The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent ★★★★
Tom Gormican
Starring Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal, Sharon Horgan, Tiffany Haddish, Lily Mo Sheen
Face/Off, Con Air, The Rock, Raising Arizona, Leaving Las Vegas...I could go on! All these films are cult classics because of one man: the wonderfully bizarre and wildly unpredictable "Nic F**kiiiiiiiiiiiiing Cage!"
"Okay so I need to establish the themes", in possibly his greatest role to date, Nicolas Cage plays Nick Cage with a K, a version of himself who gets involved with the CIA to take down a potential arms dealer who also happens to be a Cage mega-fan. This has the A's, B's, C's, D's to make for one of the best comedies of recent years. With Nicolas Cage bringing depth to the film like he's never really done before, finding balance in tone and using note perfect comedy timing throughout. His dynamic with Pedro Pascal (the aforementioned super-fan) is so natural and the pair are a joy to spend time with.
The film looks stunning, with beautiful settings, stylish outfits and breathtaking buildings, cars and of course performers. The film lets an audience bathe in its beauty as an accompaniment to the antics unfolding on screen, and at no point do those antics slow in pace or lose energy. It manages to pack so many concepts into its runtime, perhaps an intentional choice to reflect on Cage's past diversity in genre.
This film is a meta success in ways that The Matrix Resurrections or Stranger Than Fiction could only wish to be. It knows how tongue-in-cheek it is and with that the film never feels cringeworthy and no reference ever feels unearned. A relationship with a character called Nicky is ingenious, proving that two Nic's do make a right!
As the film suggests, I too believe this will bring Nic Cage back to the big screen. In recent years critically acclaimed films like Pig and Mandy have showcased Cage's acting ability, but they were released in a pandemic-riddled world. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent shows Nic Cage off as the legend he truly is. "There's only two men I trust;" one of them's me, and the other is Nic Cage.
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent available in cinemas now