B (Good).

A dumb little movie (I mean that as a compliment), with weirdly great performances.

(Oct. 2023) ( )

Nicholas Cage stars as Nick Cage, a depressed (or just unstable?) and unfulfilled workaholic actor who's so willing to take whatever role he can get that it's ruining what's left of his relationship with his daughter, Addy. He reluctantly agrees to be paid to go to a millionaire's birthday party and ends up roped into an effort by the CIA to spy on Javi, a supposed arms dealer who has kidnapped a young woman in order to fix a presidential election.

I decided to watch this because I occasionally like watching weird/quirky stuff, and this looked like my kind of weird. I found it to be confusing and full of huge holes/unexplained bits at the end. That said, I somehow still enjoyed it, largely due to the likeability of Pedro Pascal (Javi) and the developing friendship between him and Nick.

Javi was an enormous and embarrassing Nicholas Cage fanboy. Watching him try not to be creepy while simultaneously trying to spend as much time with Nick as possible was hilarious, especially as Nick tried to figure out whether any of what he was doing was potentially threatening or a sign that he'd figured out Nick was spying on him. I don't know whether I've ever seen Pedro Pascal in anything else but this made me want to (no, unfortunately I don't have streaming services that would give me the ability to watch either The Mandalorian or The Last of Us).

I wouldn't say I'm a Nicholas Cage fan - in fact, there are movies I've passed by specifically because he starred in them. There are probably a ton of jokes and movie references I missed because of this. I'm fine with that. The first movie that comes to mind when I think of him is Face/Off, and the only recent movie of his that I've been tempted by is Willy's Wonderland (it's the Five Nights at Freddy's appeal of it).

The final scene with Addy came across as incredibly contrived, and the moment when the movie switched was bizarre (although, I'm sure, intentionally so). I still have no idea how Javi got from the last moment he was at to the point where the movie ended.

I don't know that this movie as a whole is worth watching, but a good chunk of the scenes involving Javi and Nick are.

Extras:

Deleted scenes, audio commentary I didn't listen to, and SXSW Film Festival Q&A that I didn't watch.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )