The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

I have never been more pleased to eat crow on an artist than I have been with Nicolas Cage. In the 80's and 90's, I just didn't get him. I found him average at best, and distracting at worst, and I really didn't think he earned his Oscar for Leaving Las Vegas. After the 90's, he faded into direct-to-video hell as he tried to escape financial issues, and thus I didn't even think about him. But his renaissance over the past few years has been nothing short of amazing, and I have had to come to terms with the fact that ... I like Nic Cage now. Not just as a meme, but for genuine acting ability. He's still a somewhat unique tool in the toolbox of Hollywood, but when used right, the dude cooks. He was a blast in Willy's Wonderland, he made the best use of his eccentricities in Color Of Out Space, and he deserved an Oscar for Pig. I'm a convert to the church of Cage, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. So along comes this movie, which, in concept, threatened to topple over with self-satire and winking and nudging at the meme of Nic Cage. It's one thing to take the piss out of oneself, but a whole movie acknowledging and lightly popping the balloon of the whole Nic Cage Thing could be too much. So I'm relieved and delighted to say that not only does this movie not fall into its own trap, it rises above and becomes something else. A bonkers love letter to the fans, to the meme, to himself, and to the movie-making process, all while being humble enough to revel in the ridiculous audacity of it all. Nic Cage plays Nic Cage (and also NIC FUCKINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN-AAAAAAAAAAAAAY CAGE! ... trust me, you'll understand when you watch). He's not getting good roles. He's a laughing stock. His daughter doesn't understand him, and his ex-wife is annoyed by him. He's wrapped up in his own schtick. He gets an offer to appear at a birthday party for one million dollars and, as he is in financial peril, takes the offer. What transpires from there ... I'm not gonna spoil it, but the path it takes is both as crazy as he is and totally logical. What made this movie for me is the feeling of fun that permeates every scene. Cage and Pedro Pascal are having the time of their friggin' lives here, and it is effortless. Their chemistry is undeniable and hilarious and touching. I want more of these two in the same movie acting with each other. It's Bogart/Bergman, it's Stewart/Kelly, it's Farley/Spade. That's not to say the rest of the cast isn't doing fine jobs, but this movie is owned, lock, stock, and barrel, by Cage and Pascal. Hell, I haven't been 100% on the Pascal-is-awesome train, and this movie may have changed my mind. I had a non-stop smile on my face, and I'm smiling again thinking about it, especially the scene at the wall. Funniest stupid scene I've seen in a movie in a long time. There's a lot of references, both direct and indirect, to past Cage movies, and they run the gamut from Face/Off to Guarding Tess, but the movie never feels like it's beating you over the head with fan service. There isn't forced attempts to re-do scenes from other movies (Halloween 2018, I'm looking at you). In fact, more than any movie I've seen, the references in Unbearable Weight are necessary, because this movie is, in some part, about a reckoning. A man coming to terms with the image and identity he's created and been consumed by, and how he can become more than that image. How he is already more than that image, and he's just forgotten about it. So the movie NEEDS those references as a touchstone of sorts, to mark how Cage has become who he is, and where he needs to go to become who he should be. If it sounds like this movie is trying to juggle this profound journey of self-discovery and reinvention with a blend of slapstick and OTT humor, yes, it is. But that's kind of the point of the movie, and the movie knows it. There are strong meta aspects to the movie, but again, done so without putting an elbow in the viewer's ribs. If the movie were serious, it would be feeding into the whole Nic Cage meme image, not poking fun at it. If it were all comedy, the satire would fall flat. It has to acknowledge both sides to work, and it does, with remarkable, almost unbelievable, skill. Nothing about this movie works on paper, and yet, everything works about it in practice. Everything. I cannot point to a single moment as not working, and I tried. I scoured the thing, looking for that moment of weakness, that step too far in one direction or the other, and I couldn't find one. Maybe I'm being hyperbolic, maybe it's recency bias. But as I sit here right now, I can say I loved every minute of it and wouldn't change a moment.