Trying to sell writer/director Tom Gormican’s upcoming action comedy The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent so someone who isn’t a Nicolas Cage fan sounds like an impossible task on paper.
In the self-aware caper, Nicolas Cage plays washed-up actor Nicolas Cage, who finds himself haunted by hallucinations of a younger and more successful version of himself called Nicky Cage. Accepting a payday to appear at the birthday party of Pedro Pascal’s billionaire superfan and criminal, the actor is forced to recreate scenes from his back catalogue for the amusement of the guy footing the bill.
However, the action comedy tropes enter the fray when Tiffany Haddish’s government agent tasks Cage to try and take down the drug kingpin in the name of his country, before his entirely fictional family end up being captured as part of a kidnapping subplot.
In short, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent sounds insane, which is why we’re so excited to see it. Thankfully, the first wave of reviews coming out of the weekend’s SXSW festival have been heaping praise on an ambitious exercise in all things Cage.
A film about Nicolas Cage, starring Nicolas Cage as Nicolas Cage, which then morphs into a standard Nicolas Cage action flick towards the end sounds like a lot to handle, but it appears as though Gormican has done a deft job of balancing the various elements of a bonkers premise.
The leading man has been on an absolute roll as of late, delivering a string of knockout performances, but just like the marketing promised; Nicolas Cage has proven to be the role of a lifetime.