Is Nicolas Cage a good actor? In season 5 of the TV show Community, the enormity of this question and the volume of cinematic output required to sift through in search of the answer push Abed Nadir (Danny Pudi) over into madness. It's easy to see why - Cage is a man of many contradictions. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as a troubled alcoholic in Leaving Las Vegas (1995) and has worked with auteurs including Martin Scorsese, Ridley Scott and the Coen brothers. At the same time, his signature brand of over-the-top acting, with his eyes bulging out, mouth agape in rage, has been memeified into pop culture consciousness, popularising the term 'Cage Rage'. Critics have simultaneously accused him of 'overacting' and lamented his status as an 'underrated' performer. He starred in 29 straight-to-VOD films in the last decade to pay off his debts but also calls that resume blip "some of the best work of his life". Eight years since that episode of Community aired, popular consensus around Cage's acting abilities seems to have solidified - 'good' and 'bad' are reductive terms when it comes to evaluating someone whose onscreen presence has remained one of thrilling unpredictability for the past 40 years.
Read the full review on Film Companion.
Read the full review on Film Companion.