Nicolas Cage plays himself – multiple times – in The Unbearable Weight Of Massive TalentPhoto: Lionsgate
In The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent, Nicolas Cage makes out with himself. Literally.
Not only will this tell you if you’re the target audience for The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent, but it should be more than enough to make you want to pre-order your tickets before you finish reading this sentence. This is a movie for the person who has bookmarked YouTube clips of Cage screaming the alphabet in Vampire’s Kiss. Who drops “NOT THE BEES!”? in conversations whether it is relevant or not. And who has at least thought of ordering pajamas that have Cage’s face excited when a website offers them online? You will feel seen.
Considering how many mediocre movie fans have persevered to be considered a Cage completist, The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent is a well-deserved reward. “Pay The Ghost” might debunk the actor’s claim that he’s never called at a performance, and “Left Behind” might live up to its title, but director Tom Gormican and co-writer and executive producer Kevin Etten deliver the ultimate Cage experience, with the possible exception of Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, which may never be surpassed. This is the best possible version of one of those direct-to-video movies and everything a fan of Cage could want.
The unbearable weight of massive talent
B+
B+
The unbearable weight of massive talent
Pour
Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal, Sharon Horgan, Lily Sheen, Tiffany Haddish, Ike Barinholtz
Availability
Theatrical release on April 22nd
How that might play out to more casual Cage fans, who know him mostly from things like Leaving Las Vegas and Moonstruck, remains to be seen. But as a meta comment on fandom in general, it’s refreshing to see a superfan who looks more like Pedro Pascal than the Simpsons comic book guy, especially in a world where so-called “geek” franchises like Star Wars and Marvel exist are popular with a wide cross-section of society.
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The real Nicolas Cage is said to be quite shy. Cage, who appears in The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent, is loud, talkative and narcissistic, with a career in decline and estranged relationships with wife Olivia (Sharon Horgan) and daughter Addy (Lily Sheen). The child of Michael Sheen and Kate Beckinsale, Sheen has real-life experiences as a celebrity daughter, but the creation of this fictional family alleviates potential copyright issues for Cage’s real-life ones, as his own child is named after DC’s First Son of Krypton, Kal-. El.
Depressed, drunk and about to quit acting, Cage accepts an offer worth millions to attend a wealthy fan’s birthday party in Mallorca. Javi (Pedro Pascal) hopes Cage will like his script and star in a movie with him, but their fast-paced friendship is shaken when it emerges that the superfan is the head of a big crime family, complete with a kidnapped girl who hidden in his fortress-like compound. Two CIA agents, played by Tiffany Haddish and Ike Barinholtz (reunion from The Oath), use Cage’s paternal guilt to coerce him into spying for them.
As an excuse to spy longer, Cage convinces Javi to collaborate on a new script that unsurprisingly mirrors the film viewers are watching. It’s a slick riff on adaptation, especially as the actor once again plays two roles – “today’s” Cage and young “Nicky” from his Wild At Heart era, who appears as a hallucination to admonish his modern-day self.
Gormican and Etten’s knowledge of Cage is detailed enough for the film to repeatedly drop phrases like “Nouveau Shamanic,” a term he used in real life to describe his acting technique. Of course, they favor the jittery, bellowing Cage over his more reserved alter egos, leaving Pascal to take care of the more human moments. In fact, Javi proves so lovable that the filmmakers may give him a pass for some of his bad behavior, but they follow him with a twist that justifies the choice.
If the film were only unforgettable moments, it could run out of steam, even when Cage delivers them practically non-stop. Luckily, there’s an actual plot that allows everyone else (and the movie as a whole) to spoof less Cage-specific tropes. At the same time, by idolizing Cage’s nouveau-shamanic style—as he is—the film even takes time to poke fun at method acting, while casting a bit of a shadow over actors like Jared Leto, who swear by the practice.
Giving Cage a scolding Irish ex-wife is a good choice, and Horgan not only serves up righteous authenticity, but occasionally outdoes him with a well-placed “fookin’ Jaysus!” However, none of his co-stars can take his inevitably insta-viral Topping the signature line, “Nic FUCKIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING Cage,” which he screams with just as much unique, unforgettable intensity as you’d expect.
Again, that’s probably all you need to hear. But while metatextual storytelling can sometimes feel a bit too much like filmmakers chasing their own tail, The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent offers viewers a unique and welcome alternative: Nicolas Cage sticking his tongue out a bit.