Film: ‘The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent’ Is Maximalist And Muddled
metroweekly.comVampire’s Kiss and The Wicker Man alongside lesser-known obscurities like 1991’s erotic spectacle Zandalee and 1993’s noir-ish flop Deadfall, the video expertly served up four minutes of Nicolas Cage screaming his gills off.
Cage fans and skeptics alike ate it up.That cut inspired other highlight reels — Nicolas Cage laughing, Nicolas Cage being silent — but it also presaged a decade in which Cage was often treated more as meme than human.
Younger generations encountered Cage’s face plastered onto sequin pillows, novelty mugs, and reaction GIFs, but did they realize the man was among the best actors of his generation, responsible for transcendent performances in films as varied as Moonstruck, Leaving Las Vegas, and Face/Off?The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (★★☆☆☆) is the first Nicolas Cage movie that seems designed to mimic the experience of watching one of those supercuts — albeit stretched to 107 minutes.
Starring Cage as “Nick Cage,” a fictionalized version of himself, this flashy, metatextual action-comedy hybrid has been marketed as not just the new Nicolas Cage movie, but the “most Nicolas Cage movie ever.”Yet its affectionate pastiche is too calculated for its own good, never summoning the uncontrollable emotion or bug-eyed intensity of Cage’s, well, Cage-iest performances.
Read more on metroweekly.com