The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
Year: 2022
Rating: R
Length: 107 minutes / 1.78 hours
One of the best bits in the television show Community was Abed’s exploration of Nicolas Cage’s career. Is he a genius? Is he a hack? There is an almost equal amount of evidence to suggest either side. When I first saw the trailers for The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022), I thought the meta take on Nicolas Cage’s career would be a fun trip. However, which version of the actor would we get? Genius or hack?
The fundamental problem with The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is that it doesn’t go far enough into the meta. It felt like someone just opened up IMDb and chose the top ten Nicolas Cage blockbusters to name-drop throughout the movie. We don’t get Moonstruck (1987). We don’t get Leaving Las Vegas (1995). We don’t get Adaptation. (2001). As a result, this film mostly focuses on his action-oriented movies, which typically aren’t his best work. You’d think that at least mimicking movies like The Rock (1996), Face/Off (1997), and Con Air (1997), this movie would have some great action sequences. Instead, it reminds us that this is Nicolas Cage the actor, and not Nicolas Cage the character.
It truly is unfortunate that this movie wasn’t better. There were elements that could have made it great—namely the Nick Cage de-aged deep fake bits. Instead, it seemed more focused on patting itself back on how clever it could be to name movies from Cage’s past work. “Remember Guarding Tess (1994)?” it asks, all the while winking. Usually, I like movies that are about themselves, but this one pulled too many twists at the end and it resulted in a confusing and unsatisfying conclusion.
A meta film that’s more “unbearable” than “talent,” I give The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent 2.5 stars out of 5.
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