Hello, reader!
Last month, unfortunate cult classic The Wicker Man (2006) celebrated its 15th anniversary. The Wicker Man is a great example of why many see Nicolas Cage as bad actor - between his choices to star in inexplicably bad films with seemingly no filter, and his tendencies to either phone a role in for easy money or to delve into ridiculous over-acting, he certainly isn't your typical movie star. But it's more complicated than that - believe it or not, Cage has won an Academy Award for Best Leading Actor - and a deserved Oscar it was, at least according to this movie buff. At his best, Cage can muster some seriously impressive performances. I think Abed Nadir (Danny Pudi) from my favorite sitcom Community (2009-2015) sums it up best: "Is he good, or is he bad? Every actor is something. Robert Downey Jr., good. Jim Belushi, bad. Van Damme, the good kind of bad. Johnny Depp, the bad kind of good. There's a spectrum, and Cage is on it".
My spirit animal Abed delved into the age-old mystery of "Is Nic Cage a good or bad actor?" by watching all of his movies and tapping into his inner Cage. I decided to investigate the same mystery the only way I know how - by making a list. Two simultaneous lists, actually - the top 5 worst Nicolas Cage performances, and the top 5 best ones.
#5 in Worst: Stanley Goodspeed in The Rock (1996)
"But how, in the name of Zeus's BUTTHOLE, did you get out of your cell? I only ask, because in our current situation, well, it could prove to be useful information. *Maybe*"
Now, don't get me wrong - I'm not here to talk smack about The Rock as an overall movie. It's a fantastic action film. The action sequences are great, Sean Connery and Ed Harris are awesome, and even Nicolas Cage's character is likable and well-intentioned. But that doesn't stop him from acting in a way that just doesn't fit the film on multiple occasions.
While Cage certainly has his moments in his leading role as FBI chemist Stanley Goodspeed (truly a character you just have to cast Cage to play, based on his name alone), there's a bit too much overacting and other strange choices that don't quite feel right in the film's setting. It's a classic example of the abrupt and inexplicable changes in volume and tone that have played a big part in Cage's legacy as an often Razzie-worthy actor.
#5 in Best: Benjamin Franklin Gates in National Treasure (2004) and National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007)
"I'm gonna steal it"
"What?"
"I'm gonna steal the Declaration of Independence"
National Treasure might not be as decent of an overall movie as The Rock - while the National Treasure sequel shouldn't even be discussed in the same sentence as those two. But purely Cage-performance-wise, I think he's better in these goofy action adventure films than he is in the Michael Bay classic.
Mind you, his style of acting in National Treasure is remarkably similar to his style of acting in The Rock, but the style in question fits a slightly less serious movie much better (actually, it fits either a not-serious film or in some cases, an extremely serious film - but we'll get to that later). He also has better chemistry with his castmates: Cage and Connery never really hit it off in The Rock, but Cage, Kruger and Bartha make for an odd but lovely team in the National Treasure films. All in all, a solid leading performance with the just the right amount of (but not too much of) strange Cage-isms.
#4 in Worst: Rick Santoro in Snake Eyes (1998)
"This is fight night and I am the king"
Cage's lead role in this obscure Brian De Palma film certainly has potential; my problem with it is that Cage himself seems confused about the role throughout the movie. The character of Rick Santoro is a corrupt cop who has a heart of gold somewhere deep down, and the film is more or less a redemption arch for him as he realizes what should be done when an extravagant heist goes down.
Cage's acting methods are just as chaotic as usual, and it seems like he never decided whether he's playing a villain, a hero, an anti-hero, a villain-to-hero shift or something else. He goes from one extreme to another quite quickly, and then back again, making the character and his motivations hard to reach. Still, Snake Eyes is only in 4th place on the "Worst" list and not any higher, because Cage certainly doesn't lack charisma in what is undoubtedly one of his most flamboyant roles.
#4 in Best: Castor Troy / Sean Archer in Face/Off (1997)
"I'd like to take his face...off"
The acting in Face/Off isn't exactly Oscar-worthy, and I know some movie buffs would put this in the "Worst" category (I think a wise man once said that it's a thin line between Good Cage and Bad Cage), but hear me out: the acting in Face/Off is surprisingly good when you really think about it. It may be over-the-top and cheesy at times, but impersonating another character originally played by another actor is never easy.
It is especially challenging here, as lead actors Nicolas Cage and John Travolta make their respective characters so unique and peculiar, and then have to spend a majority of the film playing the other one's character due to the face-swapping story. It almost reads as challenge on who could come up with the hardest character to recreate, and which actor would do a better job playing the other's role. Cage is decent as the hammy terrorist mastermind Sean Archer, but his acting chops really kick in when he plays the role of FBI Agent Sean Archer, who has undertaken Troy's likeness via facial surgery in order to foil his plot. It's silly, but it works wonders.
#3 in Worst: Johnny Blaze in Ghost Rider (2007)
"My daddy once said: if you don't make a choice, the choice makes you"
This classic example of pre-MCU Marvel movies being less than flattering happens to also be a classic example of Nicolas Cage's less-than-flattering performances. He over-acts some scenes while under-acting others, leaving the viewer scratching their head concerning just what sort of character Johnny Blaze / Ghost Rider is supposed to be. I never got around to watching the sequel Ghost Rider II: The Spirit of Vengeance (2011), largely due to the overall lame nature of this movie - and Cage plays a big part in this, with his acting being so outside-the-box that it ends up going outside the realm of good acting entirely.
#3 in Best: Sailor Ripley in Wild At Heart (1990)
"This is a snakeskin jacket! And for me it's a symbol of my individuality, and my belief in personal freedom!"
If there's one filmmaker in the world whose work Nicolas Cage's unconventional acting chops are perfectly suited for, it's my main man David Lynch. The case in many of Cage's less-than-flattering performances is often that the inherent strangeness of his acting style doesn't fit conventional cinema all that well - but it fits certain types of unconventional cinema like a glove. Lynch has been known to get the best out of many a weird actor, from Willem Dafoe and Isabella Rossellini to Dennis Hopper and Kyle MacLachlan (not to mention rock stars like David Bowie and Sting). So, naturally, Nicolas Cage shines as one of the two leads in Lynch's obscure romantic crime comedy Wild at Heart.
Cage's performance as snakeskin-jacket-wearing bad boy Sailor Ripley is odd to say the least, but you can't deny that his unique brand of charisma feels just right for such a quirky film. His chemistry with Laura Dern is delightful, adding to the memorability of the role.
#2 in Worst: Edward Malus in The Wicker Man (2006)
"OH, NO, NOT THE BEES! NOT THE BEES!"
And so we arrive at the deeply unfortunate cult classic that recently turned 15 years old. Mind you, The Wicker Man has aged well - it is every bit as terrible today as it was upon its year of release, when it was nominated for five Razzie awards (including Worst Actor for Nicolas Cage, and Worst Screen Couple for Nicolas Cage and his bear suit. No, really). This remake of 1973's The Wicker Man is a prime example of Cage phoning a role in for easy money - he doesn't even break out the trademark over-acting until the iconic final scene. Before then, Cage's leading role as sheriff Edward Malus is completely devoid of charisma, as he delivers his lines in a painfully dull manner.
#2 in Best: Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman in Adaptation. (2002)
"Do I have an original thought in my head? My bald head. Maybe if I were happier, my hair wouldn't be falling out. Life is short. I need to make the most of it. Today is the first day of the rest of my life. I'm a walking cliché"
Strange as it is to realize, the fact is that Nic Cage plays the lead role (actually the two lead roles) in one of my all-time top favorite 10 movies. A strange actor like Cage does his best work when cast into strange roles, and this is certainly one of those - writer Charlie Kaufman's project to make a film adaptation of Susan Orelan's book The Orchid Thief took a turn when Kaufman decided to make a film about Charlie Kaufman making a film about The Orchid Thief instead.
Naturally, Nicolas Cage was the man chosen to play the role of Kaufman himself - who better to bring out the existential ramblings and chaotic demeanour of such a peculiar figure? Because Kaufman wanted the film to have actual dialogue instead of simply depicting his own conflicting thought process, he wrote a part for his non-existent twin brother Donald, who represents a different side of him. Cage does an excellent job playing both Kaufman brothers, and this ambitious double role earned him an Oscar nomination. Fun fact: Cage is the only actor who has been nominated for and Oscar for playing two different people who both got nominated for writing the same film that the acting nomination is from, even though one of them doesn't exist. Classic Kaufman (and classic Cage).
#1 in Worst: Paul Maguire in Rage (2014)
"I want to find her. I want to find who took her"
Cage's performance in Rage is easily the worst and most disappointing performance I've seen by him. Mind you, he doesn't delve into the cartoonish overacting antics he's known for - bad as those may be at their worst, they're at least a sign of him being a unique and passionate actor. But Rage features a much more upsetting type of bad acting - not giving a shit. It is a blatant example of an actor taking a role for the paycheck, and just really phoning it in. Cage repeats his lines in a dull manner, acts with zero soul and zero chemistry with his castmates, and clearly doesn't care enough about what he's doing that passionate over-acting would enter the mix. Cage's acting in Snake Eyes and Ghost Rider may be bad by many metrics, but at least it's entertaining - in Rage, it's just sad.
#1 in Best: Ben Sanderson in Leaving Las Vegas (1995)
"I'll tell you right now, I'm in love with you. But, be that as it may, I am not here to force my twisted soul into your life"
With Leaving Las Vegas, the film that rightfully earned Cage his Oscar, context is key. You see, his acting in this heart-wrenching drama is actually very similar to his acting in films like Snake Eyes and Ghost Rider - it's classic Nic Cage over-acting with all of his weird stylistic choices on full display. The key difference is that Leaving Las Vegas is a dark film about a man who, after losing his wife and his job, decides to go to Las Vegas in order to drink himself to death.
When he's playing an FBI detective or an architect, Cage's insane over-acting just feels wrong because the role doesn't call for it and it makes his lines and actions feel unrealistic and over-the-top. But when the context is the depressing role of a man who honestly has nothing left, and who doesn't care about consequences anymore, this same style of acting actually makes sense. In this particular role, Cage's style of acting feels realistic and believable, which is exactly what makes the film so gripping - following the protagonist gamble and drink his life away as he has so little to care about that he acts impulsively with no social filters is quite the grim journey. And Nicolas Cage was the right man for the role.
Leaving Las Vegas is a hard film to watch, but my God, it certainly proves that Nicolas Cage is far from simply being a bad actor. He is strange actor, often finding himself in roles where his quirks don't feel quite right, but when in the right role, he is a master of the art. And Leaving Las Vegas drives that point home harder than any other film.
Thank you for reading! Tune in next week, as Halloween approaches - and since I already ranked the Halloween films last year, next week's post will continue the slasher theme as I share my ranking of the Nightmare on Elm Street films.
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