Mask (1985)
Directed by Peter Bogdanovich
A significantly deformed but highly intelligent teenage boy and his biker gang mother attempt to live as normal a life as possible under the circumstances.
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What critics compared Mask to
In some ways, “Wonder” feels like another “Mask,” the moving 1985 film about a teenage boy named Rocky with a skull deformity.
Peter Bogdanovich did it in “Mask” (1985), his straight-up tale of a teenager with a face of scowling strangeness who came to embrace the person he was.
His life up to now has not been easy despite his generally sunny attitude: He was born with a craniofacial disorder, which puts him, for comparison, in the same category as the Eric Stoltz character in the 1985 movie, Mask.
Comparisons will be made to Peter Bogdanovich's Mask, but where that film surrounds its goo with edgy surfaces, Wonder is full-on tender.
Inappropriately resembling Rocky Dennis from 1985's "Mask," Peter Sarsgaard (2009's " Orphan ") is delicious early on as an offbeat recluse and then goes bat-shit insane as he gets sucked to the dark side.
All but destined to cross paths again, the two find a reunion catalyst in one of Lecter's victims, an unbilled and unrecognizable Gary Oldman under mounds of makeup that gives him a passing resemblance to Eric Stoltz in Mask.
In a way, what she’s doing here feels reminiscent of Cher ditching her diva crown in the mid-80s for memorable on-screen performances in films like “Mask” and “Moonstruck.”
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David Cronenberg's 1986 remake of the Vincent Price shocker, though what it reminds you of most, in its uneasy meld of physical deformity and romance, is Peter Bogdanovich's Mask.
Considering that and the fact that writer/director James Mangold ("Cop Land," "Heavy") along with co-screenwriters Lisa Loomer (TV films "Road to Kensington," "Hearts Afire") and Anna Hamilton Phelan ("Gorillas in the Mist," "Mask") never really offer or examine anything new, the film ultimately has nowhere to go.