leeper@ahutb.UUCP (m.r.leeper) (04/14/85)
MASK
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
There is a game that film critics seem to play; in fact, it used to be
a regular feature in FILM COMMENT magazine. It's called "guilty pleasures."
The critic picks out a film that the critic knows is utter garbage, but that
somehow the critic likes anyway. I never liked this game, because while I
can accept that a film I do not like can be good--say something like a WILD
STRAWBERRIES--I find it hard to accept that a film that has qualities that
please me can still be a bad film, for me anyway. It is pretentious for me
to say that I like a film, but that I know deep down that it's trash. What
is worse, some critics compound the pretentiousness by picking something
like CASABLANCA as their guilty pleasure. The critic who does that is
saying, "My elevated tastes expect something better than CASABLANCA which
the common rabble likes. Still, in spite of its tattiness, there are
aspects to the film that I appreciate that the common rabble misses." This
guy has a snoot that's made for poking.
Well, I almost caught myself saying, "I like MASK in spite of myself."
MASK is a film which has gotten very good reviews and very good word-of-
mouth, but in some ways is a manipulative tear-jerker. In spite of
realizing I was being manipulated, I really liked and cared for Rocky
Dennis, and to a lesser extent, his mother and her biker friends. That
bothers me, because I am saying that this is a crass manipulative film that
I nonetheless liked guiltily. I would then feel impelled to poke my own
snoot. So let me see if I can weasel-word my way out of this particular
crisis of faith.
MASK is the true bittersweet story of Rocky Dennis, a 16-year-old boy
suffering from a bone disease that horribly disfigures his face. Ordinarily
this would be trouble enough for anyone, but on top of that, his mother
(played by Cher) is a biker who hangs around with other bikers. Rocky's
father is nowhere in evidence. But Rocky has an advantage that John Merrick
of THE ELEPHANT MAN lacked. Somehow he developed an affable, out-going
personality that allows him to make friends quickly with anyone willing to
look beyond his physical imperfections. And because he has so much more
personality than the cipher-like John Merrick, I think the viewer likes him
that much more. Of course, the saint-like personality of the character on
the screen may be the result of being based on descriptions by the real-life
Rocky's mother.
The story follows Rocky's ninth and tenth grade experiences while he is
trying to get his mother to stop using drugs and trying to make friends at
school. His dreams are modest. He wants to collect the entire 19955
Brooklyn Dodgers in baseball cards, he wants to motorcycle through Europe,
and he wants a girl friend, preferably a beautiful blond (so much for the
film's theme that personality is more important than looks). Any story
about such a nice guy who has all these troubles that are not his fault is
bound to get a standing ovation from half the tear ducts in the audience,
and I fell into the same trap. As with E. T., the content of MASK is not
very profound, but it expertly arouses audience sympathies. And perhaps
there is craftsmanship in doing that. Rate it +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
...ihnp4!ahutb!leeper
But, on May 1, I become ...ihnp4!mtgzz!leeperables@mcc-db.UUCP (King Ables) (06/20/85)
> My most recent pick as a must-see: `MASK'. Trust me. Take your SO.
Yuk. Well, not to mean that it was a BAD movie, it was ok. But that
was the problem, it was just OK. This movie was just another kid-with-
a-mental/physical-deformity-who-beats-the-odds-(at least for a while)-
and-shows-everybody-what-a-great-guy-he-is movie. Sure, it's a tear
jerker and all. I saw it with my [then, but that's another story] SO
and it was nice. My gripe with the movie was there was nothing that
was special about it to put it over all the other movies that have been
made like it (unless of course you could identify with some part of it,
my mom didn't hang around with bikers, though, so... :-) ). I never
saw Elephant Man, but this reminds me a lot of that. I've heard from
some who saw both that EM had more unique points to make.
This one is ok, but it just doesn't stand out in my mind. There's
nothing special about it.
The scene where he takes his tacks out of his map of Europe kinda got to me,
though.
-King
ARPA: ables@mcc
UUCP: {ihnp4,seismo,ctvax}!ut-sally!mcc-db!ablespeg@ihlpm.UUCP (Peg Streff) (06/24/85)
I enjoyed Mask... i thought it was one of the better movies released in recent months... the plot itself was not all that unique (we've seen movies before about people overcoming their physical deformities) but the great part of it was the character portrayals and development. Rocky was a "neat" kid!! I liked him to the extent that i felt he could've been a good friend of mine... the other characters in the movie who were close to him recognized this... that's why i felt it was so sad to see him die before he had a chance to have plastic surgery and maybe get rid of the headaches and pressure on his spine... it was also sad to see strangers treat him with such fear, as if he were a monster, but i felt as if i shared in his personal triumphs in "winning over" some of these people... i recommend going to see Mask if you enjoy movies that show you a person more than tell you a story... Peg Streff ihnp4!ihlpm!peg -- Peg Streff AT&T Bell Laboratories, Naperville, IL ihnp4!ihlpm!peg