Mask

Peter Bogdanovich's film is drawn from a real life. Rocky Dennis was born with craniodiaphyseal dysplasia, a very rare condition that thickens the bones of the skull and reshapes the face. He died at sixteen. The film refuses the shape this material usually takes. Rocky is not presented as a lesson; he is bright, funny, good at school and entirely aware of how people look at him. The drama sits with his mother Rusty, who rides with a biker club, uses drugs, fights every institution that tries to define her son, and is the reason he has a normal childhood at all. Cher plays Rusty, Eric Stoltz plays Rocky under hours of prosthetics by Michael Westmore, and Sam Elliott is her partner. Cher won best actress at Cannes for it. Bogdanovich had chosen Bruce Springsteen songs for the soundtrack, and the studio replaced them with Bob Seger; he fought the change publicly and the original music was only restored on a later home release. Who it is for: viewers who want a family drama that keeps its sentiment under control and one of Cher's best performances. Who it is not for: anyone expecting an uplifting illness story. The ending is not softened, and the film spends its time on ordinary days rather than on medicine.