The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent Review: 7 Ups & 3 Downs

5. Nic Cage's Delightfully Self-Deprecating Performance

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent Nicolas Cage
Lionsgate

Nic Cage certainly holds nothing back while playing a somewhat-fictional version of himself, who serves as a giddy satire of self-important, pretentious actors who always desire to be the center of attention.

Again, the film makes light of Cage's well-publicised debt issues and the decline of his once-fruitful blockbuster career, yet to Cage's credit he manages to bring some genuine melancholy and pathos to what is as much a character study as it is an action-comedy.

There's never any doubt that Cage isn't committing 100% to the part rather than simply leaning on the wacky meta angle - his take on Nic Cage feels at once a believable extension of himself and something exaggerated.

If there was somehow any lingering doubt that Cage isn't in on the joke re: his status as a meme God, Massive Talent should send it all up in smoke.

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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.