In ‘The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent’ Nick Cage uses self-deprecation to satirize the current state of Hollywood movies.

Nick Cage and Pedro Pascal portray an onscreen bromance in the film “Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” [photo by Lincoln Roch]

“The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” does a lot of things in its 106 minute run time but at no point does it take itself seriously. The movie stars Nick Cage playing a struggling actor that was once the gold standard for Hollywood blockbusters who has floated into irrelevance. What makes the movie immediately ridiculously funny is he’s playing himself.

The film premiered at South By Southwest in early April receiving high praise from critics. After the premiere, the movie held a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. It now sits at 88%, still rather high for a big-screen comedy.

The film portrays the fictional Cage as a man alienated from his family after putting his career before them, and in massive debt after that career has dried up. Regis University Junior Taylor Tolson saw Cage’s initial negative self-portrayal of his life as an impressive display of humility that makes the movie feel genuine.

“It forces him to discover and look at his abilities in a different way than he would playing another role,” said Tolson.

After finding out he’s been turned down for yet another part Cage ruins his daughter’s birthday party with a drunken rant and singing rendition. He hits a spiritual bottom and decides he is quitting acting.

To get out of debt Cage reluctantly agrees to attend a billionaire’s birthday party in Spain where he’ll be paid one million dollars. Once arriving he meets Javi (Pedro Pascal) who turns out to be a Nick Cage super fan.

The two get into a night of shenanigans that builds a friendship and brings back a sense of joy into Cage’s life. He agrees to come out of retirement to write a screenplay with his new best friend.

Then the standard plot twist that has plagued most big release Hollywood comedies comes in. Turns out Javi is a drug trafficker and the CIA needs Cage’s help. This addition of a completely different genre occurs throughout the movie. 

But “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” does not fall into the trap of most big release comedies that try to be multiple genres in one. It instead makes fun of them. 

Cody Weitzel saw the movie opening weekend. He was impressed at how well the film is able to address Hollywood’s sacrifice of artistic desire in big blockbusters for the need to sell tickets.

“It does it in a smart way that actually makes you think about movie genres as a whole by wrapping multiple genres into a single movie satirizing that the movie has to appeal to everyone,” said Weitzel.

The movie makes this point as clear as possible by having Cage and Javi openly discuss the dilemma as they write their screenplay and decide to add a kidnapping and action subplot to appeal to more audiences. 

But the movie does not spend the entire runtime on a soapbox, it is also a tribute of sorts. With references to Cage’s previous roles in every scene they could fit one. At several points a younger 1990s Nick Cage even appears in hallucinations to remind Cage just how good an actor he is, the self-indulgence goes to the point of the two Nick Cages passionately making out. 

The genre swapping also allows Cage to show off a full range of his truly impressive acting capability. There are scenes with genuinely moving acting and scenes that poke fun at his reputation of over the top performances.

“I really like the shamanic acting. There were just a lot of good scenes that portrayed the goofiness of over acting,” said Weitzel. “They did a fantastic job playing off of Nicholas Cage’s energy and provado.”

By making an absolute foul out of itself this movie actually becomes a rare entry in the movie theater, a comedy that has a vast quality to it. It is clear that this movie set out to do one thing, let the actors and writers have fun. Doing so gives the audience a fantastic experience that is worth the price of a ticket.