‘The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent’ review: Being Nic Fucking Cage [Grade: B+] | SXSW

“Who is Nicolas Cage?” It was the final question to our interview we had a couple of months back with the veteran, legendary actor in reference to his latest movie, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. He leaned forward in his chair, brought his hands together, and said, “Nicolas Cage is a student who is on a path in cinema to try to keep learning and finding great characters with which to tell stories with.” This answer shouldn’t surprise anyone considering that is what he has been doing for his entire career, including last year in his astonishing performance in Michael Sarnoski’s Pig, a role that was subdued yet spoke volumes about Cage and where he is as an actor in Hollywood. And while this meta commentary in Pig isn’t the major highlight, in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, it is center stage as Cage delivers about fantastic performance as…himself.

In the film, Nicolas Cage is the Oscar winner, box office juggernaut of an actor we all know him to be in real life. But he has hit a dry spell, with no one in Hollywood looking to offer him any new parts, even missing out on his chance to do an indie gangster drama. Even as he is leaving lunch with the director of this project, he can’t help himself but bust out his Boston accent he’s been working on, which is both good and hilarious given how Cage dives into his delivery. Afterwards, as he is driving home, feeling good about himself, he is visited by Nicky Cage, a younger version of Cage from earlier in his career that he has created as a figment of his wild imagination. Nicky is the wild version of Cage that most of audiences might see in the actor’s films, where he is unpredictable and a bad influence of the version of Nicolas Cage we see in the film.

In talking to Nicky, his ego continues to be stroked, to the point of annoyance, continuously make himself the center of attention in all aspects of his life, infuriating his daughter Addy (newcomer Lily Sheen) and his ex-wife Sally (Sharon Horgan). Every conversation he has with them is about his career, his favorite movies, his views of the industry and the world, and how they all revolve around him. It’s in this first part of the film that the window dressing for what is to come from director Tom Gormican and his co-writer Kevin Etten constructing a character here that symbolizes the selfish, manic, indulgent movie star and what it might be like if all the vanity was gone and all they had left was their past work to speak on. It would make for an insufferable personality to be around, yet for this movie, makes for one hell of a protagonist as every moment he fails, it makes us howl with laughter in our seats.

When his agent (Neil Patrick Harris, in a hilarious cameo) tells Cage they went with someone else in the role, devastated, he overacts and decides that his career is over and no longer wants to act. With no other options on the table, Cage takes up an offer to go a birthday celebration in Spain for a very wealthy business man named Javi Gutierrez (Pedro Pascal). In attending this party, and spending some time with Javi before and after, Cage will be receiving a million dollars, which he needs given his recent spending habits, his expensive divorce to Sally and other financial roadblocks that have forced him to get on a plane and be a spectacle of himself when he arrives. In thinking this is nothing more than a fan meet and greet, Cage doesn’t take it all to serious, till he meets Javi, who while being his biggest fan, is also a man of extreme power with a mix of generosity that Cage gets swept up in. This is not shocking given that with Pascal in this role, the Cage falls under the spell audiences have been recently with Pascal, whether in a movie like this or in various televisons shows. He is the perfect balance of charisma and grace that makes him one of the best working actors today, and the perfect partner to work alongside Cage in the project. As the two get to know each other, they learn about each other’s favorite movies, explore the island together and perform scenes that would come straight out of a Nick Cage movie, which is something Javi wants to do, since he has written a screenplay for the actor to make alongside him. Things are going great till Cage is taken by henchmen to an disclosed location, where two CIA agents (Tiffany Haddish, Ike Barinholtz) inform him that Javi is not the kind man he’s gotten to know over the last couple of days, and has kidnapped the President of Spain’s daughter in order to rig the countries elections in his favor. They tell Nick that she could be killed and they need his help getting her out of Javi’s compound before she is murdered. This sets transitions this buddy comedy into a whirlwind adventure thriller with so much meta commentary that it will make your head explode, considering in order to get to the girl, Cage becomes even closer with Javi, and starts the collaboration for the movie Javi brought him to the island for in the first place.

Cage, coming off what some (including myself), would consider the best work of his career in Pig, takes this role and knocks it out of the park again, blurring the lines between what is the real version of himself and what is the iteration we are setting portrayed. In almost candid conversations, he bluntly talks about his role in the landscape of modern film, and where studios minds are set with IP driven properties that don’t have real characters, stakes or emotions behind it, but instead are made for the almighty dollar. But along his dynamic, incredible co-star Pascal, Cage is able to remind us all that his kinds of movies, the entertaining, crowd pleasing hits that made him a star, are always going to be what we want to see from him and get made. The reason why this is because they are so much fun to watch, whole original, and feature committed performances that know their assignment and execute it to perfection. Do all the elements in the story work, no. But that is not the point. You are supposed to go on a ride, filled with tons of call backs to lines and scenes to previous Nick Cage movies along with making new ones in the process. This is a love letter to this man, and understands that the world needs movie stars like Nicolas Cage to keep the world spinning.

Grade: B+

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent will be released in theaters on April 22, 2022 from Lionsgate.

Photo: Katalin Vermes