Rating: R
Runtime: 1 hour, 47 minutes
Director: Tom Gormican
Quick Impressions:
Nicolas Cage has a body of work like none other. Lately I have not been enthusiastic enough about movies. I do not know what is wrong with me (she lied)! I didn’t even know the third installment of Fantastic Beasts was out until we stood in line for concessions tonight, and I saw its name in lights.
Since the most recent Oscar season ended, the only film I’ve been truly excited for is The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. We’ve skipped going out to movies for a while because for the past few months, most of my evenings have been busy researching the new book I’m working on, but this one I had to see.
Who else has a career like Nicolas Cage? Who else could star in a movie like Adaptation and somehow get more metadramatic and self-referential from there? (Initially I wasn’t sure I liked Adaptation, and then its off-the-rails final flourish won me over. Though I haven’t watched it in years, I think of it often. Meryl Streep’s character arc just kills me.) I’ve got to hand it to Tom Gormican. He manages to create the illusion that Cage’s entire career has been building to this point, that The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is the natural culmination of all that Cage has done before. Imagine if time began running backwards. We could watch this movie first as our introduction to Cage, then experience his entire life and filmography in reverse, and somehow we’d be prepared for everything, and it would all make sense!
I just realized that Tom Gormican also wrote and directed That Awkward Moment, which surprises me. All I can remember about that movie is Zac Efron planking on a toilet, Michael B. Jordan having a checklist, Miles Teller existing, and somebody making real estate romantic with a secret key? I wish I could remember the movie better. I know I found Jordan’s character’s quintessentially Millennial frustrations relatable even though I’m Gen X. Mostly, though, I remember Zac Efron on the toilet. That movie had its moments (even though I forgot what they are!). But this film seems so much stronger and more inventive. I’m surprised it’s the same writer/director. Frankly, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is so good that I may have to revisit That Awkward Moment. It may be better than I realized.
It must have been quite nerve-racking for Gormican to write a screenplay first and then pursue Cage to star. The movie might still work with another huge star who was obviously not Cage playing “Nick Cage,” though, in that case it would be better if Cage himself played Javi (as I’ve heard he wanted to do). Still, though, you need Cage’s cooperation to make the movie. I’m fascinated that Gormican wrote it with him in mind rather than being commissioned by him to write it. (Surely the title is a play on The Unbearable Lightness of Being, but I’m not sure of further connections there.)
The Good:
This movie was impossible for me to resist because its premise is such a tug-of-war between high concept and too obvious. The first time I saw its trailer, I thought immediately of those Andy Samberg, “Get in the Cage,” bits on SNL. And then I thought, “Didn’t Nicolas Cage already make a movie like this?” And then I thought, “Why hasn’t he?”
In fact, what I love most about The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is that its concept is so odd and yet still seems so obvious, like something that has always existed (or always should have). (I suppose it’s a bit like Being John Malkovich, but not that much.) If after I watched the trailer, someone had told me, “Oh yeah, that’s a re-release of a Nicolas Cage movie that first came out ten years ago,” I would have believed it and chalked up my confusion to Mandela Effect.
Another thing I love about this movie is that it must be so self-esteem building for Nicolas Cage. It dramatizes frequently given advice. Don’t dwell on what you haven’t done and don’t have. Instead, make a list of all the things you have done and do have. No matter how many movies he’s made because he needed the money, Cage still has an incredibly impressive filmography. If I were an actor, I’d be happy to have starred in even one of his cinematic successes. He’s been in some truly iconic films. Even some of the goofier ones were still enormously successful, crowd-pleasing hits. So many of his famous films are referenced in this movie (named, quoted, visually or aurally echoed). I’m sure I didn’t even catch them all. It’s kind of like watching This is Your Life but presented Nic Cage style. (Wouldn’t it be fun if every big-name actor got a movie like this, something that starred them, referenced their most famous movies, and was told in the style of their most famous movies?)
Often when people play themselves in such over-the-top fashion it’s because they’re being gently mocked, lightly roasted for laughs in a brief bit of sketch comedy (whether on TV or online). Stars do this from time to time to show they can take a joke, that they have a sense of humor about themselves. But Cage isn’t being mocked here. He’s being honored. Most of the movies referenced were either critically acclaimed or huge hits (sometimes both). It makes you feel really good to laugh with someone in a way that isn’t mean-spirited at all. This is definitely a tribute to Cage’s long (and unique) career. (At a certain point, there are so many references to other movies that I probably started imagining references to still other movies. A couple of things relatively late in the film seem like they might be more oblique movie references, but I might be reaching there.)
In this film, Nic Cage plays Nick Cage. (The “k” lets us know this isn’t his real life. That’s the only tell. It’s far too easy to believe any of the rest of this crazy stuff might actually happen to Nicolas Cage. In fact, it seems odd to imagine him not having adventures like this.)
Also, in real life, Cage has two sons. Here he has a daughter and an equally fictional ex-wife. As the film wore on, his ex-wife (played by Sharon Horgan) started to grow on me so much that I began wondering, “Wait, is he actually married to her?” (During the movie, I couldn’t remember who any of his ex-wives were—except Lisa Marie Presley. I even forgot about Patricia Arquette until the end credits. I was sitting there thinking, “Okay, I know there’s Kal-El,” because you don’t forget that, but I couldn’t even remember how many kids he has. (Apparently, a third is on the way.)
Part of me thought it would be very funny if his ex-wife were played by his current wife, but that’s not the case. Sharon Horgan becomes increasingly captivating as his ex, though. I also spent the entire movie asking myself, “Who is that playing his daughter? She looks so much like someone!” (It’s Lily Sheen. She looks exactly like a perfect blend of Michael Sheen and Kate Beckinsale.)
It’s always nice to see Pedro Pascal’s face. He’s pretty great as Javi, surely the biggest Nicolas Cage fan and most mild-mannered crime lord of all time. This is a much better part for Pascal than he got in Wonder Woman: 1984. I was surprised by how attached I became to his character. His ability to give us a Javi so sympathetic and nuanced makes the movie much better than it might be otherwise. Tiffany Haddish and Neil Patrick Harris also seem perfect for their roles as a CIA agent and Nick’s agent respectively.
Best Scene:
My husband called out the scene when they drop acid as the best he’s seen in any movie in a long time. I’d love it for the line about the bear alone. (That seems to be the way my mind works without LSD. I’ve been worrying, “What can I do about this paranoia?” The answer is obviously, “Write a screenplay!” either that or, “Drop acid and make it worse!”) (I’m not quite that paranoid, but I do always worry people are looking at me then act weirder and weirder until they actually are.)
I also love the moment not long after the acid scene when Nick meets up with Vivian and lambasts her for not getting his screenplay. I don’t know quite why I find this so funny. Around the time that he reveals that he and Javi are both Christ figures, I just started to lose it.
Best Scene Visually:
I was extremely gratified to call one scene (but I shouldn’t have been because it’s really, really obvious). I whispered to my husband, “This will be just like the Menudo movie.” (I don’t think he’s seen the Menudo movie, but I talk about it all the time.) I love what we get when Nick insists on entering a certain room.
Best Action Sequence:
The movie features a kiss that’s pretty staggering. There’s a huge action sequence at the end that’s quite well done, but I can’t seem to forget that LSD sequence. It’s so fun to watch. The entire film is excellent, another career highlight for Cage, but that unhinged little day trip belongs on a list of best movie drug scenes. Watching it, I kept thinking, “This is the answer to all my problems. I need to drop acid with Nicholas Cage and then drive around a foreign country running over things.” (I think I’d be really good at this! I’m not sure I’d even need the acid!)
The Negatives:
For some reason, the early parts of this movie filled me with a lot of crushing anxiety. (Well, it’s partially that I already felt like that, but I also felt very called out for forcing my daughter to watch The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Then after a while, I thought, “Wait a minute! She forced me to watch that!” She’s loved both silent films and black-and-white horror since she was little. We watched that one when she was five. She also insisted on watching Nosferatu.
I really examined my conscious about this, though. Did I force her to watch it, to share my love of black-and-white horror? But then I had to insist, “No, she is the one who likes silent horror films! I tried to convince her to watch Arsenic and Old Lace, but she found that one too scary!” (That still makes no sense to me.) At any rate, my daughter and I force each other to watch movies all the time. We take turns making recommendations. It seems perfectly consensual, and we’re both very into it. If I’ve failed her as a mother, it hasn’t been by forcing her to watch The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. (Javi has such good taste! His third favorite film is legitimately such a good movie. My mother loved it, and, honestly, the rest of us did, too. It’s wonderfully wholesome and so hilarious.)
I was also vaguely sad that I couldn’t convince my mother to watch this movie. (I suppose I do have a history of coercing people into watching movies.) Both she and my grandma loved Moonstruck. (I’ve seen that movie 20,000 times. Mom and Grandma loved it so much.) We all enjoyed the unbridled goofiness of Face/Off. For a brief time in the early 90s, Mom also got mysteriously obsessed with Valley Girl. She was a Nicolas Cage fan, but would have been led to this one reluctantly I’m sure. (We all kind of like Nic Cage. My sister made me watch both Leaving Las Vegas and Honeymoon in Vegas. Our whole family constantly makes each other watch movies. That doesn’t seem so bad to me.)
One somewhat irritating thing about this film is that it has a vaguely intellectual, philosophical quality. At moments, it seems to say, “Pay attention, and I’ll teach you all the answers to life’s most perplexing mysteries.” Then all it really has to say is, “Just kidding!” But that’s on me for searching for answers in a Nicolas Cage movie.
The film does make a fairly late move that seems almost too predictable. It seems like wish fulfillment. But I’m not sure that’s a problem (especially since the story would honestly make less sense if this did not turn out to be the case).
If you’ve noticed this critique is largely comprised of nonsense. I don’t have many legitimate complaints about this film. It delivers exactly what the trailer promises. It is actually funny (and not just the premise. The movie did make me laugh). It is also thought-provoking, strangely action-packed, even heart-warming. Perhaps most surprisingly of all, it delivers an ending that is satisfying on several levels.
Overall:
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is the best movie I’ve seen since Oscar season ended. (Of course, the only other movie I’ve seen in that window is Sonic the Hedgehog 2, which was also pretty good.) If you have any love for Nicolas Cage at all, you must see this film. I cannot imagine a more perfect tribute to his work.