Where to watch: ‘The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent’ is now playing in theaters nationwide.
Nicolas Cage, Hollywood’s mightiest cheese, stands alone. His specific style of comically exaggerated showmanship is renowned, praised, and singular unto himself. His larger-than-life, over-the-top performances channel Brando, using his intense instincts and manic energy to not just bring his characters, but every movie he’s in, to life.
And while over-delivery might plague the career of any other person, Cage’s performances never feel false. The beauty, purity, and dare I say genius of Nicolas Cage is that his highly theatrical acting feels like it comes not from a place of caricature but of real passion. It comes from the connection he makes to what’s on the script’s pages.
In the second half of his career, Nicolas Cage and his manic style have also been re-appreciated in this post-modern internet age, where audiences’ connection to pop culture now also comes with an implicitly ironic consumption. Which makes his starring role–as himself–in the very meta movie The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent a move to complete this Cage-issance.
In The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Nicolas Cage stars as “Nick Cage”–a Hollywood actor who’s scrambling to land his next big hit. Although he’s a movie star, he’s also not above giving impromptu auditions to directors in line at the valet of the Chateau Marmont. Here, he’s equal parts passionate student of the craft, as well as obnoxiously ego-centric A-lister.
This “Nick Cage” is a star that’s driven by his love of show biz and his own star power, but with insecurities as well. But he’s got his ego in his corner to pop up and give him pep talks: a leather jacket-wearing bad boy-era version of Cage named “Nicky” (fun fact: Cage is double-credited in the film for “Nicky” as Nicolas Kim Coppola, his real birth name). Nicky constantly fuels Nick’s ego that the next hit film will bring him (them) back; while re-assuring him, “Not that we ever left.”
Cage’s drive for his career has made him succeed but it’s driven his family away. His ex-wife (Sharon Horgan) and daughter (Lily Mo Sheen) are clearly past the point of tolerating Cage’s self-interest, leaving Cage more alone on most fronts. He thinks landing the next big film will bring his family together, while his family thinks that would only keep them apart.
And so, a now-desperate (and cash-strapped) Cage takes the next gig that lands from his agent (Neil Patrick Harris): a birthday appearance for a wealthy superfan Javi (Pedro Pascal). A reluctant Cage agrees but not before he’s intercepted by CIA agents Vivan (Tiffany Hadish) and Martin (Ike Barinholtz) who inform him that Javi’s also a Spanish crime lord who kidnapped a rival’s family member.
It’s a fun twist that gives Cage a role to play: undercover spy. But Javi is so earnest and kind to Cage that a bromance ensues (he agrees to read a script that Javi wrote). The story deepens as Cage gets closer to Javi, conflicted about his new friend who he’s agreed to trap–if Javi really is the crime lord that the CIA thinks they’re after.
Directed by Tom Gormican (That Awkward Moment), The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is a crowd-pleasing comedy that I very much enjoyed watching on the big screen with a packed audience. Gormican’s script (which he co-wrote with Kevin Etten) succeeds as both an entertaining action-comedy as well as a Hollywood satire where broad comedy and inside jokes that call back to Cage’s career are fun throughout.
As the top-billed stars and central relationship here, Cage and Pascal are wonderful together. Their chemistry is right, with Pascal playing sensitive super-fan to Cage in just the right ways. Perhaps the funniest scene of the movie, in which Nick agrees to take LSD as inspiration for them to write a movie script together, is just hilarious fun. Their comic pairing delights throughout, keeping you on edge for what happens at the end of the film.
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is a fun time at the movies that will make you remember the greatness of Cage.
1h 47m. Distributed by Lionsgate. Rated R for language throughout, some sexual references, drug use, and violence.
