A Nicolas Cage Analysis
Longlegs, National Treasure and a million other movies.
I don’t remember where I heard it—it was probably on a podcast, I listen to way too many podcasts—but someone somewhere called Nicolas Cage the ultimate tool for filmmaking.
An actor in many respects but also a special instrument that you might have in a garage, Cage is known for his over-the-top, oftentimes wild performances.
Born in the Coppola family, Cage asked for a screen test from his uncle Francis Ford Coppola. Because, of course. Not long after, Cage got his career started in a 1981 television pilot that never got picked up and then a minor role in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. 1981 was over 40 years ago, and in that time Cage has been in over 100 films crafting his very particular screen persona time and time again.
Longlegs is the most recent movie to take Cage out of the garage and give him a test drive. It works wonders. Cage is doing the most, playing a serial killer of sorts with a high-pitched creepy voice, behind a layer of makeup and failed prosthetics. He’s somehow a failed glam rocker and also a very reasonable nightmarish murderer.
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That’s … a lot. But it works in a movie that uses him as an entrance to a demonic world of evil that is as all-encompassing as things get. Director Oz Perkins has stated that the Longlegs character was a full collaboration with Cage. The script never really changed, but the character itself went through many iterations until Cage eventually discovered whoever this guy was.
There’s been a lot of talk recently about the memeability of Cage and how absurd he can get. I’m not disagreeing with his ridiculousness, and yet, I don’t think he really has bad performances. He’s always Nic Cage in one way or another. It’s everything else.
Does the movie have enough gravitas and a stranglehold on his character for him to fit into these pop-up worlds?
Cage will deliver. No matter what it takes. Whether his movies work or not ultimately comes down to whether the director knows how to properly utilize him.
Dream Scenario from last year, like Longlegs, is a good example of another movie that tries to play off of Cage’s on- and off-screen persona. The idea for most of these movies is that Cage is always famous (or is about to be famous) in whatever world the movie’s trying to build out. Cage knows his character, a washed-up man who just so happens to be invading people’s dreams, but the movie fails to turn the corner and doesn’t have anything to say about that. Other than, fame is bad and other mediocre ideas.
His Dream Scenario character is something that he’s done before, a normal guy who accidentally ends up in a bizarre scenario, and yet it doesn’t really work in this one because the movie never matches his energy and go-for-it-ness.
The Cage movies that last are the ones that take his charisma and turn it to 11. Cage is never going to be anything other than Cage. He’s the opposite of a character actor.
National Treasure, for instance, is Cage’s looney tunes attempt at a heist movie. Instead of wanting to steal something relatively small, the movie ups the stakes until there’s basically nothing higher. Cage wants to get the Declaration of Independence and figure out the secret history of the United States. The sequel, knowing how big its predecessor gets, has Cage and company diving into Mount Rushmore to find a Native American city of gold. It also briefly features Watergate, Area 51, and the JFK assassination. The third movie, if it ever happens, is going to have to be Cage seeking the Holy Grail or the original Bible or even heaven itself.
Other Cage hits take similar bold risks. In Adaptation, he plays a set of screen-writing twins that accidentally fall into near murder. Face/Off has a literal face removed. Moonstruck has him falling in love with Cher, he also is missing a hand. Leaving Las Vegas has him trying to drink himself to death. Raising Arizona has him stealing a baby to start his own family. Con Air, Kick-Ass, Mandy, The Rock: All movies that back up Cage’s BIG performances. The recent hit Pig is a quieter, more brow-beaten Cage that also includes an underground foodie fight club and a John Wick-esque hunt.
It’s kind of surprising Cage has never played a murderer quite like Longlegs, but I’m glad Perkins went for the dynamic actor while the rest of the movie is purposefully sparse and muted. It makes his risk-taking even more bold.
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That Longlegs has a protagonist in Maika Monroe’s Lee Harker that can go toe to toe with Cage is why this horror movie has legs. Pun intended.
The world around Cage is thought through and just as daring as its antagonist. It’s not the scariest movie ever made as its marketing suggests, but it is a damn good time at the cinema with the latest Cage performance that’s going to stick with you.