Here's a piece from 2022 in hypebeast: "Nicolas Cage Defends Himself Over Exaggerated 'Operatic' Acting Style/'You tell me where the top is and I’ll tell you whether or not I’m over it.'"
“It was my aunt Talia Shire who first said to me, ‘Naturalism is a style,’” [Cage] explained. “And I was also a big believer in arts synchronicity, and that what you could do with one art form you could do and another meaning. You know, in painting, for example, you can get abstract, you can get photorealistic, you can get impressionistic, why not try that with film performance?”
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So (good?/bad?) you can't not look.
Or, I am an obvious one-note Johnny but I can make it sound like I am doing this through a series of sophisticated artistic choices. I am a very self-conscious and studious aesthete. Take me seriously please!
Sometimes it's just fun. Would having your acting compared to Jim Carrey be an insult or a compliment?
He's not one-note. Leaving Las Vegas was a restrained role, and he won an Oscar for it. In Adaptation, he goes from normal to batshit crazy because that's what the script was going for. In Raising Arizona, he's weird, but that's standard for a Coen Brothers movie.
More often, unfortunately, when he's in a relatively quiet role, he's just not that interesting. See Matchstick Men or Dream Scenario.
The only way to go far enough- is to go too far every once and a while.
I don't mind "over the top" depends on the movie and the actor. Better than being a boring "realistic" actor - that puts you to sleep
Young star trek fans think Shatner's Captain Kirk is "over the top" which means they confuse over-the-top with Charisma. BTW, George C. Scott could go "over the top" and it was great.
You may be right, Tom. You have clearly seen more Cage movies than I. But because every movie I saw with Nicolas Cage had him as a loudly braying and obnoxious db, I stopped watching anything with Cage in it. Only a couple other actors (Jane F, Julia Roberts) have ever managed to determine my movie choices, but Cage is one of those. And who makes the choice to cast him? Never my cuppa.
I liked Cage in Moonstruck. There was some over-the-top (the "wolf"), but there was also a lot of sensitivity, but maybe I was at the age where I was a sucker for romantic comedies. I agree with RC that George C. Scott left us at least two indelible performances in Patton and Dr. Strangelove, both completely over-the-top! (One could add his roles in Anatomy of a Murder and the Hustler, but they were fitting for the characters.)
Cage is the example I would use to define the difference between destructive testing and non-destructive testing.
Cage is a destructive actor. Things may get broken, but the information you gain MAY be worth the loss.
As with all the arts, YMMV.
Peggy Sue Got Married is one of my favorite movies
I haven't come close to watching all of his movies. Some look silly as shite. But the ones I have seen, Cage being Cage, I'm okay with. Recently watched Red Rock West. (Started watching in error after searching for a different movie) B-. He played the hapless loner. Kinda enjoyed it.
"Peggy Sue Got Married is one of my favorite movies"
I like it too, but Kathleen Turner hated what Cage did. Cage only did the movie because his uncle (Coppola) agreed that he could do what he wanted (eg prosthetic teeth and high pitched voice). Turner later accused him of stealing a Chihuahua and got sued for defamation.
I'm going to watch a bunch of these movies on Criterion. I started with "Raising Arizona" (which I saw when it came out but didn't remember that much). I'm only halfway through, but I've formed the hypothesis that he's our greatest living actor.
Ethan Hawke said this about Cage: "He’s the only actor since Marlon Brando that’s actually done anything new with the art. He’s successfully taken us away from an obsession with naturalism into a kind of presentation style of acting that I imagine was popular with the old troubadours."
Community - Abed doing Nicholas Cage - "Oh! I'm a cat. I'm a sexy cat!"
Same episode, Troy Barnes - "I think he's a genius. I mean, he keeps getting hired for some reason, and its not because of his hair."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1XCUo_Uu8M
He's been in a lot of very entertaining movies. That doesn't happen by accident.
He's not boring, he takes risks, and when it works it's great. Moonstruck and Peggy Sue are among my favorite movies. Without Cage they might still have been great, but they would have been lesser movies. I have heard (sad if true) that he has to keep making movies because he can't hang on to his money.
I recently rewatched The Family Man and it held up very nicely. I also enjoyed Matchstick Men, but I may be in the minority on that one.
I've enjoyed some of his stuff. and i'm picky. really picky.
I liked him in "Wild at Heart" (1990)
Nick Cage played himself in a movie called "The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent." In the movie, current age Nick Cage makes out with "Valley Girls"-era Nick Cage. "Nick Cage smooches good!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cerGkJbGXkw
Highly recommend “Pig” from 2021. Cage is great, and it’s one of those films that spends most of its runtime appearing to be about one thing, and then flips a switch and you realize it’s been about something else, something deeper, all the while.
Special hat-tip to the boomer host - from SNL:
"It has the two key qualities of a classic Nick Cage action film. Number one - all of the dialog is either whispered or screamed..."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdA9_mtXYME
Dude does seem self-aware.
"asked myself what is Nicolas Cage trying to do with his acting?" That's a hard pass for me.
Of the movies of his I have seen and that are currently on the Criterion Channel, I thought "Adaptation" worked best.
But the reason I originally watched it was not for Cage, but because it was another collaboration between Spike Jonze (director) and Charlie Kaufman (writer). They also did "Being John Malkovich," which is also currently streaming on the Criterion Channel.
"Turner later accused him of stealing a Chihuahua and got sued for defamation."
Stealing a Chihuahua is an act of self-sacrifice. Accusing someone of it is not defamation, but high praise.
The Criterion Collection is a business. Lately they've featured Tom Cruise and Bruce Willis pictures, IIRC. They started with Bergman, Fellini and the French New Wave. Lately they've put out discs with the Forties/Fifties French films that Godard, Truffaut and the rest of the New Wave disdained. I suppose it's a service to keep movies alive, but Criterion/Janus isn't a non-profit.
The sitcom "Community" had an episode featuring a course called, "Nick Cage: Good or Bad" where the teacher and students went almost mad trying figure out if Cage was a great or a terrible actor.
Kai, fair enough. Cage made a ton of bad movies to work off big tax debt (incurred due to wasting his money on purchases like a dinosaur skull).
Just finished The Orchid Thief when I came on this post. What a great movie.
Sorry, I meant Adaptation.
Speaking of Jim Carrey, “Was that over the top? I can never tell.”
Nick had to sell off his castles in England and Germany and about a dozen other houses and work at a lot of crummy movies to pay off debts. I saw him last night in a crummy movie with Franka Potente and wondered if they discussed his lost castle between takes.
I like Cage. And I like that he takes chances.
A big drawback though is he’s been in a shitload of movies due to his financial problems. Has he ever turned down a role?
I have not seen all of his movies but think I saw all of his movies up until 2000. Con Air and Face/Off and The Rock and National Treasure were enjoyable summer movies. He hits the right tone & approach in those roles.
His best movies (and performances) that I’ve seen are Birdy (1984), Moonstruck (1987), Raising Arizona (1987), Wild at Heart (1990), Leaving Las Vegas (1996), and The Wearherman (2004).
[Cage] explained. “And I was also a big believer in arts synchronicity, and that what you could do with one art form you could do and another meaning. You know, in painting, for example, you can get abstract, you can get photorealistic, you can get impressionistic, why not try that with film performance?”
Well, he is not all wrong with that. Synchronicity in particular, a project that seems to have been pre-positioned and ordained to play out the way it did by seemingly random inputs and events.
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