Mask
Mask is a 1985 American biographical drama film directed by Peter Bogdanovich and written by Anna Hamilton Phelan. It stars Cher, Sam Elliott, and Eric Stoltz. The film is based on the life and early death of Roy L. "Rocky" Dennis, a boy who had craniodiaphyseal dysplasia, an extremely rare genetic disorder known commonly as lionitis due to the disfiguring cranial enlargements that it causes. Mask won the Academy Award for Best Makeup at the 58th ceremony, while Cher and Stoltz received Golden Globe Award nominations for their performances and Cher won the 1985 Cannes Film Festival award for Best Actress.
Plot
In 1979 Azusa, California, Rocky Dennis, a teenage boy with the extremely rare genetic disorder known as craniodiaphyseal dysplasia, is accepted without question by his freewheeling bohemian biker mother, her boyfriend Gar, who is a father figure to him, his "extended motorcycle family," and his maternal grandparents who share his passion of baseball card collecting; but is treated with fear, pity, awkwardness, and teasing by those unaware of his humanity, humor, and intelligence. Rocky's unstable mother, Florence "Rusty" Dennis, is determined to give Rocky as normal a life as possible, in spite of her eccentric and chaotic life as a member of the Turks biker gang, as well as her strained relationship with her father Abe. She fights for Rocky's enrollment in a junior high school, and confronts the principal Mr. Simms who would rather classify Rocky as intellectually disabled and relegate him to a special education school, despite the fact that his condition has not affected his intelligence. At his semi-annual physical, Rocky claims to be feeling well despite recurring excruciating headaches that Rusty can simply remedy by helping to calm him by focusing on happy memories. A young doctor tells Rusty that Rocky's life expectancy is limited to only less than six months, but she scoffs, pointing out that other doctors made erroneous claims about Rocky's condition (e.g. he would be deaf, blind, intellectually impaired, etc.) that were all completely disproven.