Mask

Uh, and also, [laughs] one of the other things with it, when you talk about Cher, or Cher, I think I've used both pronunciations here.

Uh, downstairs, when The Great Mutato is watching TV, he's watching the film "Mask," which of course Cher was also in, which starred Eric Stoltz as a quite deformed young boy, which is exactly who The Great Mutato was.

Uh, this episode was actually nominated for seven awards at the 1998 Emmys, including directing and writing for Chris Carter, and he did a terrific job all round with this episode.

It could have come across as really hokey, but instead it comes across as a warm episode and a, and a nice story.

And it's like nice, like finished basement, but there's no windows.

And they're playing the movie Mask, which is our Cher.

And do you know the movie Mask? No, I don't think so.

I

know

the movie The Mask.

No.

Okay.

I've heard that said very many times.

A topic that often comes up on this film is, do we choose the art that we like, or does the art choose us? Because I was thinking back to this, and last week's episode was the Peter Bogdanovich film, Mask, which, of course, stars share.

And that film features outlaw bikers, but in a very positive way.

And I'm very much interested in, you know, the countercultural outlaw biker stereotype.

He's probably selling some lifestyle plan, you know? And he'll be selling this as some kind of freedom.

And then you're like, dude, you're just full of shit.

And to bring it back to last week's episode when we were discussing Peter Bogdanovich's mask, and I think Cher's character in that film says about her ex-husband, somebody says to her, well, he loves freedom, he loves being on the road.

And she says, well, that's one way to put it.

That was in 1986.

She wasn't nominated for Mask, and she was mad, so she showed up.

[laughs]

True Cher form.

And lucky for me, I'm joined by friend of the show, Michelle McBride, photographer and visual artist, who, like me, grew up with this film, has a personal connection to it, and was an absolute delight to dive into this golden-hued beauty of a film with.

So sit on that porch, grab a bud, as Michelle and I discuss, dissect, and deep dive Peter Bogdanovich's 1985 film, Mask.

This is In Film We Trust, and I'm your host, Liam, the King Count Cult, Carmelo, here to proselytise all things cinema, from the obscure to the mainstream.

And boy, we have a film today that I've been waiting to discuss for some time.

Mask is one of those films that seems to have fallen through the cracks.

Once a staple of the TV cycle, it's literally been a decade plus since I've seen it play on the TV here in the UK.

Though it may be maligned as not serious enough, or literary enough, or whatever objective some may want to throw its way, it is a gem, and both Michelle and I will attest to that.

She figures that I was a lion in one of my past lives and some of it got left over.

Fox was not available because he was contractually obligated to family ties, and the producers had gone to Zemeckis and said, look, we need someone else.

Stokes was coming off Mask, in which he had given a performance of extraordinary emotional depth.

a young actor clearly capable of carrying dramatic weight, clearly serious, clearly talented in all the ways that matter.

The problem, which Zemeckis and producer Bob Gale have talked about in the years since, was that Stoltz played Marty McFly with the same emotional seriousness he'd brought to Rocky Dennis, which is exactly what you'd expect from that actor following that performance.