The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022)

Streaming Service: Starz
Movie Name/Year: The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022)
Genre: Action, Comedy, Crime
Length: 1h 47min
Rating: R
Production/Distribution: Burr! Productions, Embassy Films, Lionsgate, Saturn Films, Starz
Director: Tom Gormican
Writer: Tom Gormican, Kevin Etten
Actors: Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal, Tiffany Haddish, Sharon Horgan, Paco León, Neil Patrick Harris, Lily Mo Sheen, Alessandra Mastronardi, Jacob Scipio, Katrin Vankova, Ike Barinholtz
 
Blurb from IMDb: Moviestar Nick Cage is channeling his iconic characters as he's caught between a superfan and a CIA agent.
 

Selina’s Point of View:
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. It’s in the top 5, easily.
 
I have never seen anything like it, and yet it also managed to reference just about everything. I expected plenty of Nic Cage (Willy’s Wonderland, The Rock, Pig) references, but Paddington 2 (2017)?
 
I digress.
 
Even with the cringe comedy moments, which I usually cannot tolerate, I found The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent to be just about perfect. Even in the marketing. The trailer managed to tell the absolute truth about the film, without a single spoiler. Not just that, but the movie itself shifts into something completely unexpected.
 
I never knew what was going to happen next. Even when I could predict a twist, the WAY it happened was still completely out there. Yet, believable. The foreshadowing was second to none.
 

As for Nicolas Cage, he gives his best performance ever. Before now, my favorite Cage movie was probably Face/Off (1997) – bit of a basic choice but we all have our favorites. Now it’s The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent and I cannot conceive of anything that could dethrone it. Even if he amazes in something else, the part won’t be nearly as tailor fit for him. He plays a version of himself that’s so well done, in both script and performance, that it feels more like Nic Cage than any of his live interviews.
 
Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian, The Last of Us, The Bubble) has become a darling of Hollywood for a reason. He’s got a very down-to-earth feel to him, even though he’s a bit on the looney side in this flick. That tweak to his usual performances works when pair with Cage. There’s more chemistry there than between any two actors in any other movie I’ve seen.
 
Long before The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent was made into a film, it was listed as one of the best unproduced manuscripts ever written. Now that I’ve seen it, I get it.
 
The dialogue is so clean. Even when characters are completely bonkers, it still feels right. Like if it’d been written any other way, it would have hurt the entirety of the project. There was only one possible script that would make this idea successful, and the writers made every correct choice.
 
I cannot recommend The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent more. It is exactly the movie we needed.
 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 87%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 87%
Metascore – 68%
Metacritic User Score – 7.3
IMDB Score –7.0/10
 
Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 5/5
 
Movie Trailer: