Overview
Having a bad day? Had a forgettable week, month or start to 2022 so far? Here's something that cures all woes: Nicolas Cage. It's impossible to be annoyed or frustrated when you're watching one of the greatest actors alive make on-screen magic as only he can, whether he's in an excellent or awful movie. And when he's going all in on being himself, as he is in the new trailer for The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, it's balm for even the crankiest and weariest of souls.
As announced back in 2021, and dropping its first sneak peek last year, too, Cage's new movie stars Cage as Cage — and he's visibly having a ball doing so. Whether the film itself turns out to be any good is clearly yet to be seen, but the Cage glimpsed in the two trailers so far knows everything that's ever been said or written about him, leans in and goes for broke. Serious Cage, comedic Cage, out-there Cage, OTT Cage, short-haired Cage, floppy-haired Cage, slick Cage, gun-toting Cage, every-facial-expression-imaginable Cage: they're all accounted for.
There is a story behind the film's excellent idea, obviously. The fictionalised Cage is in a career lull, and is even thinking about giving up acting, when he accepts an offer to attend a super fan-slash-billionaire's birthday. Getting paid $1 million is just too much to pass up, and he needs the money. But when it turns out that he's now working for and palling around with one of the most ruthless men on the planet (played by Pedro Pascal, Wonder Woman 1984), as a couple of intelligence agents (The Afterparty co-stars Tiffany Haddish and Ike Barinholtz) eventually tell him, things get mighty chaotic.
Also joining Cage playing Cage — not to be confused with his work in Adaptation, where he played two characters — are Sharon Horgan (This Way Up) and Neil Patrick Harris (The Matrix Resurrections). And, Are We Officially Dating? filmmaker Tom Gormican sits in the director's chair, because if there's anything else that this movie also needs, it's the director of a Zac Efron and Michael B Jordan-starring rom-com pivoting to total Cage worship.
Again, whether this'll be one of Cage's undeniable delights or pure cinematic mayhem won't be discovered until the film hits cinemas — but seeing him play and parody himself really does demand everyone's eyeballs. And, although we're never too far away from a new Cage project, nothing yet has indulged the world's collective case of Cage fever like this appears to.
That's the thing about Cage: when an actor adds new movies to their resume quickly — popping up in new flicks every couple of months or so, and never proving far from their next film — there's a chance they might run out of worthy on-screen opportunities, but that never applies to him. He's prolific, he stars in far too many terrible flicks, when he's at his best he's downright brilliant, and he always has something interesting around the corner.
In 2021 alone, he shouted expletives from Netflix, battled demonic animatronics and teamed up with one of Japan's most out-there filmmakers. He also played a truffle hunter on a quest for revenge after his pet pig is stolen, in the aptly named Pig, which was one of the year's definite movie highlights. The latter saw him turn in one of the best performances of his career, in fact, but Cage has obviously been preparing for The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent his entire life.
Yes, we've seen Cage break out of Alcatraz, sing Elvis songs, run around the streets convinced that he's a vampire, let his long hair flap in the wind and swap faces. He's voiced a version of Spider-Man, driven fast cars, fought space ninjas and stolen babies as well. Staying in his own shoes definitely stands out, though, with The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent hitting cinemas in April.
Check out the trailer for The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent below:
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent will release in Australian and New Zealand cinemas on April 21, 2022.