Movie Review

Nic Cage overload is a good thing in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

Few actors have had the type of roller coaster career that Nicolas Cage has had. His early success in the 1980s led to his Oscar-winning role in Leaving Las Vegas and a string of high-profile action movies in the late ’90s. But his 21st century roles have been very up-and-down, to the point that it’s difficult to tell whether he’s still one of the biggest stars in the world or a has-been forced to take whatever work he can get.

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent uses all of the varied perceptions of Cage in a highly effective comedy. Cage stars as a version of himself who has reached a professional nadir and is somewhat of a joke to both his ex-wife Olivia (Sharon Horgan) and daughter Addy (Lily Mo Sheen). In desperation, he accepts an offer of $1 million to appear at the birthday party of Javi Gutierrez (Pedro Pascal), a wealthy Spaniard.

Once there, however, Cage is approached by Vivan (Tiffany Haddish) and Martin (Ike Barinholtz), two CIA agents who are trying to take down Javi and his family, who lead a drug cartel. The agents convince Cage to be a type of double agent, pretending to be a friend to Javi, who has moviemaking ambitions, while also gathering intelligence, including the whereabouts of the daughter of a prominent Spanish politician who’s been kidnapped.

Directed by Tom Gormican and written by Gormican and Kevin Etten, the film is a laughfest that aims to be both a send-up and homage to Cage’s filmography. The film touches on everything from Con Air to Moonstruck to Guarding Tess to Face/Off to The Wicker Man, all of it done with love tinged with winking nods at his patented over-the-top acting style. Cage has become such an iconic actor over the past 40 years that he’s one of the few that would fit a role such as this so well.

One of the funniest aspects of the film is how self-referential it becomes. As part of his double agent “plan,” Cage tells Javi that he wants to work on a new screenplay with him. From that point on, the brainstorms the characters come up with for their fake movie wind up being the movie the actors are starring in. The filmmakers walk a fine line with this choice, and it pays off in the end.

The only aspect of the film that doesn’t quite work is the inclusion of “Nicky Cage,” a much younger version of Cage that appears next to him in especially stressful situations. The character, who’s there to remind Cage what a great person he is, works fantastically on his first appearance, but with diminishing returns in haphazard appearances throughout the rest of the film. The weirdness of Cage interacting with something only he can see should have either been a much bigger part or scrapped completely; the half-hearted approach is not enough to sell the character.

Some would argue that Nicolas Cage playing himself doesn’t require much acting, but that line of thinking doesn’t understand Cage’s unique genius. He’s not just playing a character; he is the character, and every choice he makes just reinforces the persona he’s built up throughout his career.

Pascal goes a bit against type with his character, who is an unabashed superfan of Cage, and he scores a number of great comedic moments. Neil Patrick Harris has a few fun scenes as Cage’s smarmy but supportive agent. Haddish and Barinholtz do well, although their CIA subplot could have been bolstered a bit more.

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is a title that’s as overdone as the acting of Cage himself, which makes it that much more memorable. Whether you love him, hate him, or are amused by his eccentricity, there’s no actor like him and this movie proves why.

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The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent opens in theaters on April 22.

Tiffany Haddish and Nicolas Cage in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.

Tiffany Haddish and Nicolas Cage in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

Photo by Karen Ballard/Lionsgate

Tiffany Haddish and Nicolas Cage in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.

hoop it up

Houston festival hosts dramatic reading of basketball-inspired TV show

cinema arts festival hoopztown reading

Photo by Trent Wittenbach

Hoopzdreams tells the story of a gifted, multiracial athelete.

This year’s Houston Cinema Arts Festival (HCAF), which starts this Thursday, November 6, offers plenty of film screenings – both feature-length films and shorts – as well as panel discussions, Q&As, workshops, etc. But the fest will also have a staged reading of the TV pilot Hoopztown, this Saturday at 2 pm at Six Foot Studios.

Hoopztown centers around Maya Hernandez, a gifted, multiracial athlete on track to be considered for the inaugural WNBA in 1996. She moves back to her hometown of Houston, where it’s revealed that her mother, a janitor at Houston Medical Center, is diagnosed with cancer.

The project is created and written by Fleurette S. Fernando, an educator, director, choreographer, arts administrator, and founding director of the M.A. in Arts Leadership Program at University of Houston, where she serves as an associate professor. “I wrote this story for the women in my life; my mother, my sisters, my teachers, my colleagues, my girlfriends, my students and particularly for my daughter,” says Fernando. “Her journey as a student athlete and the relationships she built with the girls on her various teams through the turbulent and magical years of her youth was an inspiration.”

hoopztown Fleurette S. Fernando Elizabeth Sosa Bailey Collaborators Elizabeth Sosa Bailey and Fleurette S. Fernando.Courtesy of Elizabeth Sosa Bailey

Hoopztown has gone through multiple iterations. During the 2015 ATX TV Festival Pitch Competition, Fernando was a finalist for her concept of the project. From there, the pilot (originally titled Hoopz) and loglines for a 10-episode run were put into motion. That first episode, titled “Rebound,” focuses on Maya’s first day at her new job, coaching a girls’ basketball team at a racially and socioeconomically diverse high school.

“Hoopztown is an ode to a woman’s journey through the lens of many races, ages and circumstances,” she says. “It’s a tribute to the underdog and a homage to a woman’s perilous path through a man’s world. Nowhere is this struggle more acutely demonstrated, mentally, emotionally, physically and economically, than in the arena of competitive sports in America.”

Since Fernando and her creative partner, Elizabeth Sosa Bailey, are both active members of

the Houston Cinema Arts Society (HCAS) board, they knew they had to do a reading during this year’s fest.

“There is so much of myself that I see in this story, as someone who left a career to return home when my father was diagnosed with cancer and as a mixed race Latina understanding the duality of identity,” says Sosa Bailey. “Even the high school that Hoopztown is set in is much like my own. I attended Lamar High School, making me about a decade younger than the characters in the story. There are all of these wonderful little coincidences in Hoopztown.”

The project is a beneficiary of its second Houston Arts Alliance grant made possible through the

City of Houston Mayors Office of Cultural Affairs (MOCA). The reading cast includes over 20 actors, with Eva Marie Thomas playing the main role. Open to the public with a Pay What You Can ticket structure, the event invites the audience to experience the first run-through of what is slated to be the first episode, filmed in Houston using local cast and crew. The audience can also provide feedback and contribute to the project’s fundraising initiative to get to the next stage of filming.

For tickets, go to the Houston Cinema Arts Festival website.

performing-arts tv festivals

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