For American movie fans, when it comes to Nicolas Cage, just like everything else in filmdom, it’s a perfect trichotomy: You love him; you hate him; or somewhere in between. But Nic Cage is the paradigm for that trichotomy. I’d wager that each category holds about one third of the audience. I fall clearly into the first category. Why? Well although Nic will take pretty much any role, I disregard those that most remember him for – Face/Off, Con Air, the two National Treasures and Ghost Riders, Bangkok Dangerous, and the like because I know – Nic will take pretty much any role. Instead, I focus on adaptation.; Valley Girl, Rumble Fish, Peggy Sue Got Married, The Weather Man, Leaving Las Vegas, Pig, and the others that display his Massive Talent. Why, you might ask, would he even take such roles? Brando would never! Leo? Of course not! But Brando is Brando; and Leo is Leo; and Nicolas Cage is…a Coppola. And all Coppolas have to live with The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent! Those that hate him, either disregard the great movies he does, or don’t know of the many small films on that list. Those that are somewhere in between, they disregard the fact that Nic Cage is a Coppola who has to live with The Unbearable Weight of Francis’ Massive Talent!
Like some great artists, not enough but some, he doesn’t take himself too seriously. And therein lies the secret, the key to one of the best motion pictures of 2022, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. Fabulously directed by Tom Gormican in only his second directorial credit, eight years after the embarrassing and awkward 94 minutes that was That Awkward Moment. Nicolas Cage plays Nic Cage, a sort of fictionalized version of himself. As the film opens, he’s in a rut, divorced about a year from his ex-wife Olivia (Sharon Horgan), unable to get along at all with his teenage daughter Addy (Lily Sheen), no longer able to get big roles, and locked out of his hotel room for lack of payment, his agent (Neil Patrick Harris) gets him a million dollar gig to appear at Javi Gutierrez’s (Pedro Pascal) birthday party in Majorca, Spain. Javi is a billionaire, a huge fan, and needs to be part of The Unbearable Weight of Nic’s Massive Talent. This hilarious comedy – and both times we went to see it, the entire audience was laughing out loud throughout, so much so that the second screening was necessary to hear the 20% of jokes we missed – has everything: An acid trip; a CIA subplot twist (Tiffany Haddish & Ike Barinholtz); a meta-film (explained below for those that may not know the reference) about Nic Cage; a meta-film within the meta-film about Nic Cage; a “grotesque” statue of Nic Cage in Face/Off; Nic’s imaginary friend, Nicky Cage (Nicolas Cage), who seems loosely based on Cage’s character Randy from Valley Girl; and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. The film is still available, albeit very limited, in theaters. It will be available on DVD, Blu-ray and Digital on 6/21, with streaming, presumably, shortly thereafter. A MUST SEE!! 4 Stars!
The Urban Dictionary defines “meta” as “…about the thing itself”. So, meta-art is art about the art or artist itself/him or herself. And meta-movies are movies that are about one or more of the actors or the director or writer, etc. This is the quintessential meta-movie, in no way even masking the notion that it’s a movie about the actor in the starring role. It is not the first such film he has been in. One of Nic’s greatest roles is as identical twins, Charlie & Donald Kaufman in Spike Jonze’s “Adaptation.” (official name includes the “period”) from 2002. It’s written by Charlie Kaufman, and in it, Charlie, as portrayed by Nicholas Cage, has writers block and is having tremendous difficulty writing an adaptation of Susan Orlean’s (Meryl Streep) non-fiction book “The Orchid Thief”. The Orchid Thief, the subject of Orlean’s book, is John Laroche, played by Chris Cooper, who won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for the role in 2003 at the 75th Academy Awards. Its other nominations were: Nicholas Cage, Best Actor; Meryl, Best Supporting Actress; and Best Adapted Screenplay, Charlie & Donald Kaufman, the credited screenplay writers for the film. But the thing is, Donald doesn’t exist. Charlie made him up, and the Academy was punked when the nominations came out, as well as when they were read at the Ceremony, in one of the great Oscar scams of all time. This film is even better than The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent in my opinion (and is deeply involved in tripping), and is available in all forms except in theaters.
Paul Marino hosts The Hub on Canal’s Art in the Form of Film, and Broadway at the Hub series. The Hub on Canal is a non-profit art gallery/collective on Canal Street, NSB.
