Over 40 days. I’ve gone reverse-lent on Cage. I’ve given up not watching Cage for lent. I’ve started watching and reading a lot of Nic Cage interviews now too. Old ones. Up to this point I’ve sort of been focused on him solely through his performances (not that I was unfamiliar with his personal life) but it’s been interesting to watch interviews with him. Especially the ones from when he was very young. He’s a smart cookie. Let’s review.

Day 36: Christmas Carol: The Movie (2001) – Dir. Jimmy T. Murakami

Hmmm. Interesting way to start the week for sure. Ya this was bad. This was really, really bad. Just…I don’t even really know how this got made at all. It seems British I guess? I dunno, whatever it is it comes from just a terrible animation studio. The animation is nigh unwatchable. There’s nothing new about it at all. It’s The Christmas Carol. I assume you’ve probably seen it about a hundred times by now, it’s no more interesting. Cage is Jacob Marley. No.

Day 37: Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (2001) – Dir. John Madden

Don’t get me wrong. This movie is terrible. At least as a whole. So many bad accents, even Christian Bale who’s usually good at that type of thing. Cage does an Italian accent like a bad Mario impression. But, if you can get over that, the first hour of the movie, before the war part starts, actually is alright. It’s just a bunch of Italian soldiers hanging out in Greece, which is photographed gorgeously. Penelope Cruz gets naked. Plus, Cage actually taught himself to play the mandolin. Pretty darn well.

Day 38:  Windtalkers (2002) – Dir. John Woo

Definitely not the best trifecta to start off a week, but I’m gonna go on a little Windtalkers defense screed for a sec. You won’t believe how many people die in this movie. It’s like… insane. Very much like a video game. It’s basically Cage, Adam Beach, Peter Stormare, Mark Ruffalo, and Christian Slater standing around talking for 5 minutes, then letting loose thousands of rounds of ammunition and killing about 300-500 Japanese people. It’s absurd. Christian Slater gets his head cut off with a sword.

Day 39: Adaptation. (2002) – Dir. Spike Jonze

As a writer, this movie makes me insanely jealous. It’s just so fucking good. The structure is just perfect. It’s self-referential but without being pedantic and just weird for the sake of being weird. It’s actually a very genuine movie for being so high concept on paper. In my eyes an improvement in every way over the work Spike and Charlie Kaufman started on Being John Malkovich. And it’s all tied together with a captivating performance by Cage that stands among his very best.

As both Charlie and the fictional Donald Kaufman, Cage is a sweaty, balding, fat, pathetic, wildly endearing mess that you can’t help but love. This is definitely the “crippling neurosis” period of his career, and Charlie is as tic-filled as Donald is hilariously buffoonish. You totally forget you’re only watching one person. Streep and Chris Cooper are fantastic as well. A triumph.

Day 40: Sonny (2002) – Dir. Nicolas Cage (!)

Holy shit! Nic Cage’s only feature directing credit, and it’s… pretty good actually. You got a young James Franco, before shit got too weird, plus Harry Dean Stanton and a befuddling cameo by Scott Caan and some hefty mutton chops. Oh yeah, and Cage shows up as a bisexual drug addicted pimp named Acid Yellow who looks like his character from Deadfall in a canary tuxedo. I’m pretty sure Nic Cage’s actors direction to Franco was “act like me”. And he does. He freaks out, penetrates an old woman with a nightstick, breaks like 20 bottles and… well, yeah.

Day 41: Matchstick Men (2003) – Dir. Ridley Scott

A con movie, a mental illness movie, and a father/daughter reconciliation movie all tied into one pretty package! I honestly think Cage could’ve easily picked up his second Oscar nom in as many years for his performance as Roy Waller. Most of the time, when people in movies try to act like agoraphobes or just generally neurotic it comes off as forced. Cage’s nervous tics and vocal flutters are really believable, probably because he himself is a little (a lot?) crazy. He’s so fucking nervous this whole movie, it’s almost hard to watch. In a good way.

Day 42: National Treasure (2004) – Dir. Jon Turteltaub

We gettin’ franchise money! I’ve always liked this movie, I don’t give a fuck. I saw it when I was fourteen and I thought it was cool, and I watched it today and I still thought it was cool. Justin Bartha is seriously hilarious as the nerdy sidekick, and Cage is just a riot to watch wrestle with the (admittedly) ludicrous script. The mental jumps he has to make to figure the clues out are so bad, but the movie is pretty aware of it so it’s funny. The chases and capers are well choreographed, and it’s a breezy watch. Plus the ending treasure room reveal is one of my favorites of any movie.

Definitely a mixed bag for Week 6. The end is really quite near now, which is unsettling. Definitely barreling into the current era now, as Cage’s prolific pace slows down just a tad. Now it’s 1-2 movies a year instead of like 4. I’ve never seen World Trade Center, so that should be interesting. Plus the underrated one-two punch of Lord Of War and The Weather Man. Nice.

All Posts: Intro, Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, Week 7, Week 8, Week 9, Week 10.

- Whole Milk