The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

Directed by Tom Gormican

Written by Tom Gormican 

Starring Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal, Sharon Horgan, Ike Barinholz

Release Date April 22nd, 2022 

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent stars Nicolas Cage in arguably his greatest role, playing himself. Rather, I should say, Nicolas Cage is not playing himself but the pop cultural conception of who we think Nicolas Cage is. Nick Cage, if you will. This conception of Cage as a bizarre egomaniac obsessed with his own fame, struggling with money, and deeply weird is built on some foundations of truth, gossip, and the perceptions created by Cage’s many iconic film performances. It’s an utterly brilliant meta-creation that gives audiences the Nicolas Cage we want while distancing the actor from our perceptions with a layer of creative irony and detached humor. 

In The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent Nick Cage is struggling. He’s just failed to get a role that he was desperate to land, he’s struggling with his relationship with his 16 year old daughter, Addy (Lily Sheen), who resents his attempts to force his love of moves onto her, and he’s deep in debt despite having worked nearly non-stop for most of his life. With no current offers for movies on the table and needing the money, Nic’s agent, Fink (Neil Patrick Harris) offers him the chance to make a quick buck by appearing at the birthday party of a wealthy Spanish businessman.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House

Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House (2017) 

Directed by Peter Landesman

Written by Peter Landesman

Starring Liam Neeson, Diane Lane, Marton Csokas, Ike Barinholz, Tony Goldwyn 

Release Date September 29th, 2017 

It baffles me that any filmmaker could screw up making a movie about Mark Felt. How is it possible to fumble a subject so timely, important, historic, and filled with all of the great cinematic trappings. I’m left baffled by the movie Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House. This Liam Neeson-starring drama should have been a slam dunk. This a subject that should be front and center in the day and age of a President who faces pressures that only Richard Nixon could truly relate to.

Mark Felt (Liam Neeson) is an FBI lifer, J. Edgar Hoover’s right hand. Felt is credited by some as being the man who restrained some of Hoover’s worst instincts in the director’s later years, or at least the film would have you believe that. When we meet Mark Felt in the titular movie about him, he is facing down Richard Nixon’s West Wing staff who’ve heard rumors that Hoover is ready to step aside. The implication of the conversation is that if Felt can show he will play ball with the White House, he will be the next FBI Director. When Felt demonstrates his loyalty to Hoover over Nixon, the die is cast.

When Hoover passes away, Felt and his team are thrown into a political maelstrom. L. Patrick Gray (Martin Csokas) is named interim director and being that he was just Nixon’s man in the Justice Department prior to this posting, Felt is aware of where Gray’s loyalties lie and what that means for the independence of the FBI. When Watergate hits, things only grow more harrowing and Felt, a man dedicated to keeping secrets, suddenly finds himself in the position of having to reveal them.

Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House has a story that is all teed up for the filmmakers. The story is rife with political intrigue and spy play on top of having a historic significance that could not ring more familiar and timelier. Unfortunately, writer-director Peter Landesman is just too clumsy to bring it together. Landesman’s writing and direction are all over the place, especially the script which is a shamble of expository dialogue and sloppy scene-setting.

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal