The best Cage movies from this era take advantage of the freedom afforded an actor who has lost his status as a major-studio leading man, fitting his performance style into more intimate roles, or genres that don’t receive much studio attention. So does this mean casual fans whose interest in the star has been reawakened by the new movie should skip over Cage’s past decade of work? Actually, no! Some of his movies from this wilderness era of his career are oddball curiosities, several of them are downright terrific, and a few even involve him living in the actual wilderness. Even in terms of Cage movies no one saw, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin is a stronger reference point than many recent Cage vehicles that kind of sound like the same movie ( Rage Drive Angry Vengeance: A Love Story A Score to Settle).

It’s no accident that Massive Talent has time for a litany of Cage references from throughout his career, but never bothers to mention anything from his last decade by name.

Many of the 30-plus movies he made during this period are not worth your time they’re low-rent paycheck gigs that have little to recommend them beyond Cage’s signature commitment. By that point, he already had one foot in the limited release/direct-to-video world - which is where he stayed for most of the 10 years that followed, with occasional forays into arthouse cinema. But the last time a Cage movie was backed by a substantial, wide-release advertising campaign was Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance in 2012. Yes, the recent Pig made it to nearly 600 theaters, he’s done voice-over for some bona fide theatrical hits, and technically, Left Behind briefly appeared on 1800 screens back in 2014. However, the meta-comedy Massive Talent, in which Cage plays himself as a desperate actor angling for a comeback, is his first major live-action wide release as a top-billed star in a decade. This isn’t the case in 2021, he starred in three, while in 2019, he toplined half a dozen. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent might feel to some casual viewers like the first real Nicolas Cage movie in a long while.

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