Mask

Rocky Dennis (Stoltz), a boy with an appallingly deformed skull, at 16 has already far outlived doctors' predictions. The most effective scenes deal with Rocky's determined attempt to confront everyday problems: school, rows with parents and friends, growing up. Elsewhere the film becomes mawkish: the bike gang who act as Rocky's friends/occasional bodyguards seem idealised, while the romance between bike jock Gar (Elliott) and Rocky's mother (Cher) tends to curdle the stomach. Still, Bogdanovich invests the story with warmth, generosity and considerable power.