Nicolas Cage might be the internet’s favorite actor. With his wild film performances and equally unhinged personal life, the man is a walking meme. Acknowledging and paying tribute to this status, Cage now stars as himself in the new meta-comedy The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, which just might be the most Nic Cage movie he’s ever made.
The film follows a fictionalized Cage as he grapples with the prospect of retirement after losing a big leading role in a promising new movie. Desperate for work, he accepts a million-dollar proposition to attend a reclusive billionaire’s birthday party on a remote Spanish island. Unbeknownst to Cage, however, the CIA believes this billionaire (Pedro Pascal) to be an international arms dealer and sends the unfortunate actor deep undercover to infiltrate his operation.
This movie is openly being marketed as “The Nic Cage Movie”, a reputation it entirely lives up to. There are so many deep-cut Easter Eggs and references to the hundred other films he’s starred in throughout his career scattered throughout this movie. Are you a fan of his Oscar-winning turn in Leaving Las Vegas? There are homages to that. Love Face/Off? This movie’s got you. Even fans of his later genre work will find a reason to cheer as the characters discuss how epic Mandy is. But it’s not just for fans of his films. Massive Talent is also ripe with meme-worthy line readings and bizarre acting choices from Cage that will certainly soon be added to “Nic Cage Freakout” montages on YouTube. In terms of film tributes to cult icons, Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent delivers on its promise to bask in the absurdity of this living legend.
Aside from the central conceptual gimmick of Nicolas Cage playing himself, the film actually works quite well as a buddy action-comedy. Pascal is hysterical as the mysterious Javi, never letting you in on if he truly is the monster we’ve been told he is. His chemistry with Cage is simply adorable as they get a wide range of comedic tones to play off each other, from farcical misunderstandings to slapstick. I also appreciated the casting decision to have Neil Patrick Harris play Cage’s agent in this film, not just because I’m an NPH fan, but also because Massive Talent essentially plays like a feature-length version of his cameos in the Harold and Kumar movies. It was nice to see the meta-comedy baton passed off to Nic Cage.
Massive Talent is a surprisingly sweet film at its core, with the central conflict revolving around Cage’s relationship with his fictional ex-wife and daughter. While it is somewhat confusing to wrap your head around why Nicolas Cage is himself but actors play his made-up family, it does pay off by the end and lends the film a respectable emotional core at the center of all its insanity. The film does struggle a bit in balancing all of these characters and drags slightly when they all have to catch each other up on the plot before the big action climax, but those are typical problems for an action-comedy to have, and they don’t detract that much from the strong concept and performances.
Ultimately, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent succeeds because it knows exactly what it’s doing. They’ve got Nicolas Cage in what is actually one of his best roles in years, acting off of material that allows him to be wound up and let go. Fans of his Nouveau Shamanic shenanigans rejoice, this movie is as wild as its star.
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