Nicolas Cage will be the first person who will point out the fact that he has been working for a long time. He will quickly remark on having been a working actor since the age of 15, which means that his career has lasted over four decades – and in that span of time, he has done everything and occupied every conceivable role. He’s been a movie star and a character actor, an action hero and a horror icon – and while the degree of quality of each film may wane, Cage himself is always absolutely brilliant. Yet, it seems like his greatest work is, quite simply, being Nicolas Cage – from his penchant for going over-the-top in ways that many of his contemporaries would never dare, to playing characters that would be utterly dull had someone with the steadfast commitment to his work taken on the roles. For several years, audiences have been entertained by the actor, not necessarily due to the roles he played, but rather the kind of performer he is – and whether subtle or unhinged, we always know that we’ll get our money’s worth when Cage is on screen. This was the impetus for Tom Gormican’s absolutely brilliant film in which he employed Cage to play a fictionalized version of himself (although the extent to which this version can be considered heightened is entirely up to interpretation) – and it is only made more appropriate that the film bears the title The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, one of the rare instances where the name of a project is not only appropriate, but almost prophetic. One of the year’s most hilarious and irreverent films, and one that is bound to become a classic of showbusiness satires, this is an outrageously funny and extraordinarily resonant work of pure, unhinged artistic genius, and certainly one that is filled to the brim with a variety of surprises that make every moment worthwhile, proving Gormican as a gifted young filmmaker with a promising future ahead of him.

At a cursory glance, one may think that The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent was made by someone who intended to ridicule Cage and showcase his shortcomings as an actor, since the story itself does not do much to suggest otherwise. However, the film was made by someone who clearly holds nothing but the most deep and sincere fondness for the actor, which is very likely the reason he agreed to take on this part, which (perhaps unintentionally) became the role of a lifetime. Gormican, in his directorial debut, was certainly taking several risks with this film – just the idea of pitching such a story to an actor as intimidating as Cage seems like it takes a courage most contemporary filmmakers would struggle to find, since on a conceptual basis, the film feels like nothing more than an extended Saturday Night Live sketch, almost to the point where early promotion could have feasibly have been seen as nothing more than an elaborate ruse (especially since the notoriously playful Cage has not shown any hesitation to a few well-constructed pranks) – so to discover that The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is not only a real film, but an absolutely brilliant one, feels like a gift. None of us may have necessarily asked for this film (although anyone who has spent even a few minutes looking into Cage’s work will agree that his personality warranted an entire starring vehicle all on its own), but we are so grateful that Gormican took the leap and actually got it made. The film is built on the element of surprise, and even at its most conventional, it feels incredibly well-formed and interesting, so much that the viewer is rarely ever bored. The various twists and turns, some of which are absolutely absurd in the way only a great satire can be, keep the viewer engaged, and we constantly feel as if we are being spoiled with the opportunity to see this incredible actor taking on a role that calls for him to look inward and find the motivation to turn in arguably the most important performance of his life – after all, who better to play Nicolas Cage than Nicolas Cage himself?

In most instances, actors playing themselves can be seen as a product of vanity or laziness, with the ability to make an appearance in a film without needing to do any character-based work, and instead just rely on their presence, has been an easy paycheque for many ordinary actors. It goes without saying that Nicolas Cage is not an ordinary actor, and even when tasked with playing himself, he makes it very clear that his aims are to do the very best he possibly could with the role, which is the same energy he seems to bring to absolutely every project. There’s a level of playfulness that persists throughout this film that suggests that Cage is certainly in on the joke, which was never a question, but the degree to which he would be willing to commit to the more madcap aspects of the story did seem a bit more ambigious in the process of watching this film get made. Not only is Cage demonstrating a degree of self-awareness that we have never seen from him before (since he often plays all of his roles with a kind of intensity that makes us wonder whether he knows how over-the-top he can tend to be at the best of times), but he seems to be having a genuinely wonderful time with this story. Arguably, every actor would be honoured to have an entire film dedicated to their legacy, and Cage has always demonstrated such an appreciation for the opportunity to do the work – granted, a great deal of it has been of questionable quality, but this is beside the point, especially since this film will be the first to admit that his work has not often been the most consistent. It’s in these moments that we find ourselves really appreciating The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent and its devotion to its main character, who turns in a performance that really reflects his genuine appreciation for the opportunity to poke some fun at himself, proving to be a remarkably good sport in all the ways that make this such a delightfully off-the-wall comedy.

There is a lot of work done throughout The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent that proves that this was a film that was not interested in being solely defined by its one trivial quality of being an opportunity for Cage to play himself. Even if we remove this aspect from the story, we still discover that the film is a tremendously entertaining combination of showbusiness satire and action comedy. The story may hinge on Cage, but it is not solely defined by him – it’s possible to imagine the same film being made with many actors who have proven that it is possible to feasibly oscillate between quality and quantity throughout one’s career – and as much as Gormican is structuring the entire story around Cage, it does take a few very interesting twists and turns in terms of the narrative, which we soon learn is much more indebted to a wider group of ideas. The director proves that he is a fan of cinema in general, and punctuates the film with many references that extend beyond Cage’s own career and persona – and many of these more detailed jokes may be missed by more casual viewers (for example, the first words Cage says at the start of the film take the form of a passionate monologue about Joseph L. Mankiewicz and House of Strangers, which he delivers to David Gordon Green), which may lead us to believe that the film exists in service to those who are heavily steeped in the culture of cinema. However, the film is not restricted solely to this domain, since it is widely accessible in terms of the humour, and the fact that it is packaged with an abundance of thrilling action sequences that almost seem to betray the more subversive tone of the film – it’s not common that we find satires that actually become more effective than the works that they are parodying, but this is certainly one such example. Removing Cage and transplanting any other actor from his generation would make for a substantially less entertaining film, but one that is still very inventive and unique in its own way, which is proof that The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is much more than just a single-concept film.

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is a film that is difficult to not respect – it was made by a newcomer who wrote and directed a film that centres on a concept that is normally restricted to the realm of hypothetical conversations about what would be an entertaining work, should it actually be made. Gormican took the opportunity to leap into the unknown, unsure of whether his experiment would be a dismal failure or a resounding success – so it seems almost a miracle that it didn’t only turn out to be a good film, but one of the very best comedies of recent years. It does take some degree of suspending our disbelief to fully get on-board with the film (and for those who find Nicolas Cage and his style of acting insufferable, it may be an ordeal, since so much of it is built on him being so unapologetically himself), but the reward is worth more than the effort that it takes to ease into this film and simply enjoy its unhinged madness that serves to be a fervent and passionate celebration of the legacy of a true entertainment icon. It is quick-witted and fast on its feet, and it knows exactly how to draw out laughter, even when peddling in some intentionally cliched humour, which only serves to underline all the reasons why Cage has become such a folkloric figure. Like any story about a mythological creature, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent knows its subject inside and out, and is willing to spend a great deal of time excavating through a range of ideas, using those that are valuable as a propellant for the central premise, while the others become more nuanced jokes that are merely supplementary details to a film that finds the humour in absolutely every situation. Refreshingly funny and not without a vast emotional resonance, the film is a wonderfully deranged work of metafictional cinema that proves that a project can be simultaneously intensely cerebral and gleefully dumb at the exact same time, which is perhaps the most accurate descriptor of this film. This is Nicolas Cage’s world, and we’re just living in it.