He and Cher both give beautifully measured performances. This character study is especially successful when you consider that Stoltz, who is covered in facial prosthetics, has to convey his emotions via his eyes. One of Rocky's goals in life is to meet a girl who will fall in love with him despite his disfigurement, and he gets the chance when he meets Diana (Laura Dern), a beautiful blind girl. When Rocky isn't busy watching after his selfish mother, he attempts to live a normal life. Rocky's mother, Rusty, is a classic drug-abusing "biker chick" who hangs out with a bunch of motorcyclists led by Gar (Sam Elliott). Mask is based on the true story of Rocky Dennis (Eric Stoltz), an exceptionally kind, sensitive teenager who suffers from craniodiaphyseal dysplasia, a condition in which calcium forms on the skull and causes it to grow to an unsightly, abnormal size. His resurgence would turn out to be short-lived. In fact, by the time it was completed, he had alienated an entire film studio, and Cher was willing to tell anyone within earshot that she hated his guts. The film may have done well at the box office, and it may have helped solidify Cher's standing as a legitimate screen actress, but it was far from a breeze for Bogdanovich to make. It was something of a shock, then, when Bogdanovich scored a critical and commercial hit with a 1985 tear-jerker called Mask. A major round of industry schadenfreude ensued.
Bogdanovich's reportedly enormous ego, a very public breakup with his wife, financial problems, and a couple of irredeemable box office bombs starring his semi-talented new squeeze, Cybil Shepherd, all helped turn the boy genius into a laughingstock within the film community. In other words, the studios could go to hell. Bogdanovich even joined Francis Ford Coppola and William Friedkin in forming a company that would give them complete control and financing for any pictures they wanted to make. Then came the popular screwball comedy, What's Up, Doc? (1972), and the Howard Hawks-inspired Depression-era road picture, Paper Moon (1973). After directing a remarkably inventive, no-budget thriller called Targets (1968), Bogdanovich graduated to the majors with The Last Picture Show (1971), one of the more evocative ruminations on small-town American life ever committed to film. By Hollywood standards, Peter Bogdanovich was riding about as high as you can get in the early 1970s.
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