Word: bogdanovich
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...MASK. Director Peter Bogdanovich musters up all the originality of the average Hallmark card Bogdanovich drenches the tragic life story of facially disfigured outcast Rocky Dennis with more sugar than the family size package of Cocoa Crispies, making John Hurt's Elephant Man look like the Wild Coyote by comparison. Climcal direction and Monday Night at the Movies screenwriting damn Mask into an abyss of sloppiness and unprofessionalism from which it is redeemed only by Eric Stoltz's tour-deforce in the title role and superb performances by Cher as Rocky's wackedout but tenderhearted Mom and Sam Elliott...
Newcomer Stoltz bursts through the constraints of the film's perpetually lefthanded direction with a charm and bravado that Bogdanovich would be wise to emulate. Stoltz's Rocky meanders through his teenage life unblemished by bitterness and remorse, leaving a trail of warmth and good cheer in his wake. Whether he's conning his friends out of valuable baseball cards in order to complete a series of the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers, dreaming about biking through Europe on a Harley after graduation, fantasizing about what it's like to have a girlfriend, he gallops his way into our hearts. Although...
There is only one problem with this attempt to fashion a contemporary parallel of Renaissance parables: Bogdanovich isn't clever enough to succeed. He prevent us from identifying with. Rocky by surrounding him with a bunch of ridiculously implausible albeit excellently interpreted characters. Cher swaggers through the film as Rocky's coke-snorting, fast-talking mother: short on homespun values but overflowing with love and support for her son. Though motherly love and June Cleaver are not necessarily synonymous, it is still difficult to accept this absurd hybrid of James Dean and Phyllis Schlafly. Every member of Rocky's extended...
...Bogdanovich's incessant fumbling stains Mask with the "what-might-have-been" syndrome of a good idea lost in poor direction. Instead of another Elephant Man, which could have showcased the acting talents of Stoltz, Cher and Elliott to their best advantages, we get People presents the Life and Times of Rocky Stoltz...
...Long is marvelously febrile in both misery and triumph. Screenwriters Nancy Meyers and Charles Shyer (who here makes his directorial debut) appear to have been up and down and to have learned that both are bad news; they also display a familiarity with the life and films of Peter Bogdanovich. Only in their reach for a reconciling ending do they betray the cool ferocity of their approach. They may love old movies as much as their protagonist does, but they should know that, for good or ill, Frank Capra has retired. -By Richard Schickel