Appendix of Cage 2023: The Year in Nicolas Cage Movies

In 2022, I published a book about Nicolas Cage’s career. But that doesn’t mean I stopped writing it.

In the final days of writing Age of Cage: Four Decades of Hollywood Through One Singular Career, a publicist from Neon contacted me and asked if I’d like a screener of Cage’s upcoming film, Pig. Of course I did, but I was a little wary. I’d mostly completed the text of the book, but could still squeeze a capsule into the Cageography at the end, which would contain starred capsule reviews of all of Cage’s films. But what if it was bad? That would be a bum way to end the book. And, even worse, what if this film blew my thesis?

I needn’t have worried. I loved the film, which features what I consider to be one of Cage’s best performances in any movie. What’s more, its story of a man who’s become distanced from the world in which he was once a star contained echoes of Cage’s career, reminiscent of what I’d been writing. I’m glad it wasn’t Cage’s final film, but it would have been fantastic as a career-capping performance. As it was, it provided a fine note on which to end the book.

Then Cage kept making movies, releasing six in 2023 alone (seven if you count CGI cameos). That made Age of Cage and its Cageography out of date. But it doesn’t have to be. Here’s an update covering Cage activity since the book’s release. I plan to make this an annual column, but if Cage makes good on a statement in his recent interview with Uproxx’s Mike Ryan suggesting he’s soon to retire from movies, it might not last that long.

[Note: These films are graded on the * to **** scale used in Age of Cage (in tribute to Leonard Maltin’s movie guides), not The Reveal’s usual five-star rating system.]

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022) ***

This film in which Nicolas Cage plays down-and-not-quite-out movie star “Nicolas Cage” haunted me as I wrote Age of Cage. A reflection on Cage’s career, ups-and-downs, and public persona? That’s what I was doing! What’s more, my book’s publication got pushed from fall to spring at the last moment, a change that would put it on the shelves at the same time the movie would hit theaters. But more than overlap, I feared the film would, well, suck, driving down the market for all things Cage. Still, I didn’t worry too much. I’d read Tom Gormican and Kevin Etten’s script and found it clever and insightful.

When I finally saw the film, after introducing it sight-unseen at the Wisconsin Film Festival, I breathed a sigh of relief. It didn’t suck! It wasn’t as sharp as I’d hoped and some of the weirder moments had been lost between page and screen. But Cage delivered a lively performance that had more going on than self-deprecation and Pedro Pascal was fun as his ultra-wealthy superfan. 

The Old Way (2023) **

Cage plays Colton Briggs, a once-merciless gunfighter who’s been reformed by the love of a good woman. But when outlaws, led by the son of a man Briggs once killed, gun her down, he swears revenge, bringing his daughter Brooke (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) along for the ride. If this sounds a bit like Unforgiven + kid, there’s a reason, but the character development’s about as threadbare as the production values. On the plus side, Cage wears a fantastic droopy mustache in the opening scenes and his scenes with Armstrong are pretty fun. But there’s not much else to recommend.

Renfield (2023) **

I reviewed this when it came out and don’t have much to add. If anything, I feel less generous toward it now, though Cage is having a good time as Dracula. This was Cage’s return to big studio filmmaking, but if anything it confirms the wisdom of staying indie.

The Flash (2023) N/A

Honestly, I have not been able to bring myself to watch The Flash, so I just scanned through to watch the multiverse-touring sequence in which a waxy CGI Cage—finally playing Superman after the cancellation of the Tim Burton-directed movie years ago— joins an assortment of past DC stars, some dead, for a highlight reel. A few thoughts: The effects look terrible. The giant spider in-joke is, whatever, but apparently it’s not the context in which Cage agreed to appear, raising some of-the-moment ethical issues about AI actors. But also, it’s promising enough to again suggest the Cage/Burton Superman movie could have been good.

Sympathy for the Devil (2023) ***

Cage is all-in as a psycho with flaming red hair in what’s essentially a two-hander co-starring Joel Kinnaman. Kinnaman plays David Chamberlain, an ordinary (?) guy who’s carjacked by The Passenger (Cage) in the parking garage of a Las Vegas hotel where David has hurried to be by the side of his wife as she gives birth. Uh uh. The Passenger has plans for David that involve a late-night desert drive toward a murky destination. The Luke Paradise-scripted, Yuval Adler-directed thriller ambles in spite of a tight running time, but Kinnaman’s effective as a man in fear of losing everything and Cage goes big without losing his character’s menace. For fans of Cage at his most outré, it’s a must.

The Retirement Plan (2023) **

Cage gets to wear a fun wig and look like a beach bum in Tim Brown’s agreeable-enough Elmore Leonard riff in which he plays a retired intelligence operative pitted against a group of colorful criminals threatening his estranged daughter (Ashley Greene Khoury) and granddaughter (Thalia Campbell). Despite a supporting cast that includes Ernie Hudson, Ron Perlman, and Jackie Earle Haley, there’s not much to see here beyond some gorgeous Cayman Islands scenery.

Dream Scenario (2023) ***½

Reviewed here. I liked this movie quite a bit but the film, and Cage’s (now Golden Globe-nominated) performance have both risen a bit in my estimation. A final scene that played a bit puzzling at first but now feels heartbreaking has really struck with me.

Butcher’s Crossing (2023) ***

Based on a 1960 novel by John Williams, this moody western casts Cage as a kind of Great Plains Captain Ahab named Miller, a buffalo hunter whose determination to bring back an incredible haul crosses into obsession. Fred Hechinger co-stars as a soft Easterner determined to find adventure and the glory of nature. This does not work out as planned. Gabe Polsky’s film doesn’t quite cohere, but it never lacks ambition, is filled with striking imagery, and Cage plays Miller’s slow unraveling effectively.

That’s it for this year in Cage. Let’s do it again next December.

Also, Age of Cage is still very much for sale. Find it in your local bookstore if you can, but it’s still available at Amazon and elsewhere. Or, to put it in blurb form: “Read the book The New Yorker calls ‘delightful’.” Makes a great gift, too!