The unbearable weight of The A.V. Club’s favorite Nicolas Cage performances
From Moonstruck to Mandy, it’s time to weigh in on one of cinema’s most charismatic oddballs
Film Features Nicolas Cage
From left: Pig (Photo: Neon), The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent (Photo: Katalin Vermes), Mandy (Photo: XYZ Films), Moonstruck (Screenshot). Graphic: Libby McGuire
Ahead of April 22’s The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, the highly anticipated Nicolas Cage movie starring Nicolas Cage as Nicolas Cage, The A.V. Club’s film buffs weigh in on one of cinema’s most charismatic oddballs. The question is simple: What is your favorite Nicolas Cage performance, and why?
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Anyone else here ever have a question get its own AVQ&A? Here’s mine:https://www.avclub.com/what-works-do-you-enjoy-more-because-they-re-so-ridicul-1798280159
I wasn’t acknowledged, probably because so many people asked the same one: What band or work of art did you avoid because of its reputation or out of embarrassment?
a misunderstood beast raging against the rejection of his good intentions
I don’t recall him having much of in the way of good intentions after the opening where he injures himself helping a prisoner. Instead he just does a lot of bad stuff and gets away with it (I recall partly by framing a criminal for some of his own actions).
There is plenty of that, but the movie does a fascinating job demarcating where his substance abuse has led him vis-a-vis how he sees himself and the justification for his “professional” behavior.
There’s no denying the character is a full-on anti-hero, so you just gotta go with it and admire the way he goes about setting up the circular firing squad (among admittedly very bad people) while he skips away.
No Vampire’s Kiss? GTFO.
Yes! Thank you! I know that flick has become more well known as “the movie the meme is from” but his performance in that is wild and the movie itself is a trip. Highly underrated in my opinion.
I like Cage in Raising Arizona, but the best performance in that film was the old guy in the gas station who delivers the line “Not unless you think round’s funny.”
I can’t stop laughing just thinking about that line.
And the other old guy at the bank. “What’s it gonna be young fella? If’n we freeze, we can’t rightly drop. And if we drop, we’s gonna be in motion.”“Okay then.” (an acknowledgement of giving in that I use frequently to this day).Every character in that movie is straight-up fucking gold. My all-time, number 1 favorite movie.
my brother and I drove our parents nuts as kids the number of times we rented this movie.
Man, this is an uncommon take. But absolutely spot on.
“You hear that? We’re using code names.”
My favorite is “son, you got a panty on your head”
I have never changed a diaper without thinking, “They’re self-contained and fairly explanatory.”
I love how Cage whispers “I’m sorry” to the psychopath biker who has been beating the hell out of him, just as the biker notices the about-to-explode grenade hanging off himself.
“Her womb was a rocky place where my seed could find no purchase.”
I know it’s incredible understated/regular in comparison to these picks, but his first time out as an action star in The Rock is really good.“Carla ‘was’ the prom queen.”
“Well my, uh… I’m Stanley Goodspeed!”
I would remove “..Port Of Call”—which wasn’t good on release, is more overwrought ham than Pig (ahem) and has not aged well— and insert “Peggy Sue Got Married”. His performance directed lovingly by Uncle Francis, has all kinds of nuance/flavors/layers while he plays young and old with some genuinely heart breaking moments. “Willy’s Wonderland” made me laugh because he is silent thoughout yet manages to speak loud scene chewing volumes with his eyes and body language.
WE’RE THE FLYIN’ ELVISES, UTAH CHAPTER! Damn I love that movie.
Adaptation. It’s incredible how there’s really no difference in hair, makeup, or general appearance in that movie, and yet you can instantly tell the difference between Charlie and Donald.
Honorable mention: the Werewolf Women of the S.S. trailer in Grindhouse. “And Nicolas Cage as… Fu Manchu”. Not only does it let Cage go full Cage for a few seconds, but it’s also a great joke on how Fu Manchu was always played by white guys in yellow face.
I’m still trying to wrap my old brain around the fact that Cage was twenty-freaking-TWO years old when he did Raising Arizona.
Swap out Honeymoon in Vegas for Leaving Las Vegas?
I would add: Adaptation; Vampire’s Kiss; and let’s not forget VALLEY GIRL! Nicolas Cage is a national treasure. When you look back at all of the amazing movies he’s been in, you can forgive the less amazing ones. I assume he is like Michael Cain: the man just enjoys the job of acting.
Honeymoon in Vegas is an underrated gem.“We’re the Flying Elvises….Utah chapter.”
The second half of Mandy didn’t live up to the first half of Mandy. It’s not bad by any means, but Nicolas Cage, unhinged, screaming “They lit her on fire!” promises a level of mayhem notably higher than what we get.
speed-metal fever-dream —> speed metal fever dreamIt Can Happen To You —> It Could Happen To Youstar-power —> star poweronscreen / on-screen —> pick oneThe Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent / The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent —> pick one
You, sir, are good people.