Director: Tom Gormican
Writer: Tom Gormican and Keven Etten
Stars: Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal, Sharon Horgan, Tiffany Haddish
Synopsis: In this action-packed comedy, Nicolas Cage plays Nick Cage, channeling his iconic characters as he’s caught between a superfan and a CIA agent.
No one acts like Nicolas Cage. Not even your favorite actor can bring the kind of energy Cage unleashes to any role he plays. Whether it’s dancing to Slaughterhouse by Powermad while simultaneously karate-moshing in Wild at Heart or uttering the word testicle in such a unique way in Prisoners of the Ghostland, Cage is the king of comedic, dramatic, and action overreacting. And even when he starred in trite direct-to-DVD films, he never phoned it in and was always the most memorable part of each production. And now here he is playing himself in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent; a terrific, albeit insanely formulaic, meta-comedy that celebrates each facet of Cage’s life with vivid humor and sharp performances from its star-studded cast.
Formulaic, because it recycles the plot of the dad who was never around for his wife (Sharon Horgan) and daughter (Lily Sheen), too busy wrapping himself in stardom and achieving his career goals. Of course, part of the gist is that they’ll eventually reconcile in the end when Cage will learn about the value of family through the events that will transpire once he accepts the invitation to attend Javi Guttierez’s (Pedro Pascal) birthday party for one million dollars. What the actor doesn’t know is that Guttierez has kidnapped the daughter of a politician, with the hopes that he will drop out before the election so it will be rigged in the favor of the other candidate. He then becomes a spy for the CIA, partially by agreeing to feature in a screenplay written by Javi, which aims to revive Cage as the star he truly is.
Yeah, we know exactly where the movie is going from the scene where Cage screws up his daughter’s birthday party, but that’s a lousy framing device for an otherwise incredible time at the movies. Initially, Cage wanted no part in the film, which is understandable, because it relives most of his career through fun, but extremely subtle jokes: his greatest movies, his misfires, you name it.
If you’ve not seen most of Cage’s work, most of the jokes may go completely unnoticed, but some of the funniest bits from the film involve Cage recreating a certain vibe from a film he previously starred in, whether it’s using the two golden guns from Face/Off, or, through his alter ego Nicky Cage, delivering an insatiably coked-up performance à la Wild at Heart and Vampire’s Kiss. In any case, Cage is incredible through and through and has surprising amounts of fun playing himself. It’s surprising to see him so involved, because, once again, he wanted no involvement in the film and thought it was a terrible idea. Director Tom Gormican had to convince him by penning a letter to him, and he then saw the potential for the film to be good. It’s great that Cage sees the potential for the movie to be an incredible time, and knows he has to pull it off, not only for himself but for his die-hard fans who would adore seeing Nic Cage being the most self-referential he can be. And his reflexive posturing allows him to deliver one of the best portrayals of his late career and likely one that will be remembered as one of his best ever.
And whoever came up with the idea to team up Nic Cage with Pedro Pascal is a goddamn genius. Both of them share amazing chemistry together, building up one of the greatest bromances in any film of the 2020s, thus far. Pascal’s highly cartoonish accent adds lots of depth in his characterization of a bonafide Cage superfan with a dark background, but Gormican continuously subverts his character arc in surprising ways, which allows Pascal to take his character to new heights with Cage, through hilarious, but also melancholic scenes in which they reflect about the history of cinema. There isn’t anything more cathartic than seeing Nicolas Cage cry over Paddington 2 and being proven wrong about how any movie can have significance if we attach our personal feelings towards a particular scene or a fleeting moment from a film.
Growing up, one of my favorite movies of all time was Superman III. It isn’t a very good movie, I get it, but imagine if you’re six years old and are watching Superman soar in the sky for the first time and save people from danger. The impression it etched in my memory is permanent, and since I saw it as a child for the first time, I may have easier feelings towards it when I’ll eventually rewatch it as an adult, because the effect it had on me was different from, say, a die-hard Superman fan who thought Richard Lester ruined the character when he made Clark Kent fight drunk Superman. So when Pascal’s character speaks of Paddington 2 as a bonafide cinema classic or reflects on the time he spent with his father bonding over Guarding Tess, a lesser-known Cage film, we can relate to it, because any movie can have a profound impact on us, which is something stars don’t necessarily realize. But when that specific moment occurred in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, everything made sense, and the movie becomes more than a reflexive meta-comedy on Cage’s career, but a celebration of the art of cinema, acting, and the feeling we get once we see a damn good movie that will have an impact on our lives, one way or another.
It’s also great when you’ve got actresses like Sharon Horgan playing Nic Cage’s ex-wife and elevating clichéd material through her brilliant acting skills, and at times even upstaging Cage in sequences in which you think you know where it’s heading, only for Horgan’s character to react in a completely different way than you’ve imagined. Gormican nails the comedic timing for each actor who has a substantial role in the film, allowing them to not only showcase their passion for Cage’s work, but have a sequence in which they’ll go head-on and show that they can be just as wild as Cage is.
And that’s where The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent succeeds. It may have an insanely formulaic story, but Gormican subverts enough character arcs to make it enticing, and its acting showcase from Cage having a total blast with Pascal, to Horgan delivering yet another skillful character were enough to make the movie a must-see at a cinema, with a crowd that adores Cage’s work and knows his movies. And if you were ever a fan of his work, in any capacity, it should be seen immediately, even if you weren’t following his later outings. Sure, most of his direct-to-video stuff weren’t good, but he was amazing in them. Cage has consistently proven to be one of the most versatile actors working today. I would even be willing to call him the greatest actor of our time. Throughout his illustrious career of classics and lousy movies, he’s never turned in a bad performance. Yes, you’ll find a bad Nic Cage movie (there are plenty). But you’ll never find a bad Nic Cage role. Go ahead and try to give me the worst role of Cage’s career. That’s right, there are none.
Grade: A-
