The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent star Nicolas Cage chooses the three movies of his he’d like to preserve for future generations. Cage has played a vast array of characters over the course of his five-decade career. But playing himself in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent may be his greatest challenge of all.
Of course the version of “Nick Cage” played by Cage in the upcoming meta-movie from director Tom Gormican is not precisely the real man. In the film, “Cage” finds himself putting his acting skills to use in the service of a higher purpose, as he must save his wife and daughter from a billionaire superfan who turns out to be an international arms dealer. Adding to the bizarre appeal of Unbearable Weight is the presence of Pedro Pascal, who plays the movie’s arms-dealing Cage fan.
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent indeed looks like a wild ride that gives Cage a chance to chew the scenery in his inimitable fashion. It remains to be seen though if the movie achieves the status of a true Cage classic. As it happens, Cage was just asked in a Reddit AMA (via u/Lionsgate) what three movies of his he would choose to preserve for posterity if it came down to it. Unbearable Weight did not make the list, which instead includes the movies Bringing Out the Dead, Pig and Leaving Las Vegas.
Indeed it’s easy to see why Cage would choose those three films as his personal favorites. Bringing Out the Dead of course teamed him with legendary director Martin Scorsese for a stylish portrait of an unhinged ambulance driver experiencing life and death on the streets of New York. The newest movie on the list, Pig, was one of the most acclaimed films of 2021, and featured one of Cage’s most-lauded performances in a long time (though it was ultimately snubbed by the Oscars). And Leaving Las Vegas of course is the film that won Cage the Academy Award for Best Actor back in 1995.
It’s interesting indeed that Cage chose three of his more critically acclaimed films as his most worthy of preservation. He did not, for instance, decide to save a popcorn movie like Con Air or The Rock or National Treasure for future generations to enjoy. Nor did he zero in on any of his cult films like The Wicker Man or Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. It seems Cage largely agrees with critics when it comes to rating his films and performances, preferring to tout his more prestigious work over his stranger and/or more audience-pleasing efforts. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent for its part currently boasts a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes, which seemingly sets it up to join the handful of Cage movies that both appeals to fans and garners the acclaim of critics.
Source: u/Lionsgate/Reddit
