Reader’s note: This column has been in the works since the 30th of July 2024. Welcome to the Cage.
As Critic’s designated pop culture expert, I have been a fan of films for a very long time. This often manifested as becoming obsessed with one particular actor's work in a given moment (in 2023 it was Bill Hader, for example). Most recently it has been Nicolas Cage. Nicolas. Fucking Cage. My journey started when head designer Evie and I went and saw Longlegs starring the Cage. It was fine. 3 stars out of 5. Fell flat in the end but I was so invested in Cage’s odd performance. The makeup, the vocal delivery, and the facial expressions made all five minutes he was on screen so captivating.
Cage has been a prominent actor since the 1980s and has even won an Academy Award. In two of my favourite sitcoms, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Community, characters in the show have binge-watched all of his films. In the episode Safe House from Brooklyn Nine-Nine two of the characters are in a safe house with their only entertainment being every Nicolas Cage film (which one character is enthused about and the other is not but eventually comes around.) In the second episode of season five of Community, Introduction to Teaching, the residential film nerd Abed takes a class called 'Nicolas Cage: Good or Bad?’ where it drives him crazy trying to figure it out. I am willing to drive myself crazy to find out. I also want to use this as an opportunity to explore the tropes of his films, as well as film through the decades he appeared in film (1980-present).
I really love Adaption, which is super meta and odd. Conceptually I think Pig is cool (it’s like John Wick but pig instead of dog) but I found it rather boring. Cage did a lot of voice acting in kids films like G-Force, The Ant Bully, and The Croods. Other films I have seen are Con Air (stacked cast, awful performance), Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse (incredible), It Could Happen to You (fun enough) and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent where he plays himself and gets recruited by the CIA to take down a drug dealer who is a big fan of the Cage. He swings from bizarre, to Oscar nom, to action star, to rom-com lead. As Jake Peralta put it: “The guy’s got range!”
I began chronologically and used Wikipedia, Letterboxd, and IMDB to make sure I have the complete collection. Brubaker was first on the list, a film where he has an uncredited role as a prisoner. I did not see him but it was a decent film. The next film-thing, kinda, was a TV pilot called The Best of Times and it is clear Cage has been confusing from the start. He goes from singing 9 to 5 in a car wash in dungarees to having a monologue about how he is scared of being drafted into the war and ruining his future. This was insane and I’m amazed Evie watched half of it with me but I understand why she wanted the journey to stop. Fast Times at Ridgemont High was a rather awful film I don’t recommend and that’s not just because it lacks much presence from the Cage. The Outsiders is directed by Francis Ford Coppola (and isn’t that good). This is the last film where he is credited as Nicolas Coppola before he changed his name to Cage to avoid the nepo-baby allegations since he is FFC’s nephew. He chose the name Cage after Luke Cage and John Cage. Cool.
Total films watched: 4/137
Cageiness: Manageable
Welfare Check: No concerns at this time