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The Herald Scotland
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
What are Nicolas Cage's best movies? 10 worth your time
Cage's style has always been flamboyant, showy, some might say over the top. He is not a quiet actor. The late David Lynch once described him as 'the jazz musician of American acting'. But what are his best tunes? Here's 10 that are worth your time. Valley Girl (Martha Coolidge, 1983) Nicolas Cage in Valley-Girls (Image: unknown) 'What a hunk.' Cage as romantic lead? It's maybe hard to remember now given all the gore and violence that was to follow, but that was one of his early calling cards. In this 1983 comedy he plays a punk from Hollywood who falls for the valley girl of the title (Deborah Foreman). Cage was a teenager when the movie was shot and as he has said himself didn't have a method at the time. But the result is a performance that's restrained and sweet, if a bit sweary. The American film critic Roger Ebert loved Valley Girl at the time: 'This movie is a little treasure.' Peggy Sue Got Married (Francis Ford Coppola, 1986) The first time you get a sense of Cage's 'difference' as an actor. Coppola's time-travelling romance sends Kathleen Turner back to her school days and her first meeting with the man she would marry. Cage's performance as the bouffant-haired, lemon V-necked future husband can feel like it should be in another movie at times, but it was a marker of where he was heading. Raising Arizona (The Coen Brothers, 1987) The Coen Brothers' live-action version of a Warner Brothers cartoon delights in Cage's rubbery, long-limbed, bounciness. At times he looks like he's been drawn by Chuck Jones. Raising Arizona is the second Coen Brothers movie and one of their most joyous; a giddy plot involving a stolen child, escaped felons, a biker from hell and some top-notch yodelling. It's a show-off movie full of amphetamine-fuelled tracking shots and big performances. As a result, Cage fits right in. Moonstruck (Norman Jewison, 1987) Norman Jewison's romantic comedy is a self-consciously operatic movie that's primed for excess in both its language - John Patrick Shanley's endlessly quotable script is ripe cheese; pungent and tart - and its expression. And there is no one more expressive than Cage. As the one-armed baker Ronny Cammareri he turns the amp up to 11 from the very first time we see him. My favourite Cage performance. And Cage and Cher make a great couple. Wild At Heart (David Lynch, 1990) By the time he appeared in Lynch's Wild at Heart the 'Nicolas Cageness' of Cage was already established. Eating live cockroaches on camera for the movie Vampire's Kiss probably helped. As Sailor in Lynch's road movie, he channels Elvis and beats a guy's brains out (literally). At times it feels like the director is parodying himself. But there is a charge between Cage and Laura Dern. And the car crash sequence is prime Lynch; strange and sad and chilling all at the same time. Con Air (Simon Jenkins, 1997) The 1990s were weird for Cage. He turned up in neo-noirs (Red Rock West), erotic thrillers (Zandalee), the unjustly neglected crime drama Kiss of Death and the highly-regarded yet rather problematic Mike Figgis drama Leaving Las Vegas in which Cage won an Oscar playing a writer determined to drink himself to death. Then there was the unnecessary Hollywood remake of Wings of Desire - renamed City of Angels - and the deeply unpleasant 8mm. Nicolas Cage in Con Air (Image: unknown) And, of course, there were the blockbusters. The Rock, opposite Sean Connery, and Face/Off opposite John Travolta, a favourite of many, directed by Hong Kong's king of action movies John Woo. But I'd opt for Simon West's Con AIr, in which Cage plays the wrongly imprisoned Cameron Poe just wanting to get home to his wife and kid, but stuck on a plane full of psychopaths and murderers led by Cyrus the Virus (John Malkovich's best cartoon villain performance). It's either a smart movie playing dumb or a dumb movie pretending to be smart. Or maybe it's both at the same time. It's certainly a big, blowsy entertainment and Cage looks great with long hair. Bringing Out the Dead (Martin Scorsese, 1999) Nicolas Cage in Bringing Out the Dead (Image: unknown) This 1999 Scorsese movie - with a script from Paul Schrader - is rather overlooked. Maybe because at the time it was seen as a film too much in Taxi Driver's shadow. But this story of a New York paramedic played by Cage is a fever dream of a film; dark, painful, terrifying, hallucinogenic. It offers one of Cage's quieter performances (up to a point), but that's because his character is carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. It's a difficult, dark movie but it has a power to it. And you will laugh at the I Be Banging scene. Adaptation (Spike Jonze, 2002) And then we're into the 21st century and, oh boy, a lot of bad movies (mostly reduced to 'Cage Rage' memes). And yet the century started so well. This was director Jonze and writer Charlie Kaufman's follow-up to Being John Malkovich and it has a similar meta vibe to it. It's the story of Charlie Kaufman trying to adapt New Yorker writer Susan Orelan's book The Orchid Thief. Cage plays Kaufman and Kaufman's brother Donald. He got nominated for an Oscar for the double role but lost out to Adrien Brody. Mandy (Panos Cosmatos, 2018) Safe to say, not for everyone. Panos Cosmatos's bloody revenge movie is over the top of over the top. Chainsaw fights? Check. Big axe called The Beast? Check. So, it's tailor-made for Cageian excess (and it gets it). By now Cage has cast off even the slightest notion of naturalism in his performances. Cosmatos gives him a film that is as unhinged as he is. If death metal were a movie … Nicolas Cage in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (Image: unknown) The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (Tom Gormican, 2022) Not a great film to end on but one at least aware of Cage's reputation of late and having fun playing with it, albeit heavy-handedly. In it Cage plays Nick Cage, a past-it actor whose career and financial situation is foundering. So much so that he agrees to appear at the birthday party of a billionaire superfan played by Pedro Pascal who may also be head of a cartel. The humour is broad and isn't really ready to stick the knife in, but Cage is having fun playing this version of himself.
The Guardian
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Post your questions for Nicolas Cage
There aren't many actors who transcend the roles they play in quite the unique way as Nicolas Cage. Born Nicolas Coppola (his uncle is Francis Ford), Cage rebranded to avoid nepotism. He started acting because he wanted to be like James Dean. Cage's early roles include 1982 coming-of-age movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High and 1983 romantic comedy Valley Girl. He then went on to period drama Racing With the Moon with Sean Penn, and musical crime drama The Cotton Club and Peggy Sue Got Married, both directed by Uncle Francis. By the time he'd done the Coen Brothers' Raising Arizona in 1987, and won the best actor Oscar for Leaving Las Vegas in 1995, he had entered the big league. And what a career it has been. It's been slightly off the wall, yes, but that's what Cage does best. No doubt you'll have a favourite Cage moment. It might be swapping faces with John Travolta in Face/Off (and, apparently, the rest of his body; although Cage and Travolta do a fine impression of each other). Or breaking into Alcatraz in The Rock (surely prison doors lock from the outside, so why doesn't he just use a key?) If you prefer your Cage teamed with fast cars and Angelina Jolie, you'll like Gone in 60 Seconds. If you favour Cage plus motorbikes and Eva Mendes, try Ghost Rider. For prisoners on planes with terrible mullet haircuts: Con Air. Then there's the Indiana Jones Cage in the National Treasure films, and comic book superhero dad Cage in Kick-Ass 1 and 2. For dramatic Cage, try Matchstick Men where he plays a con artist. For Fantasy Cage, try City of Angels, where he plays an angel. If you prefer to only peek at him from behind a cushion, horror-style, check out The Wicker Man or 2018's Mandy. Cage hasn't slowed on his output. If anything, his films in the 2020s have been even weirder and more wonderful. He is 'unusually restrained' as a truffle forager in 2021's Pig. He plays Dracula in the 'truly resplendent' 2023 film Renfield. We've even had Nicolas Cage playing Nicolas Cage in the 'endearing' 2022 film The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. For his portrayal of a professor who, for no apparent reason, starts appearing in everyone's dreams in the 2023 movie Dream Scenario Cage received his fifth Golden Globe nomination. Next he stars as Surfer Cage in psychological thriller The Surfer out this May – and the reason we are here. So, what to ask the great man? How about the Cage that never was? Cage nearly played Superman in an aborted 90s Tim Burton reboot, and was almost cast over Johnny Depp by Burton as Willy Wonka in 2005's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The hardest to imagine is Cage delivering the immortal lines: 'You know, Lloyd, just when I think you couldn't possibly be any dumber, you go and do something like this ... and totally redeem yourself!' as apparently he was first choice over Jeff Daniels to star with Jim Carrey in 1994's Dumb & Dumber. In other trivia, Cage famously outbid Leonardo DiCaprio to win a $300,000 Mongolian dinosaur skull at auction that he had to give back when it transpired it had been stolen. Then there was the time he had to publicly quash a conspiracy theory that he's a vampire. Apparently, Cage now lives in a small village in Somerset (or at least, he has a house there). Imagine bumping into Nicolas Cage at your local Spar! And let's not forget when he made the greatest chatshow entrance of all time (somersault, leather jacket, hair flying) in 1990 on Wogan to promote Wild at Heart. He was also quite funny that time on Saturday Night Live. Please get your questions in by 6pm BST on Monday 28 April and we'll print his answers in Film&Music on Friday 9 May. The Surfer is in UK cinemas from 9 May.
