From Normal to Nic: Nicolas Cage performances ranked in order of weirdness
Sometimes he's normal (Moonstruck) and sometimes he's not (Vampire's Kiss), but he's always Nic Cage
Film Features Nicolas Cage
Lots of people love Nicolas Cage, but for very different reasons. To some cinephiles, he’s an Oscar-winner who finds the souls of the troubled characters he inhabits. To others, he’s an action hero urging bad guys not to mess with his daughter’s plush bunny if they hope to escape alive. And to many on the Internet, he’s a meme machine, known for out-of-context clips of him yelling things like “No! Not the bees!” or “How … in the name of Zeus’ butthole?”
Like the metaphorical blind men touching different parts of the elephant, everyone’s right, but not necessarily seeing the whole picture. Nicolas Cage is all these things, and more. A dedicated actor with a self-described “neo-shamanic” technique, he runs the gamut from normal to, well, Nic squared. It’s not a straight linear timeline of evolution, either, but in honor of his latest role playing Bela Lugosi’s Dracula in Renfield, we’ve lined up some of his greatest hits in ascending order of madness. Come join us on our journey, as a leading man becomes the lead maniac in 19 cinematic steps.
24 Comments
Raising Arizona and Mandy not present. List is a waste of electrons.
Even him in Drive Angry is worth adding on the list because it’s stupid Fun and Cage is just so Cage in it. Also why isn’t The Rock on this list or even gone in 60 seconds which was plan Cage or even Snake Eyes? My god the man did so many movies from the 90’s to mid 00’s.
And no Red Rock West, which was his best “normal” performance.
Also Peggy Sue Got Married.
Raising Arizona is Nic pretty restrained as a goofball character, and I believe it’s one of his best movies.
Came here to say exactly this. Once I saw they weren’t mentioned I didn’t bother to read any of it.
Arizona is my all-time favorite movie, and if you’re going to start a list at most normal performance that’s the one I’d put up there. And no Rock? The article correctly points out that this is what put him on the map as a potential action star, and it’s a quirky enough performance that it could probably come in mid-teens.
This was so obviously the correct #1 pick:
Also no Deadfall, which is terrible but worth watching for Cage’s scenes
Bringing out the Dead seems like a big omission too if only because it’s his only team-up with Marty.
Raising Arizona isn’t here? That’s a farking Coen classic. And where TF is Joe? I didn’t personally care for it, but it’s stand out performance. Time To Kill? I think Cage pulled out one of his own teeth for that one.Ugh. This place.
Also, supremely surprised that “Color Out of Space” didn’t make this list.
And “The Cotton Club”. Where’s that? This seem like a list of films the writer could remember off of the top off their head put in some kind of order. Rigor, people. I want rigor.
RAISING ARIZONA !!!!!!!!
I’m not sure where this lies on the spectrum. It’s weird as a whole, but he’s also rather restrained compared to his later stuff.
I agree, not sure where to put it but to ignore it completely was an oversight.
I’d say “Most Normal,” while admitting I haven’t seen everything the man’s done. He’s sort of the straight man in the story and his droll performance holds everything together.I was going to post a clip but I can’t settle on one. Pure masterpiece.
I don’t find it to be restrained. But I respect your POV. I thought his performance was wonderfully ‘manic’ and unrestrained. The robbery scenes are gold.
He has a few screaming scenes, but mostly he’s very quiet and hangdog, confused at the weirdness going on around him. He never explodes in anger or panic the way you expect Cage to. He hauls off on Glenn but he’s still just quietly seething — “Keep your goddamn hands off my wife”. Even when the store owner starts shooting at him, he just has this resigned look of “Oh, THIS now?”The only time he really snaps is when Gale is taking the baby and he’s locking and loading to get him back. Which I just realized and now I love it even more.
It’s hard to gauge because so many of the characters around him are weirder, plus the situation they’re in.
Lots of misses on this list. Drive Angry, Raising Arizona, Mandy. Bringing out the Dead, 8MM. Amos & Andrew, because it’s Nic Cage AND Samuel L. Jackson.Prisoners of Ghostland is also a wacky Nic Cage ride that definitely should have been included. It’s one of my favorites of his(most recent work), which only recently moved down my list order of faves due to Unbearable Weight(which I may have to watch after having dropped some acid. Because solidarity!)Very glad, though, that you didn’t miss The Weatherman, which has been one of my top faves of his for a long time. Not even solely because of him and his performance, but because it’s just a fantastic movie all around.
Sorry I’m gonna need another way to judge Nic Cage performances
ehhhh thanks for the cool insights AV Club people. Between the recent changes on the home screen to the quality of the articles taking a severe nose dive, this is the end for me. Happy trails.