11/29/2018
After viewing all of his films, and taking careful notes and doing detailed analysis and lol just kidding I just made a list, I have determined the ten legitimately best Nicolas Cage performances. If you were to watch these ten films, you could understand why he is considered, truly, one of the greatest actors of his generation. You’ll get why Ethan Hawke said he is the first person to do something new in acting since Marlon Brando (or something).
To be clear, this is not a list of his “greatest performances” in the NICOLAS CAGE!!! way. Don’t worry, I’ve made that list too. And this list is probably incredibly easy to dispute. Many of these movies aren’t even good. I found something in each one that really impressed me; an unexpected vulnerability, a hidden depth, a spark of something. In fact, it’s the movies that are bad or mediocre where it is most impressive. While Cage has been accused of phoning it in a couple of times, he certainly hasn’t sleepwalked through any periods of his career, as this list should attest. In fact, more of this list is from his “direct to video” period than any other!
10. Dying of the Light (2014)
I was just about as surprised as you might be that I ranked this in the top ten. A spy gets tortured, and his torturer is “killed,” but he’s convinced he isn’t killed, so a kind-of bad episode of 24 starts. Cage is so great in this though: the spy in question is suffering from a degenerative brain illness, which causes memory loss, bouts of overwhelming emotion, and the frustration those symptoms cause. He doesn’t overdo it or ham it up, though; he treats it with a delicate touch we rarely see, and an empathetic one.
9. Army of One (2016)
On the flipside is his portrayal of Gary, which is the perfect level of hammy, with good reason: he’s playing a real guy who’s REAL hammy. There are some videos out there on Fox & Friends (who paint him as some kind of tactical expert, because of course they do), David Letterman (where he seems like just a wacky fun Rambo), and other places, and they’re worth checking out if you ever plan on watching this flick. He’s not as animated as Cage is in this movie, though, so Nic and the director made a decision to elevate this eccentricity to match the level of the story (which isn’t that far off real life!). So you get this weirdo with a Peggy Sue Got Married voice, this absurd confidence, and this off-putting, aggressive friendliness. If it were just that, it’d be memorable and fun — but the addition of God, played by Russell Brand, allows Cage to show another side: a groveling, cowering, quivering mess, like an Old Testament NPC. His relentless commitment to both sides (and ability to jump immediately from one to the other and back in the same shot) is the 3D Chess of acting, and a joy to watch.
8. Joe (2013)
I’m not American, so I can’t say with absolute confidence that David Gordon Green portrays the American South in an authentic way, but it certainly feels authentic from up here. This film has a bunch of memorable characters but none as complicated as the titular Joe. Cage manages to play a man extremely capable of harshness and violence, but one who struggles with softness and compassion. And that character is forced to display softness and compassion for a kid named Gary. And he plays “bad at compassion” incredibly well.
7. Looking Glass (2018)
After a career of playing tough guys, or at the very least, brave losers, it was pretty unexpected to see Cage play a cowardly, nervous nerd. This movie is a mess: it feels like it has something to say about “sexual deviance” but it never really gets around to saying it, but it feels like Cage worked backwards from the script to inform his performance: what kind of person would find what is essentially the ultimate peeping Tom hole, and flirt with its use, hiding it from his partner with whom he bought this hotel? What you end up with is this passive, weak, deplorable coward, played excellently by someone whose calling card is often rage and righteousness.
6. Kiss of Death (1995)
Shortly before his three-hit combo of RockAirFace, Cage co-starred with CSI Miami Sunglasses Man in this gritty crime drama which could definitely be described as “also a movie.” Cage as a villain is a great set-up that doesn’t happen often enough, but instead of high camp, Cage brings a degree of empathy that would never have existed with a lesser actor in the role. He’s big, and he’s mean, and he’s dumb, and he’s violent, yes — but behind all of the brutishness is a young man, too stupid to do anything else, desperately trying to perform the role in life he’s forced to play.
5. Raising Arizona (1987)
Something I didn’t expect going into this movie was seeing Nic Cage essentially play Bugs Bunny, but that’s what I saw. I’m surprised he never became a more frequent Coen collaborator; maybe because their careers moved in different directions? But his commitment to his character plays perfectly against their silliest, slapstickiest tendencies, and allows him to maintain credibility at its most dangerous moments.
4. Mandy (2018)
Two movies, two Cages, two excellent performances. While what he does for the second half of the film is great, it doesn’t feel like it’s out of reach for any other actor to accomplish: with a story and direction this insane, there are plenty of “wild” actors who could have delivered that blood o**y satisfyingly. But the gentle, kind, protective Red Miller in the first half of the movie? Maybe other actors could have done that too, but I can’t think of any that would be able to so successfully do both — and, while doing it, anchor each performance in the other, making this movie feel more like two halves of the same thing and less like two stories with the same face in it.
3. Leaving Las Vegas (1995)
He won the Oscar, and he deserved it. I’m no fan of the flick, really. Maybe it didn’t age well. It was probably an incredibly unfun thing to work on, too, because he probably got very drunk before a lot of the scenes. But he nailed the character. And of course he did. He studied. He picked up twitches and trembles and stumbles and stammers. Watching him gives you the same sense of nausea as watching someone with a real substance abuse problem. “To what end?” might be a good question, but as an example of his craft, it is excellent.
2. Birdy (1984)
Arguably Cage’s first excellent role (unless you count Rumble Fish). He’s so young that it feels more like proto-Cage than it does Cage. It’s a performance that shows a powerful love between two best friends, except for most of the movie, one of those friends is unable to communicate, so the other has to do all of the work showing it.
1. Adaptation (2002)
I feel like virtually anyone else would have been lost under the weight of Kaufman and Jonze. Especially while playing. Kaufman. And Kaufman’s imaginary brother. I’m not a big fan typically of “acting as impression” — if so, I’d be arguing for Jay Pharoah to get an Oscar or something — oh God, imagine Alec Baldwin got an Oscar for Trump — kill me now — but Cage somehow gives life to a re-enactment of a person I have never seen before and makes it feel like he’s the real one. I saw a video of Charlie Kaufman after watching this movie and it made me uncomfortable because he felt like an impostor. And the other one is just different enough to make it feel like two fully-formed characters.
