Genre: Drama
Director: Mike Mills
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Gaby Hoffman, Scoot McNairy, Woody Norman, Molly Webster, Jaboukie Young-White
Runtime: 1 hr 49 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Coarse Language)
Released By: Golden Village Pictures
Official Website:
Opening Day: 7 April 2022
Synopsis: Johnny (Joaquin Phoenix) and his young nephew (Woody Norman) forge a tenuous but transformational relationship when they are unexpectedly thrown together in this delicate and deeply moving story about the connections between adults and children, the past and the future, from writer-director Mike Mills.
Movie Review:
C’mon C’mom is best summed up more as a documentary/family movie. Equally thoughtful and heartfelt, the drama written and directed by Mike Mills (Beginners) opens with a series of interviews with children in Detroit asking them about their thoughts on the future. We see our leading man, Johnny (Joaquin Phoenix), a soft-spoken radio journalist doing his job until a call with his sister, Viv (Gabby Hoffmann) whom he has not been in contact for a while changes his mundane routine.
Johnny offers to babysit Viv’s nine-year-old boy, Jesse (Woody Norman) while she has to made an urgent trip to visit her bipolar husband, Paul (Scott McNairy) in Oakland and gets him to clinical treatment. Jesse however is not an ordinary boy who is glue to the screen. He is precocious, curious and imaginative.
Unlike The Tender Bar who also has an uncle taking on the role of a surrogate father, C’mon C’mom on the other hand feels more believable, painful and sorrow. While definitely not a coming-of-age story, Mills’ tale feels like one for the most part. Technically, Jesse is still a young kid but his thinking, articulation skill far exceeds the average child of his age. Because of his father’s condition, he is concerned about his future wondering if he might turned into his dad. He is curious about the relationship between his Uncle Johnny and his mother. Sometimes, he imagined himself as an orphan.
But deep down Jesse is still a young boy. He throws tantrums and run away whenever Johnny is on the phone or he is not getting the attention he wanted from the latter. The boy also gets high on sugar and at times, he simply can’t stop talking about random stuff. Young English actor Woody Norman carries the film with much talent and flair that you chooses to empathise than be irritated by his antics.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the story unfolds quietly instead in a loud, dramatic manner. Not that there is a lot to cover anyway. Yet there is an underlying honesty and authenticity to appreciate between uncle and nephew.
The obvious bright side is likely the most endearing performance from Joaquin Phoenix in recent years. Of course, the Academy Award winner is known for his eccentric, unhinged performances in flicks liked Joker, Inherent Vice and right here, he plays Uncle Johnny to the T. He gets frustrated when Jesse refuses to sleep, throws tantrums and ran away. He entertains Jesse with his stories and audio equipment. He is struggling and slowly adapting to his new role as a guardian and uncle. It’s as real as the interviews he conducts with children all over the country. The man who has a fallout with Viv over their late dementia-suffering mother is slowly developing a reconnection to his family members with his journey with Jesse.
Constructed using a rather loose narrative, C’mon C’mom is a lovely low-key drama that depicts a supportive family tie and parenting. Lensed beautifully in black and white by Robbie Ryan, New York, Detroit and New Orleans has never look so surreal and picturesque. If you are getting distracted and restless as an audience, just treat this slow drama as more of an “experience” as opposed to a traditional film despite its decent intentions.
Movie Rating:
(For every commercial big release out there, there will always be a mature, emotionally complex drama liked C’mon C’mom waiting to be discover)
Review by Linus Tee
SYNOPSIS: A Disney+ Original movie, "Cheaper by the Dozen" is a reimagining of the 2003 hit family comedy. It is the story of the raucous exploits of a blended family of 12, the Bakers, as they navigate a hectic home life while simultaneously managing their family business.
MOVIE REVIEW:
Cheaper by the Dozen (2022) is the third time the 1948 semi-autographical novel of the same name is adapted to the screen. After the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney, it’s time for the latter to dig out wholesome, family-friendly franchises (remember Home Alone?) and rework them for Disney+.
This reboot stars Zach Braff as a small-time restaurant owner, Paul Baker who along with his current wife, Zoey (Gabrielle Union) has altogether nine kids from their past marriages and current one. Paul’s first wife, Kate (Erika Christensen) remains on friendly terms with them and continues to help out in their household as their nanny while Zoey’s ultra-successful first husband, Dom (Timon Kyle Durret) drops by here and then with lavish presents.
When Paul’s breakfast sauce and restaurant business starts to expand, the big family decides to move to a gated community only to encounter tensions from their children. And with Paul’s frequent absence from the family given his commitment to his growing business, Zoey starts to wonder if they had actually made the right decision.
Even for a sitcom pilot or TV movie, the entire production feels cheap and rushed. All thanks to the many TV-like subplots and setups, the premise feels kind of bloated, ambitious and runs longer than the 2003’s Steve Martin version. Perhaps it’s due to the fact that the movie’s director and writers helmed mainly from a TV background.
Still, the plotting is enjoyable if you love a harmless family comedy (plus having a low expectation level). This 2022 version is occasionally funny and attempts to stir up some social awareness and questions liked Dom trying to take full custody of his kids because he is against a white man raising his black kids, Pauls’ adopted Indian son who faces racial bullying in school and as if there’s not enough trouble brewing in the Baker family, Paul’s troubled nephew who came from a broken family.
In addition, we have teenager DJ who is nerdy and finding hard to approach girls while his sister, Deja is embarking on her first relationship with a boy. There are so many stories crammed into one feature that none of the characters are fully developed by the end of it. Fortunately, Zach Braff and Gabrielle Union are believable and charming as the interracial couple. Without resorting to slapstick and gross-out gags, it’s largely a safe viewing experience for the entire family. Maybe the filmmakers should at least rope in Steve Martin, Ashton Kutcher, Tom Welling and Hilary Duff for cameos to stir up some excitement.
MOVIE RATING:
Review by Linus Tee
SYNOPSIS: Ana de Armas and Ben Affleck star in this tense, mystery thriller based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith. A husband becomes the primary suspect when his wife's lovers start dying, after letting his wife have affairs in order to avoid a divorce. Who's really telling the truth?
MOVIE REVIEW:
81-year-old English director Adrian Lye known for his sexually-charged thrillers, Fatal Attraction, Indecent Proposal and Unfaithful returns to helm Deep Water after an absence of two decades from the big screen.
This so-called erotic psychological thriller based on a 1957 Patricia Highsmith novel stars Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas as the Van Allens, Vic and Melinda. With the sultry Melinda hooking up younger men as and when she likes, their rich social circle frequently talks openly about their marriage. Maybe Melinda is stuck in a loveless marriage. Maybe Vic is unwilling to divorce her because of their young daughter (the only bright spot in the movie) or because he has to spilt his riches with her. Something is kind of off here.
Things start to turn sinister when Melinda’s lovers turned up dead one by one. Perhaps the murderer is Vic who finally broke down and snaps since he even made a dark joke about killing her lover although Vic remains a credible neighbour in the close-knit community. Or perhaps Melinda is a psychotic lover. Deep Water raises a lot of questions throughout but fails to answer any of them.
Lye treats the first half of his movie as if it’s his routine morning walk. Nothing substantial happened even after an hour. There’s no concrete evidence to show the couple is deeply in love or in an open relationship in the first place. Melinda often teases Vic, attempts a half-baked blowjob in the car and seemingly disinterested in her role as a mother and wife. Vic on the other hand prefer to stare intensely as his wife constantly flirts with other men and plays with his pet snails instead of ahem, the young, sexy Melinda.
It seems like no one cares or knows what to do with the Patricia Highsmith novel that they have to clumsily introduce a Hollywood screenwriter character (who is actually a pulp writer in the original material), Don Wilson (Tracy Letts) into the flimsy plotting before haphazardly disposing him as he begins to suspect Vic of foul play.
Deep Water falls short in every aspect which explains the long-delayed release. It fails miserably both as a twisted erotic thriller and a lesson on morality. While much madness is teased in the end, nothing conclusive happened and the movie ended on an abrupt note. It’s a shame that the only thing you remember of Deep Water is Affleck and Armas’ brief romantic fling after shooting.
Do check out David Fincher’s Gone Girl which coincidentally also starring Affleck instead. This is interestingly more of an erotic psychological thriller.
MOVIE RATING:
Review by Linus Tee
SYNOPSIS: Gifted with a voice that her parents can’t hear, seventeen-year-old Ruby (Emilia Jones), is the sole hearing member of a deaf family—a CODA, Child of Deaf Adults. Her life revolves around acting as interpreter for her parents (Marlee Matlin, Troy Kotsur) and working on the family’s struggling fishing boat every day before school with her father and older brother (Daniel Durant). But when Ruby joins her high school’s choir club, she discovers a gift for singing and finds herself drawn to her duet partner Miles (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo). Encouraged by her enthusiastic, tough-love choirmaster (Eugenio Derbez) to apply to a prestigious music school, Ruby finds herself torn between the obligations she feels to her family and the pursuit of her own dreams.
MOVIE REVIEW:
‘CODA’ is short for ‘Child Of Deaf Adults’, but there is nothing short about the humour, heart and warmth that this absolute crowd-pleaser packs. Indeed, there is good reason why this adaptation of the 2014 French film ‘La Famille Belier’ won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival last year, was picked up by Apple TV for a record-breaking US$25 million, and could very well walk away with the top prize of Best Picture at the upcoming Academy Awards.
The eponymous child is 17-year-old Ruby (Emilia Jones), who is the lone hearing member of her family comprising her dad Frank (Troy Kotsur), mom Jackie (Marlee Matlin) and older brother Leo (Daniel Durant). Not surprisingly, Ruby has spent her whole life acting as an interpreter for her family, not least as a deck hand on the family’s fishing boat. In between the daily morning fishing expeditions with her father and brother, Ruby has to juggle her high school responsibilities, which explains why she often falls asleep in class and smells like fish.
Ruby’s life takes a life-changing turn when she follows her crush in school, Miles (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo), to sign up for choir. During her first session, Ruby runs out of class, though that is less because she is unable to sing than the fact that she is shy to do so in front of others. Ruby does summon the courage to return, and as you would probably expect, wows their music teacher (Eugenio Derbez) so much so that he offer to coach her on weekends and nights in order to prepare her to audition for the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston.
Even though she had not contemplated such a future before, Ruby starts to imagine one beyond home and outside the confines of her family as she nurtures her singing talent. Alas her dreams come into sharp contrast against the future that her parents have for her – that is, to continue serving as interpreter for the family, whether out at sea in the event of any emergency or back on land to help them sell their catch; that tension is further exacerbated given how music is simply something that the rest of her family cannot instinctively appreciate.
Here is what writer-director Sian Heder succeeds with ‘CODA’ as Ruby’s coming-of-age story: as her family’s bridge to the hearing world, Ruby’s need to find her own place in the world comes with the weight of responsibility that she carries on behalf of her family. Ruby’s choice not only triggers her parents to reflect on the implications of their dependence on her, but also affects her brother Leo who genuinely wants her to do well and has also to grapple with his own pride that he is somehow less important to the family than she is.
Such dilemmas are not new, but Heder portrays them here with utmost sensitivity and respect to the characters which inhabit her story. Besides Ruby and Leo, Frank and Jackie occupy indelible roles in the narrative, both of whom are forced over the course of the film to confront that what may be convenient for their family may not necessarily be what is best for their daughter. Yes, as familiar as they may be, the family dynamics here are textured, vibrant and thoroughly appealing.
That accomplishment is as much Heder’s completely naturalistic filmmaking as it is the amazing chemistry among the cast, who had deservedly won the Screen Actors Guild for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. We admit this is the first time we’re seeing Kotsur, Matlin and Durant, but they are an absolute joy to watch – in particular, Kotsur and Matlin have a blast leaning into their uninhibited characters, while Durant brings a poignant soulfulness as the other child in the family who is sometimes overlooked. And of course, there is British actress-singer/songwriter Jones, who is tender and tough and everything in between as Ruby, bringing a whole palette of moods to the table and blending seamlessly with the trio of deaf actors.
Like we said, there is good reason why ‘CODA’ has emerged as the frontrunner to win the top prize in the Academy Awards 2022. It is an emotional powerhouse of a movie, especially in the last act where dad and mom finally put aside their fears and insecurities to appreciate the world as Ruby is experiencing it – one of the best scenes is when the sound drops out during Ruby’s high-school concert, and we see how Frank and Jackie try to absorb the event by looking over the faces of their fellow audience members and smile and clap along when others do. Only the unredeemable cynic will be left indifferent when Ruby finally takes to her Berklee audition singing Joni Mitchell’s ‘Both Sides Now’; is it quite possibly one of the most moving climaxes we’ve seen this year.
MOVIE RATING:
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Thriller
Director: Phillip Noyce
Cast: Naomi Watts, Colton Gobbo, Andrew Chown, Sierra Maltby, Michelle Johnston, Woodrow Schrieber, David Reale
Runtime: 1 hr 24 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Coarse Language)
Released By: Shaw Organisation
Official Website:
Opening Day: 31 March 2022
Synopsis: While out for a run, Amy (Academy Award®-nominee Naomi Watts) learns there is an active shooter at her son’s school. She’s far from home with no fast way back, so she does whatever she can to protect her son and grapple the situation from afar. Her persistence leads to her direct contact with the shooter and police.
Movie Review:
True to its title, ‘The Desperate Hour’ unfolds almost in real time as we follow Amy (Naomi Watts), a mother grieving the loss of her husband a year ago, struggle to get to her teenage son Noah’s school, where an active shooter incident has broken out. Unfortunately for Amy, she was on a long morning run in the woods before she received the emergency broadcast from the town’s police department about the incident, so it will take no less than an hour of running and limping as well as a brief car ride before she is able to get to town.
As conceived by writer Chris Sparling, the movie is structured much like his breakout hit ‘Buried’ – so like Reynolds did in that movie, Watts pretty much holds this 81-minute thriller together from start to finish. Oh yes, those expecting a more elaborate execution based on the aforementioned premise will no doubt be disappointed, given how most of the movie has Watts fielding an array of phone calls while navigating through the remote woods on her own, without the issues of poor reception or GPS in case you’re wondering.
Yet within its minimalist set-up, veteran Australian director Phillip Noyce and Sparling pull off a relatively impressive feat of keeping the pace tight and taut. Within a deceptively leisurely 15 minutes, Noyce efficiently establishes the building blocks of the narrative – the reason why Amy has decided to take the day off; the same reason why Noah pretends to be sick so he can avoid school; her mother flying in that day, and therefore a call to the auto repair shop to ensure her parents’ car would be ready; and last but not least, two other calls from a friend organizing a moms’ night out and her daughter’s elementary school.
Without giving too much away, let’s just say that these contacts become her eyes and ears as she tries to get a better sense of the situation on the ground. Did Noah eventually go to school? Has he managed to escape or is he still trapped in the school with the shooter? Who exactly is the shooter? Watts is fantastic at conveying Amy’s desperation as a mother, and just as effective at showing how she transforms that anguish into both resolve and resourcefulness. This is effectively Watts’ one-hander, and she gives her all in a performance both raw and real.
That realism is however undermined by a credulity-straining third act, which sees Watts making some wildly irresponsible choices in order for her to eventually become some everyman hero. It is too obvious how Sparling is trying to up the dramatic urgency in the proceedings in order to deliver a more Hollywood-friendly climax, but the result of these injudicious creative turns causes the film to lose its own credibility, and ultimately opens it to criticism that it is simply milking a terrible real-life subject for cheap action thrills.
And because of its own desperate last-minute attempt at pandering to conventional movie-going sensibilities, ‘The Desperate Hour’ ends up falling short as an intimate drama cum social commentary on the horror that parents in America must feel when they hear of yet another school shooting incident. It still is an effective rollercoaster ride thanks to Watts’ intensely committed act, but one wishes that the filmmakers could either have decided to be realistic or be dramatic and not try for both at the same time; if it had known better what it wanted to be, it probably wouldn’t end up as the earnest, well-intentioned muddle it is now.
Movie Rating:
(An awkward cross between realistic social drama and dramatic thriller, this one-hander that boasts an impressively committed performance by Naomi Watts is watchable but hardly compelling)
Review by Gabriel Chong
SYNOPSIS: A Hitchcockian thriller following a young couple (Lily Collins, Jesse Plemons) who arrive at their vacation home only to find it’s being robbed.
MOVIE REVIEW:
What can you do if you are stuck at home during a pandemic?
How about gathering a group of good friends over Zoom and start pitching an idea for a movie liked what Jason Segel did.
In this touted as a Hitchcockian, film-noir inspired thriller, Segel plays a stranger who wonders around a nice vacation home drinking orange juice and urinates in the shower. When he is about leave with a Rolex and some money he found, a tech billionaire (Jesse Plemons) and his wife (Lily Collins) walks in and is immediately taken as hostages by the stranger.
Realizing he might be captured on security cameras; the stranger demands a bigger sum of money from the billionaire but his assistant can only deliver the cash the day after. Thus, the threesome is forced to spend the night together and obviously it’s not going to end well in the end.
This home invasion thriller which takes place in a single location is clearly more talky than thrilling. There are no panic rooms, hidden compartments or even accomplices who barge in halfway. For the majority of the runtime, there’s just Segel, Plemons and Collins walking around the estate and sitting around lamenting about life, corporate greed, egos and commentary about social status.
Plemons is solid as the narcissistic tech billionaire. His character is the slimy rich a-hole who attempts to talk himself out of every situation looking down on everyone and that includes his trophy wife. Segel playing against type offers a somewhat engaging performance, ditto to Collins. In other words, it’s generally well-acted except there’s little tension and character development to keep viewers invested throughout.
Truthfully, Windfall actually does turned out to be a worthy trip given the surprise turn out of events in the last act. It’s a pleasure to say despite the less-than-stellar narrative, the experience is very much out-of-the-box.
MOVIE RATING:
Review by Linus Tee
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ACADEMY AWARD WINNERS 2022Posted on 28 Mar 2022 |
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: Le-van Kiet
Cast: Lam Thanh My, Quang Tuan, Mai Cat Vi, Dieu Nhi, Le Be La
Runtime: 1 hr 41 mins
Rating: PG13 (Horror and Some Disturbing Scenes)
Released By: Clover Films and Golden Village Pictures
Official Website:
Opening Day: 24 March 2022
Synopsis: After suffering a family tragedy, a widower named Thanh (Quang Tuan) moves his two daughters to a centuries-old ancestral home. Both daughters fall prey to sleep paralysis and night terrors. Their father seeks the help of a local psychologist, but chilling secrets and visions eventually prove that all is not what it seems in the old family house...
Movie Review:
An intriguing premise and an atmospheric setting cannot quite save the Vietnamese horror ‘The Ancestral’ from humdrum, a disappointing misfire from writer-director Le-Van Kiet following the critical and commercial success of his martial arts actioner ‘Furie’. This isn’t Le’s first horror attempt, and though we had not seen his earlier work (a la ‘House in the Alley’), we had certainly expected at least coherence and purpose to the whole exercise in jump-scares and CGI-ed demons.
A prologue filmed through a camcorder and then through CCTV shows a woman and her baby traumatized by the strange behaviour of her grandmother, who apparently suffers from sleep paralysis and sleepwalks at night. Fast-forward to present day, where we learn the young Yen (Mai Cat Vi) is going through the same, awakening from a nightmare of her mother, whom we learn had recently passed away and is the reason why her father Thanh (Quang Tuan) has decided to abandon their previous house and move them into a centuries-old ancestral home.
It doesn’t take a cynic to scoff at the logic of that decision. How much good can moving the family to a creepy old house be for two daughters still reeling from the death of their mother? In fact, it isn’t even clear over the course of the film that the house belonged to the family, or if it is just some random house in a deserted village and without giving too much away, let’s just say when it is revealed late into the second act why Thanh had chosen to move the family to the house, it is as laughable and ridiculous a turn of events as can be.
As genre convention would have it, Yen’s sleep paralysis takes a turn for the worse; even during afternoon naps, she is caught in a trance-like state, unable to move her body as if something were holding her down. On the other hand, Yen’s older sister Linh (Lam Thanh My) sees a mysterious black figure in and around the house, and begins to fear that she might have inherited the same disease from her parents. Like we said before, it is never clear if it is both or neither, and Le’s failure to make clear whether these otherworldly figures are real or just imagination is downright frustrating.
Because we never know how much we should take it for real, Le’s unceasing effort at throwing something at his audience at a loud pitch is also simply annoying. As much as he may aspire to be, Le is no James Wan, and his ambition of adapting Wan’s style of long takes, slow push-ins and foreboding soundtrack culminating in unexpected scares is embarrassing to watch. It doesn’t help that the CGI is amateurish, such that we can never take what is meant to be scary for real.
So as unusual as the idea of a Vietnamese horror may be, and as intriguing as its premise may sound, ‘The Ancestral’ is best left avoided. There is little logic to its execution, and even less purpose to the scares, so all you’re left wondering at the end of it was what Le had even intended with it in the first place. It’s been a while since we’ve seen a solid Asian horror, and as much as we wanted to like it, ‘The Ancestral’ is a thorough letdown, even more so coming from a director like Le.
Movie Rating:
(An intriguing premise and an atmospheric setting cannot disguise an overall lack of coherence and purpose to this frustrating horror outing)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Comedy/Action
Director: Tom Gormican
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal, Sharon Horgan, Ike Barinholtz, Alessandra Mastronardi, Jacob Scipio, Lily Sheen, with Neil Patrick Harris, Tiffany Haddish
Runtime: 1 hr 33 mins
Rating: NC16 (Coarse Language and Drug Use)
Released By: Encore Films
Official Website:
Opening Day: 21 April 2022
Synopsis: Nicolas Cage stars as... Nick Cage in the action-comedy The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. Creatively unfulfilled and facing financial ruin, the fictionalized version of Cage must accept a $1million offer to attend the birthday of a dangerous superfan (Pedro Pascal). Things take a wildly unexpected turn when Cage is recruited by a CIA operative (Tiffany Haddish) and forced to live up to his own legend, channeling his most iconic and beloved on-screen characters in order to save himself and his loved ones. With a career built for this very moment, the seminal award-winning actor must take on the role of a lifetime: Nick Cage.
Movie Review:
All together, Nicolas Cage has spent the last 40 years in show business, so unless you belonged to the last decade where he had largely headlined direct-to-video independent films, you would probably have seen the actor in one of his iconic roles.
Notwithstanding this, it bears saying that a premise like that in ‘The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent’ – in which a washed-out mega Hollywood star finds his mojo by reliving his former performances through being a CIA informant for a political kidnapping – would not be possible without an undeniable star of inimitable talent like Cage; and yet it would be presumptuous to think that such a movie would immediately be successful just with Cage’s participation, given the spotty track record of such projects with Hollywood faces playing themselves.
With absolute relief therefore, we are proud to say that Tom Gormican’s meta-action comedy is a blast through and through. It isn’t just about the numerous references to Cage’s films over the years – and that includes not only the blockbusters like ‘Con Air’, ‘The Rock’ or ‘Face/Off’ but also under-rated classics such as ‘Guarding Tess’, ‘Captain Corelli’s Mandolin’ and the more recent ‘Pig’; rather, it is about how Cage proves perfectly self-aware, willing to embrace both the accolades and the brickbats which have been levelled at him throughout his career.
Cage introduces us to the fictionalised version of himself accosting filmmaker David Gordon Green for a movie role which he says could be his “King Lear”, insisting despite the latter declining the invitation to put on a Boston accent to perform a monologue at the valet pick-up of the leafy industry haunt Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, Nick (as his alter-ego here is known) doesn’t get the role; with a $600k debt he owes to the Sunset Tower hotel and his own lavish lifestyle to support, Nick has no choice but to reluctantly accept his agent’s (Neil Patrick Harris) offer to appear at a birthday party in Mallorca for a million dollar payday.
Turns out that the invite is from a Cage superfan named Javi (Pedro Pascal), who personally picks him up on a speedboat to bring Nick to his private sun-struck villa. Besides gracing his special day, Javi hopes to use the opportunity to convince Nick to star in a screenplay he has written. The surprise here is the double act between Cage and Pascal, the former’s amplified star personas combining with the latter’s starry-eyed guilelessness to exude an immediate and unflinching chemistry that brings an infectious exuberance and unexpected poignance to the proceedings.
Against their bromance, the intrusion by two CIA agents (Tiffany Haddish and Ike Barinholtz) stand little chance. Despite their warnings therefore that the latter is a very dangerous man (or to be more precise, the head of a major Spanish crime organisation who kidnapped the teenage girl we saw earlier to force a Catalan presidential candidate to drop out of the election), you’ll find yourself rooting for Nick and Javi, basking in their friendship as they bond over drinks, drives and cliff-diving. It isn’t so much that Pascal steals the show than the fact that he brings out the more affecting side of Cage, elevating the movie into a delightfully sweet buddy comedy.
To his credit, Gormican skilfully utilises these moments to complement the more self-indulgent parts of his movie, especially in the second act where Nick alternates between his various onscreen personas in a number of bravura set-pieces, including a cat-burgling attempt impeded by a paralytic nerve agent and an LSD-addled vehicular chase. That the conventional action beats of the third act doesn’t descend into just another standard-issue Cage action movie is also credit to the synergy between Cage and Pascal; and without giving too much away, let’s just say that they team up in some pleasantly unexpected ways.
As risky as such a high-flying concept was therefore, ‘The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent’ is an unabashed hoot that is a must-see for everyone who has ever harboured an abiding love for Cage. Far from being a self-absorbed misfire, this meta-comedy proves a giddy exercise in self-referential humour, buoyed by a wonderfully attuned Cage who is willing to laugh at his own excesses, acknowledge the criticisms levelled at him and wear his vulnerabilities on his sleeve. That you’ll walk out loving the inimitable Cage even more is testament to the film’s success as a fascinating mix of realness, fakeness, vanity, artistry, self-commentary and pure comedy.
Movie Rating:
(Whether as Nick Cage or Nicky Cage, Nicolas Cage is simply inimitable in this delightfully self-aware tribute to one of the greatest American actors of our generation)
Review by Gabriel Chong
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AND THE BEST ACTION DESIGN GOES TO...Posted on 28 Mar 2022 |
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