The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent

This is a version of a review airing on ABC Radio across regional Victoria on April 28, 2022.

(M) ★★★★

Director: Tom Gormican.

Cast: Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal, Sharon Horgan, Lily Sheen, Tiffany Haddish, Ike Barinholtz, Alessandra Mastronardi, Neil Patrick Harris.

Jokes - not for everyone.

The post-modern thing of an actor playing themselves in a film has a couple of stellar examples - Being John Malkovich is a modern classic, while Jean-Claude van Damme's little-seen JCVD attracted the best reviews of his career.  

You can add to that list this wonderfully absurd comedy in which Nicolas Cage plays himself and his insane alter-ego Nicky Cage. It's hard to imagine anyone else being able to deliver such a high-wire act of naturalism and self-parody, or anyone else with the chops, balls and craziness to pull it off.

Perhaps that's why director Tom Gormican pursued Cage (who turned it down three or four times) so hard for the role. No other actor has the actual acting capabilities, action hero cred, and bonkers mythology to make this work.

Cage plays a fictionalised version of himself who is washed up and on the verge of quitting acting. When a billionaire uber-fan (Pascal) hires Cage to be a celebrity guest at his birthday party, an unwitting friendship is born. But the CIA is lurking on the periphery, hoping Cage will help them solve a kidnapping case with geopolitical implications.

Part-buddy comedy, part-goofy actioner, part-Cage-spotting worship-athon, The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent is unexpectedly hilarious, fun, and clever. It unfolds in a pleasingly predictable manner, but is elevated by Cage's willingness to go along with everything and his utterly charming partnership with Pascal. The latter makes for a wonderful foil to Cage's dynamism, bringing a wide-eyed charm to mega-fan Javi.

The meta-ness of Cage playing Cage is a highlight, but even more so when he's playing "Nicky Cage" - a Vampire's Kiss era version of himself that is utterly insane. Equally fun and meta is the film script that Javi and Cage start writing together and the way it mirrors what actually plays out in The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent. It's this sharpness that elevates this beyond being a one-note joke.

The supporting cast beyond Pascal, particularly Horgan and Haddish, is great, and everything moves at a good pace. The finale is suitably meta, and helps the whole thing lock together. And it's funny - one of the funnier movies to hit the big screen in a while.

No one else could have worked as well in the lead role of this particular movie, so kudos to Gormican for pursuing Cage, and kudos to Cage for having enough self-awareness and courage to go along with it.