The process of creating movie stars is sometimes marked by the impatience of Hollywood, which needs each film to be the definitive confirmation of the actor in question. With Glen Powell, we have seen how it has taken years to establish himself on a public level because it is more common for a career to have several successes and failures before reaching stardom.
Even at the top, there can be ups and downs. The strangest thing is that an actor suddenly stars in three smash hits in a row. That’s when you’re already something more than a star, like what happened to Jim Carrey in that wonderful year when he released films like ‘The Mask’.
Sparkling
In 1994, we saw Carrey add three box office hits:’Ace Ventura, a different detective ‘,’Dumb and Dumber’and in between this whirlwind of comic fantasy that is already celebrating its 30th anniversary of its release in theaters. Accompanied by Cameron Diaz and with craftsman Chuck Russell as director, the film can now be seen streaming through Max.
Carrey is Stanley Ipkiss, a man with a rather repressed attitude who ends up letting himself be trampled on more than once. His existence ends up accumulating abuse, until one day he finds a mysterious mask imbued with the spirit of the god Loki. Its immense power and his tendency to madness will transform Stanley’s life every time he puts on the mask.
The film was born from the huge success of Tim Burton’s’Batman ”, from which Hollywood drew a trend towards making pulp films with charisma and a bit of darkness instead of more superheroes (what times). The transformation of the aesthetics, the recovery of the club atmosphere, and swing music are revolutionized through a very remarkable use of special effects that achieve an elasticity typical of a cartoon.
‘The Mask’: Pulp Fun
Russell is largely responsible for this good use of practical and digital effects, making it the hallmark of a peculiar filmography marked by assignments resolved with a certain grace. Although what truly propels ‘The Mask’ is how it is built from Carrey’s irreverent, improvisational, and ultra-expressive quality,.
This talent allows each joke to be taken to its most mischievous and chatty extreme, whether it works more or less. It is in those moments of pure, rogue revelry where the film manages to convince the most, rising above its more dramatic conventions that feel somewhat stiff. It is an estimable diversion that, after the success of ‘Ace Ventura’, put Carrey even further into the stratosphere as a film comedian, becoming a superstar.
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