nicolas cage, the greatest entertainer of our - or perhaps any - generation (a POLL)

Brad OTM.

I went to a free viewing of Mandy and I can report it's still amazing even the third watch through

more people in every trade/artform could stand to be told "none of this is real"

pig is such a soulful and beautiful film

Ha, yer such a mark. It's one of your best qualities, mind you.

I watched it this past weekend when it popped up on Hulu; it was... better than I expected. But come on; it's set in a world every bit as fantastic as JOHN WICK or ROAD HOUSE, and Cage as nearly silent avatar of What Really Matters is totally absurd. There's not one Dead Wife but TWO! But I'll give it this much - the movie sells it so well you only laugh afterward. Scott Seward called it "a dumber Nomadland for Chuck Palahniuk fanboys" and that's dead on.

"a dumber Nomadland for Chuck Palahniuk fanboys" can not possibly be "better than you expected"

It has the virtue of being completely original and mostly successful at bringing off its premise; it's the intersection of film and ILX's quiddities-of-the-NYT thread. Maybe the year's sharpest political film.

watched and very much loved Pig over the weekend

if it was a dumber palahniuk he’d have been fucking the pig imo

I didn’t buy a lot of bits of the script but Cage sold the dialogue like he meant it. He’s made to emote and act out some really iffy concepts and somehow sell them, imo

Ha, yer such a mark. It's one of your best qualities, mind you.

one of your best qualities is your complete inability to see beyond your narrow-ass tastes so thanks

y’all just namechecking palahniuk just because there’s an brief underground fight club scene in the movie? idk, think better

Pig

it totally depicted the outrageous rituals and trend-chasing that defines any kind of scene without resorting to straight realism, which is distinct from the fictional world of assassins in john wick and the deep interrogation of masculinity in fight club but then again maybe these different things are all the same

Road House was a much deeper interrogation of masculinity than Fight Club. Palahniuk’s best book is Invisible Monsters.

I love movies about work. This one was curious about food culture and the politics of food sourcing. It may be why I liked the writing and directing of the Wolff character so much. We've seen these underachievers before; his sadness and sincerity and just-smart-enough air touched me.

otm

I left Pig a little bemused but not untouched - however its virtues were thrown into sharp relief by my next Cage screening, the irredeemable Prisoners of the Ghostland.

Irredeemable? That film is going to rule and you cannot convince me otherwise

I’m mildly bristling at “underachievers” here. I don’t think Arkin’s character necessarily wanted his son to achieve anything, in that he was as dismissive of him as he was unable to let go of his wife

That's fair.

Irredeemable? That film is going to rule and you cannot convince me otherwise

― imago

No, it's awful nonsense with a couple of nice sets.

are you a fan of any of Sono's previous work

Haven't seen it. This didn't entice me to.

that is all i needed to know

the film will ruuuuuule

have to say i'm with unperson, this was fun and all but ends up being about as deep as a puddle. its great to see cage actually trying & succeeding to act, he's extremely watchable & gives the role more than it deserves. but i'm bored silly by 'damaged stoic hardman trying to Get Back That Which Has Been Stolen' when its done this self-seriously - Point Blank was 50 years ago ffs. at least John Wick had a sense of camp.

y'all are acting as if this movie ends violently

I expected it to go Point Blank and JW and it didn't.

it's a meditation on loss and the ways it obstructs us from true human connection and healing and, as alfred said, it is also about work, about craft, and the ways capital separates us from the dignity of that craft, and fair enough if y'all have seen so many movies that cover this ground both simultaneously and richly while also being funny, poignant, melancholy, and constantly making, ime, unexpected narrative turns, but i haven't and i loved it. also every character the film dwells on has a wonderful, three-dimensional arc, and the movie looks stupidly beautiful. i am a mark, though

the film will ruuuuuule

i’m a big sono mark and think norikos dinner table is an all time great movie and also thought he was on a nice streak lately (loved escher street) but… ghostland is just a mess that doesn’t work at all. worst sono i’ve seen and i must’ve watched like 15 or 20 of em at this point. and it’s particularly disappointing bc it’s gonna be the first exposure a lot of people get and will keep em away from the good stuff, like we’re already seeing on this thread. total bummer.

Thanks bgm - that makes me much more likely to check out his other stuff than certain other posters' 'you're not in the cool club' crowing ;)

D:

lol np

fwiw, depending on your tastes, tag, noriko, antiporno, why don’t you play in hell?, or himizu are all a significantly better way in imo

(x-post)

the half of "why don't you play in hell" that i watched was very much a good time

Time to redo the poll, folks: Nicolas Cage To Play Dracula In Universal’s ‘Renfield’ Starring Nicholas Hoult

pig was not very good

why not?

Will this make Cage the first actor to play two very different vampires in two very different vampire movies?

it is functionally a fantasy/comic book movie that fridged a "character" to kick off the plot which was a revenge thriller retread but with lessons about respect, patience, and tolerance instead of violence, and none of that is what i want from any movie ever. also i draw a line at the amount of "the modern world is bad, because of phones" type shit, which Pig was doing every single chance it got

[n.b., i am a lifelong portlander who is always going to have weird opinions about narratives built around my home and also have tons of personal relationships and arguably work within specifically the portland pretentious food world, but i was psyched to see this dunked on, and i felt like it was at best lazy sketch comedy level dunking]

Where are you drawing the conclusion that the movie offered anything as didactic as a "lesson"?

Even if it did offer a lesson, I guess the films of Renoir and Ford, steeped in respect, tolerance, etc., aren't for you.

Where are you drawing the conclusion that the movie offered anything as didactic as a "lesson"?

There was this big standout scene where Cage forces his former subordinate to interrogate his values as a chef (and by implication as a man), remember?

but the modern world is bad because of phones

if you don’t think pig is speaking through its protagonist, around whose story the entire film is built, who is designed to sit in judgement of everyone he encounters, which he does throughout the film, well I guess you won’t see it as a didactic work. Me, I figure it is, and I see it as a very didactic film that verges on being a (very creaky) morality tale.

There’s plenty of PNW film that deals with the impoverishment endemic to the area without using it for fantasy. Happy to pass on some of my favorites! Kelly reichardt’s earlier work is the obvious touchstone but even 80s van sant or, like, leave no trace was pretty widely seen.

but the modern world is bad because of phones

y’all just namechecking palahniuk just because there’s an brief underground fight club scene in the movie? idk, think better

tbf in addition to the underground fight club scene (which even in the pulpy world of the movie is completely out of nowhere and obviously a reference to palahniuk), a major scene is basically lifted from fight club, where the avatar of authenticity who Sees Through All The Bullshit chastises someone for giving up on their youthful dreams and becoming a part of The System. but like palahniuk's cheapest instincts, its a cheat because all it does is flatter the audience for hating a caricature.

There’s plenty of PNW film that deals with the impoverishment endemic to the area without using it for fantasy. Happy to pass on some of my favorites! Kelly reichardt’s earlier work is the obvious touchstone but even 80s van sant or, like, leave no trace was pretty widely seen.

― Clay,

I like most of those films.

yeah those scenes function very differently in their respective movies you uncharitable dicks

i don’t remember any “phones” shit in this movie literally at all

i also feel like that’s an incorrect reading of fight club on top of it. nothing tyler says is meant to be taken at face value

the supposed caricature in pig is a very real person in my experience lol

i mean obviously the movies have different plots, but just saying its a fair point of reference imo

Also, it's clear we're not supposed to identify with Cage.

I think I'm going to retract what I wrote a little while ago. What's wrong with didacticism in movies? You can reject the message or not; it still doesn't impair the movie.

i identify with the cage character but the movie is not wholly on his side, no