Will this film propel Nicolas Cage back to the A List? Well, if it can’t, nothing can, for –as impossible as this seems in 2022- The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is 1) a fun watch 2) a top-5 box office 3) stars Nicolas Cage first and foremost and 4) is impossible to imagine without Nicolas Cage – for the man is playing himself as … himself.
Like a few others before him, Nicolas Cage gets to play himself in a fictional adventure starring himself … and all of it is decidedly tongue-in-cheek. He even gets to play dual roles on occasion starring opposite a younger, egomaniacal, and more intense caricature of himself —the two even kiss full on the lips and one point. Title alone, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, suggests this is a comic film, and it is as we live the weird life of Nicolas Cage.
After successfully pissing off his ex-wife (Sharon Horgan) , his teen daughter (Lily Sheen), and a Hollywood director with a big script, Nicolas Cage (Nicolas Cage) accepts a $1 M offer to visit an eccentric Spanish billionaire, playboy, and possible gangster Javi Gutierrez (Pedro Pascal). Javi might be connected to a kidnapping, so CIA agents (Tiffany Haddish, Ike Barinholtz) enlist Cage for espionage during his visit.
Meanwhile, Javi and Nic start bonding several ways. Javi is not only a Cage fan, but a collector of rare FYNC memorabilia; in addition, he and Nic find common loves of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Paddington 2. This all is just a hint of the insanity in this film. Imagine Cage and a Cage wannabe doing spy crap and mock spy-crap while constantly name-dropping the best and worst of FYNC. There’s even a gratuitous “NOT THE BEES!” reference, which left me laughing until the end of the scene.
In fact, for me, this film only doesn’t work when it stops being self-referential and adds in major plot points and character development. I would call these unnecessary, but the denouement culmination 
more than compensates for whatever the film lacked in the middle. I wouldn’t call this a great film, but it is a fun watch, made much more so by how extensive your knowledge and/or feeling of FYNC extends. For somebody who cannot think “Nicolas Cage” without also thinking “FYNC,” this is a must see.
Would this film work with another actor? Hmmm. Well, any actor can make fun of themselves, to be sure, but a unique combination is required here. It takes a former A Lister – someone you can imagine being loved enough to get an expensive foreign birthday party offer yet desperate enough to accept an expensive foreign birthday party offer. It takes somebody with a series of recognizable films and film moments; not just any former A Lister will do. (For instance, Angelina Jolie was certainly an elite actor at one time, but spouting off Angelina movies, roles, and moments ain’t so easy.) It takes somebody not only whose career has changed dramatically, but one for whom our feelings towards them have decidedly changed as well. This film is about an actor who was a treasure, but is now expendable, like one we’d go “oooooo” during the annual Oscar “Who died?” scroll, but not somebody we’d genuinely weep for because of diminished career, like, say, Chadwick Boseman. Similarly, this film doesn’t quite work with, say, Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro, or Leonardo DiCaprio in the starring role, for I don’t think our collective feelings have changed about any of these guys. Who might this role work for? The names that come to mind are Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger (assuming either would be considered in Cage’s depth, talent-wise) … and even then, the Sly & Arnie tough guy approaches to real life gun play would almost certainly be different from FYNC.
Nic Cage, this was the right film at the right time. You’ve been given a great gift. Don’t f*** it up.
Nicolas Cage, Hollywood’s epitome
Of how stardom is temporary
And yet, he here is
Treading water in the biz
In conclusion, FYNC
Rated R, 107 Minutes
Director: Tom Gormican
Writer: Tom Gormican, Kevin Etten
Genre: FYNC!
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Nicolas Cage
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Nicolas Cage
