but the scene when his mom goes into his room and finds him dead in bed still can't help but put a few tears in your eyes.Director Peter Bogdanovich took a chance on casting Cher. She really didn't have much acting experience in 1985, but she pulled the part off very well (although given the circumstances in which Rusty lived, I thought Cher looked a little too good for the role.) Stoltz was convincing as Rocky, and Laura Dern was completely believable as the blind girl who falls head over heels in love with Rocky. Overall, though, I thought perhaps the strongest performance was Sam Elliott's as Rusty's sometime lover Gar. He looked the part, sounded the part and acted the part brilliantly.Apparently the movie takes a few liberties with Rocky's story. From what I understand, Diana didn't actually exist (although some think she may have been a composite of several girls in Rocky's life) and, while touching, the closing scene, where Rusty, Gar and Dozer visit the cemetery and Dozer puts flowers on the grave, is also a creation - Rocky's body was donated for medical research. There is no grave. Still, you can't help but be deeply moved by this absolutely engrossing story. It's well worth 9/10.