The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

Playing a fictional version of himself, Nicolas Cage stars alongside Pedro Pascal in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. This fictional Cage is one who is dissatisfied with how his career is going due to missing out on so many good roles and a family that he's not very close to. Before he decides to retire, Cage is offered a lot of money to hang out with a billionaire in Spain, played by Pascal, who is a huge fan of his. Once there, he is recruited by CIA agents to help them expose Javi, Pascal's character, as a drug dealer and kidnapper of a politician's daughter. If anyone deserves to portray themselves and deal with all the metaness of their career, Cage is the right pick due to his unique choices in projects, over the top performances, and often odd behavior. Having directed and cowritten with Kevin Etten, Tom Gormican gives a movie that is not only hilarious, but filled with good drama and very emotional moments that digs deep into Cage's method. While Cage is known for playing characters with ridiculous outbursts and yelling like a madman, this movie doesn't rely on that and instead gives us the story of a man dealing with his insecurities and where his career is heading. Plus Gormican gives some really inventive action scenes and some often call back to much of Cage's career. But the film's biggest standout is obviously Cage's performance, both the depressed regular version of himself and the over the top version we expect from him that he often imagines pushing him to go back to what made him popular. There's also Pascal who proves that he can be great in comedy due to his past mostly involving serious dramas. The fact that he himself is a genuine Nicolas Cage fan adds to their strong chemistry and makes the crazy things they go through feel believable. Nicolas Cage is one of those actors who give strong performances no matter how good or bad the movie will be and has played all sorts of characters throughout his filmography, so The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent proves that he will never fade and we'll be seeing more of him. Over all: 100%

2022 top list so far:

1. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

2. The Batman

3. Dog

4. Everything Everywhere All at Once

5. X 2022

6. Scream 2022

7. Uncharted