\n<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve reached the point in Nicolas Cage\u2019s career when it\u2019s easiest to refer to every new movie he\u2019s in by just describing his antics in them. Dracula Cage, terrible boss \u2014 that\u2019s \u201cRenfield.\u201d Moody chef Cage, retriever of beloved animal \u2014 that\u2019s \u201cPig.\u201d Serial killer Cage, servant of Satan \u2014 that\u2019s \u201cLonglegs.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tactic works because it\u2019s easy to imagine Cage donning any of those guises, and a thousand more besides. Many a commenter has noted Cage\u2019s propensity for roles that can be described only as crazy, but the actor\u2019s career is too expansive, and often more nuanced, to be reduced to his unhinged characters. Tell me he\u2019s going to play, I don\u2019t know, a ballet master or a mob boss or an enraged father (as in his latest movie, \u201cThe Surfer\u201d) and I\u2019ll believe you, because Cage has proved that he contains multitudes, over and over again. Sometimes he even plays more than one guy in the same movie \u2014 as in my favorite of his films, \u201cAdaptation,\u201d in which he appears as twins.<\/p>\n
That means the best way to get a grip on Cage as an artist is to consider him through his many faces. Even when he occasionally takes that face, um, off<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2018Moonstruck\u2019 (1987)<\/p>\n Early on, Cage worked to establish a career apart from his family name. (The \u201cGodfather\u201d director Francis Ford Coppola is his uncle, and the directors Roman and Sofia Coppola and the actor Jason Schwartzman are his cousins.) He managed it swiftly in a string of movies that included many performances as a tousled, passionate, somewhat unpredictable young man. What shines through each is a full-bodied commitment to whatever the character\u2019s emotional reality is \u2014 all the roiling desires, the suffering, the ecstasy.<\/p>\n A great representative performance from this era is his turn as the lovelorn hothead Ronny, who\u2019s smitten with his brother\u2019s fianc\u00e9e (Cher) in the 1987 romantic comedy \u201cMoonstruck<\/a>.\u201d Ronny may be missing a hand thanks to a freak bread-slicer accident, but he\u2019s not missing any gallantry, rough-hewn as it is. It\u2019s a charming, uncouth, amorous role, and versions of that Cage show up in the Coen brothers\u2019 \u201cRaising Arizona\u201d (1987) and David Lynch\u2019s \u201cWild at Heart\u201d (1990).<\/p>\n (Stream \u201cMoonstruck\u201d on the Roku Channel<\/a> and the Criterion Channel<\/a>, or rent it on most major platforms<\/a>.)<\/p>\n \u2018Con Air\u2019 (1997)<\/p>\n Many a broad-shouldered Hollywood man has turned to stunt-filled flicks, and Cage is no exception. A lot of action films are as flimsy as the paper the script was printed on, but when he seems invested in the role, Cage often brings them some heft. In \u201cCon Air\u201d<\/a> (1997), for instance, the movie around him is rather silly \u2014 he\u2019s the former-inmate hero on a transport plane full of convicts \u2014 but there\u2019s something soulful and textured about his work that goes far beyond what the film requires. And he can also throw a convincing punch.<\/p>\n (Rent \u201cCon Air\u201d on most major platforms<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Cage tends to bring out his weirdest performances for films with small enough budgets to let the filmmakers go wild. There\u2019s a good chance you haven\u2019t seen a lot of these, though the 2018 revenge fantasia \u201cMandy\u201d garnered a considerable cult following.<\/p>\n Seeing Cage in Osgood Perkins\u2019s \u201cLonglegs<\/a>\u201d during the hottest days of 2024 certainly seemed like the apex of this character, the sort of role that haunts you long after the movie is over. As a serial killer terrorizing young girls and their families, he\u2019s very nearly unrecognizable, skin bleached out and jowls added to stringy hair and a terrifying grin that made me want to disappear behind my popcorn bucket. This kind of role is less about Cage being strange and more about his willingness to do anything for a performance, no matter how unrecognizable he is.<\/p>\n (Stream \u201cLonglegs\u201d on Hulu<\/a> or rent it on most major platforms<\/a>.)<\/p>\n \u2018The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent\u2019 (2022)<\/p>\n Cage knows he has a public reputation for being intense, explosive, a little deranged and prolific, a kind of living, breathing meme. In recent years, he\u2019s leaned into that persona as a bit of a joke. The 2023 drama \u201cDream Scenario\u201d played on this: He portrays a hapless professor who starts showing up in the dreams of scores of strangers and at first enjoys the media attention it brings. It\u2019s a movie about the delights and dangers of widespread fame, which he certainly knows something about.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s really in \u201cThe Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent<\/a>\u201d (2022) that he lets this winking, self-knowing face show. He plays the actor Nick Cage, who\u2019s hanging out with a superfan (Pedro Pascal). It\u2019s full of wry references to Cage\u2019s best-known movies, a comedy about being the Nick Cage we think we know. <\/p>\n (Rent \u201cThe Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent\u201d on most major platforms.<\/a>)<\/p>\n \u2018The Sorcerer\u2019s Apprentice\u2019 (2010)<\/p>\n Look, everybody needs to pay the bills. Cage has occasionally gotten himself in financial hot water, with his real estate sprees and wackadoodle purchases (a $276,000 dinosaur skull) drawing attention from the news media.<\/p>\n You can usually tell when Hollywood actors have debts to pay, because they start taking inexplicable roles (and sometimes commercial endorsements). In Cage\u2019s case, though, the paycheck movies get more boring \u2014 no greater example than the 2010 version of \u201cThe Sorcerer\u2019s Apprentice<\/a>.\u201d Cage brings some eccentricity but mostly a sense of obligation to the somewhat lifeless remake of the Disney classic. Which is all that script calls for.<\/p>\n (Stream \u201cThe Sorcerer\u2019s Apprentice\u201d on Disney+<\/a> or rent it on most major platforms<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Here\u2019s the thing: Cage is a great actor. Not just because he has range, but also because he has great depths and can plumb them, especially for less showy roles. His only Oscar came in 1996, for Mike Figgis\u2019s \u201cLeaving Las Vegas\u201d as an alcoholic screenwriter who\u2019s decided to drink himself to death. In \u201cCity of Angels\u201d (1998), \u201cBringing Out the Dead\u201d (1999) and \u201cJoe\u201d (2014), he takes on similarly dramatic roles with unforgettable results.<\/p>\n One of his greatest performances came in the 2021 character drama \u201cPig<\/a>,\u201d in which he plays a bereaved, furious chef who journeys through the Portland culinary scene and its underworld in search of his beloved truffle-hunting pig, which has been stolen from him. His character is taciturn, a mountain of a man who seems both fully controlled and ready to erupt, and Cage keeps you on your toes the whole way. Near the end, he cooks a meal with a very specific purpose, and it\u2019s utterly indelible.<\/p>\n (Stream \u201cPig\u201d on Paramount+<\/a> or rent it on most major platforms<\/a>.)<\/p>\n \u2018Adaptation\u2019 (2002)<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to nail down Nicolas Cage. What he\u2019s doing in any given movie can vacillate and swing around and run off the rails, and sometimes it\u2019s just hard to say anything definitive about the role. In \u201cAdaptation<\/a>\u201d (2002), he plays both the screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (who actually wrote the screenplay) and his fictional twin brother, Donald. Charlie is an obsessive, sweaty, stressed-out ball of anxiety, while Donald is breezy and brash and confident in a way he hasn\u2019t really earned. It is a bananas movie, delightful and strange. But watching Cage play temperamentally opposed twins next to one another, you start to see how much he contains, what his long, expressive face can do.<\/p>\n Cage\u2019s latest film, \u201cThe Surfer,\u201d could be summarized this way: Business Guy Cage gets stranded in a parking lot at the beach for reasons that would approach the Kafka-esque if they weren\u2019t so driven by his bruised ego. Then he slowly goes nuts while being bullied by an Australian surfer wellness cult under the oppressive sun. You might think you know what his performance will be like from that description, but you\u2019d probably be a little wrong, because there\u2019s one thing that\u2019s always true of Cage: just when you get a handle on him, he shows you something you\u2019ve never seen before.<\/p>\nThe Sincere Love Interest<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\nThe Action Star<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\nThe Self-Parodist<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\nThe \u2018I Need a Paycheck\u2019 Guy<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\nThe Chameleon<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n