THE UNBEARABLE WEIGHT OF MASSIVE TALENT

Overall the picture’s fun moments outweigh its flaws, with Nicolas Cage’s unhinged all-in performance as the main selling point.

The peculiar, unhinged charms of Nicolas Cage have been a saving grace of many movies, but seldom have they been so consciously employed as in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, wherein a heightened version of the actor's personality adds punch to an intriguingly concocted but not always coherent tale.

The picture is at its hilarious best when Cage interacts with his imaginary alter ego 'Nicky' and discusses his apparent interior struggle to pursue either meaningful roles or Hollywood stardom. Less successful is a main plot that sees Cage being recruited by the CIA to help save a politician's daughter from a drug lord's hide-out, which definitely in the movie's final act discards much of Massive Talent's offbeat energy for a predictable story of life imitating art.

The fact that many of the film's supporting players - most notably Pedro Pascal - try to emulate Cage in intensity doesn't always serve the picture well either, but overall Massive Talent's fun moments outweigh the movie's flaws, making sure the entertainment value stays at a respectable level for most of the runtime.

release: 2022

director: Tom Gormican

starring: Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal, Tiffany Haddish, Sharon Horgan