The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent Movie Review

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022)

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Written by: Tom Gormican & Kevin Etten
Directed by: Tom Gormican
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal, Tiffany Haddish, Neil Patrick Harris, Demi Moore
Rated: R
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Plot
Movie star Nick Cage is channeling his iconic characters as he's caught between a super fan and a CIA agent.

Verdict
It's an intriguing concept that wants to capitalize on the zaniness of Cage, but it doesn't quite deliver. It has its moments, but I was expecting more. There's plenty of references to Cage's movies, and I'm sure I missed many, but a movie about Cage doesn't give him as much space to do his thing and lean into his movie persona.
It depends.

Review
I wondered if this concept was going to be that Nicolas Cage is as crazy in life as he seems in his movies. The Cage in this movie isn't all that crazy. He's the more normal one between him and Javi (Pedro Pascal), a man that hires him to appear at his birthday party. Cage takes the birthday gig after failing to get a lead role and considering retirement.

Nicolas Cage plays Nick Cage

He fails to get the role despite reading lines for the director. This scene is fun as it portrays Cage as kind of wild, but the rest of the movie fails to capture that. While this is inspired by Cage's life,  mentioning how he never stops working, it does take liberties with his family dynamic. Cage has visions of himself, a chance for exposition.

Pedro Pascal plays Javi

Many characters refer to Cage by his movies, and his movies appear on every television seen in this film. This has fun with the starstruck Javi, and Pascal does a great job in the role. A running gag is Javi's script in which he wants Cage to star. I hoped the movie would do more with that, a chance for something over the top. While they have a few fun scenes, I thought this would have much more energy. There is a LSD fueled adventure that's quite ridiculous, and Cage criticizing Paddington 2 only to later declare, "that was incredible" through tears.

The CIA recruits Cage to find evidence that Javi is a drug dealer, and throughout the movie you keep expecting that revelation only for it to be something benign at every turn. This has fun with movie tropes, but it's never as wild as Cage's most fun movies. This has a few fun scenes, but it doesn't sustain that energy throughout.