Review: The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, directed by Tom Gormican, tells the tale of Nicolas Cage (Nicolas Cage), the greatest actor of all time struggling to find projects worthy of his iconic on-screen presence while repairing his damaged relationship with his ex-wife Olivia (Sharon Horgan) and daughter Addy (Lily Sheen). But as things become financially dire for the Cage, Cage gets offered $1 million to attend the birthday of his most dangerous superfan (Pedro Pascal). When a CIA agent (Tiffany Haddish) recruits Cage to use this opportunity to take down the superfan’s criminal syndicate and thwart his plan to topple the Italian government, it’s up to Nicolas Cage to release the inner Nicolas from his Cage and become the Nicolas Cage he is destined to be.

Nicolas Cage is a national treasure; he is one of the most prolific actors to currently grace the screens today. Lately Cage has been making a comeback by taking on smaller roles for smaller films like Mandy, Color Out of Space, and most recently 2021’s Pig where he shows the world he can actually act incredibly well. Cage has also seemed to have embraced his status as one of the internet’s meme lords and selectively hand picking projects where Cage can go nuts to his heart’s content unabated.

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is a moving, colorful shrine to the Primordial Cage, and while it may not be as smart or meta as it thinks it is, the film’s still a rousing good time for some delicious Cage action.

So in case you didn’t know this about me, I love meta films (to an extent.) I do enjoy movies that are self aware at what they are and what they’re trying to accomplish, movies like Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman or Spike Jonze’s Adaptation (which incidentally also stars Nicolas Cage as the film’s screenwriter Charlie Kaufman.) This film tries to be meta, but the issue is that it doesn’t commit to it all the way. As a whole, the movie is nothing more than a buddy action film with some easy jabs on Hollywood story-telling, the only real gimmick being that it stars Nicolas Cage playing Nicolas Cage.

Nicolas Cage in the film is everything you want in a Nicolas Cage performance. Cage gives one of the best performances I’ve seen as Nicolas Cage since John Travolta’s take on Nicolas Cage from John Woo’s Face/Off, which is referenced a number of times in this film. Pedro Pascal also gives a standout performance, balancing off Cage’s wild energy nicely. The rest of the cast wasn’t terrible, there were a lot of funny moments, and there were a couple decent creative choices made to make this stand out from your average buddy comedy movie.

Overall I had fun with this Cage-fest. It was a pretty basic comedy that isn’t as smart as it thinks it is, but it does the job entertaining anyone who praises the One True Cage. If you’re an ardent Cage enthusiast like myself then check this movie out for yourself and embrace the Cage of Nicolas.

Final Verdict: 10 Nicolas’s/10 Cages (or a 6/10 in layman’s terms)