Jim Carrey scored one his earliest hits with comic book adaptation The Mask.
Wil loved it as a kid.
Thats fine youre allowed to like rubbish when youre a kid.
Im just often a bit shocked at how ropey things I liked before I hit double figures actually were.
My young taste was generally awful.
It honestly has a depth that I wasnt expecting re-watching it as an adult.
It might actually resonate more with me in my twenties than it did when I was a kid.
And thats because I think its actually a parable about drinking too much booze.
But how it plays out is very, very different.
The films plot broadly melded together those first two comic arcs.
Stanley Ipkiss (Carrey) is a shy dweeb working in a bank.
Narrative wise, its nothing to write home about.
It follows the standard (pre-Marvel Studios, at least) superhero movie template pretty much beat for beat.
What makes the film interesting is the concept of The Mask itself.
Most super heroes can be broadly read as wish fulfilment fantasies.
The archetypical example is Spider-Man weak, nerdy kid gets to become tough and strong.
This is whereThe Maskdiffers.
Its partly an aesthetic thing.
In the mid-90s in LA, there was a short-lived swing revival amongst twenty-somethings.
The swing elements actually fit in really well with the milieu of the film.
And somehow this 40s influence also makes it a perfect time capsule of 1993.
He has a solid job but can only afford a tiny crappy apartment.
His true power is that hes really cool and funny and confident.
And that the mask can make you or anyone cool.
And this is where it becomes a rather obvious metaphor for alcohol.
Stanley Ipkiss is the archetypical nice guy who always finishes last.
What he needs is confidence.
And The Mask is an unrelenting ball of hyper-confidence.
Like Parappa The Rapper, all he has to do is believe in himself.
This is where the obvious comparisons to alcohol come in.
But have a beer or ten, and youll be dancing on the tables having a great time.
Everyone loves you when youre drunk, or at least thats how it feels when youre drunk.
Youre funnier, youre louder and youre a loads better dancer.
It makes you do the things want to do but you dont have the guts to do.
Just like alcohol, it gives you the confidence to be and do what you want to do.
Everyone becomes different when they wear the mask.
When he wears it, he has none of Ipkisss humour, and is instead just a merciless monster.
In effect, when a bad person gets drunk, they just become evil more nasty, and violent.
Peter Parker has been blessed with a power that he knows he has to use for good.
Ipkiss on the other hand knows he shouldnt be using the mask at all.
When reporter Peggy Brandt starts asking him about it, he tells her Its crazy, Im losing control.
When I put that mask on, I can do anything.
My life is wrecked.
Peggy reassures him, telling him You dont need it.
You, Stanley Ipkiss, are all youll ever need to be.
Its a story many addicts will tell you.
So they drank more.
But the they found they had to be drunk to be that person people liked.
And they couldnt have fun without drinking.
They needed it to be normal.
Thats what is happening.
Why would you ever want to go back to being Stanley Ipkiss after being The Mask?
Despite being vaguely heroic, The Mask does bad things.
He harasses Ipkisss landlady.
He steals money from banks.
He makes the whole police force do embarrassing dance numbers against their will.
Unlike most comic book superhero movies,The Maskis not an origin story.
Its refreshing that the film doesnt really leave itself open for a sequel.
The spin-offMaskSaturday morning cartoon basically did this, turning Ipkiss into a recurring superhero.
But the film is trying to tell a one off story, not start a franchise.
Jim Carrey is great fun, and it captures him in his early OTT prime.
Its something a lot of modern films could learn from).
But under all this, theres the underline pathos, which make the film really work.
Its actually about something.
Next time: why Milo is the greatest dog in cinematic history.
