Nicolas Cage: Don't Question the Power: Two Generations Views

      I became a Nicolas Cage fan at the ripe old age of 12  (1983) with the film Valley Girl.   He was the Hollywood punker who wins over the heart of preppy Valley Girl, Deborah Foreman.  In the film, he was sarcastic, tough, vulnerable, funny, .... romantic and strong.  I knew I was seeing a different kind of performance.  By the time Raising Arizona was released on VHS, I was first in line to rent it from the Super 29 Grocery Store's video section and watch on my own Symphonic VCR bought with my own money in 1987.   My mom kept knocking on the door to ask why I was laughing so hard.  

     I knew an actor with serious range was upon us, and his next phase of films were quirky cult-level movies, or supporting performances in big budget movies.  By the time Red Rock West and Amos and Andrew were on us, I was his biggest fan.   Jump forward to 2021.  He has been an Oscar winner, a box office action stud, and then gradually suffered what happens to many, the fall to direct-to-DVD.  The difference with Nic is: though he pays his bills with often poorly executed low budget fare (though its well known he gives 100% to projects, regardless of what he's doing and who he's working for) he's also had a ton of fantastic films released in this window of time as well:

The Trust

Joe

Color Out of Space

Mandy

Mom & Dad

Willy's Wonderland

Running With the Devil

Pig

     Not to mention a masterful turn as the host of Netflix' genius History of Swear Words.  Genius.

     Eight years ago, my young film critic kiddo wrote a piece about the world's greatest living actor being a "Punk Rock Actor".   Even though penned in 2013, it's still relevant, and still accurate, though Nicolas Kim Coppola was at a different phase of his career.  My offspring, Aidan Will has wonderfully made appearances on this blog before, so I'm proud to present their work here again.

IN DEFENSE OF NICOLAS CAGE; THE PUNK ROCK ACTOR

There are a lot of horrid, unjust things in this world, a lot of things that piss me off on a regular basis. Nic Cage is not one of them. I become visibly outraged when I hear folks accuse him of being a terrible actor. This is an awful cliché, but I would say that their dislike of him is simply out of a lack of understanding him. He’s not a chameleon. If you want to watch people disappear into roles to the point that you catch yourself forgetting who they are, you have plenty of viewing options: Gary Oldman, Robert De Niro, Danny Huston, Ben Foster, and countless others. Go nuts, they’re all wonderful. But we’re in a completely alternate zone here.

Nicolas Kim Coppola is the nephew of the legendary auteur Francis Ford Coppola, and Talia Shire, and cousin to Roman Coppola and Sofia Coppola. Lots of Coppolas in the business, it’s undeniably in the blood. Science, my friends. These people generally know what they’re doing.  

            He has described his own acting style as being like a punk rock performance. And if you take a moment to think on that, you’ll know it’s absolutely true. He plays in extremes. He has no interest in subtlety, his habitual “Cage Rage” is more or less a legend of Hollywood lore, and he doesn’t give a shit if people don’t like it. In his four-star review of Werner Herzog’s 2009 film Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Roger Ebert stated of the starring Cage: “He's a fearless actor. He doesn't care if you think he goes over the top. If a film calls for it, he will crawl to the top hand over hand with bleeding fingernails.” The man often considered to be the greatest film critic of all time was a fan.

In his Great Movies essay regarding the 2002 Spike Jonze film Adaptation, Ebert took his praise further than even I do now, stating,  “There are often lists of the great living male movie stars: De Niro, Nicholson and Pacino, usually. How often do you see the name of Nicolas Cage? He should always be up there.” Now, I’m not saying that simply because Ebert said it, it’s true; people who know me know that I usually wound up disagreeing with Ebert about 50% of the time, he hated a lot of the flicks that are most beloved to me. But damned if he wasn’t a great writer who could give a great argument, and his opinion, parallel to yours or not, is at least an opinion worth respecting.

            A lack of chameleonic style does not mean an absence of versatility: Cage has been a risk taker over the years, and of course has taken much flak for it. That’s why I’m here. Yes, he’s been in plenty of films that are crap. We’d all be happier forgetting The Wicker Man remake, among others. But consider this, while that film was utter shit, we got to see a man prance through the forest in an anthropomorphic bear costume, and punch a woman in the face. Nicolas Cage did that for us. For our sins. Every cloud has a silver lining. He's gonna be in some bad films, most actors, good or bad, will. But consider the great films for a moment, unlike a large amount of my generation and know that they are more than worth acknowledging the bad ones. Think of Raising Arizona, Leaving Las Vegas, Bringing out the Dead, The Weather Man, Kick-Ass, and more. Think of the fun worth having in kooky action films like The Rock, Con Air, Face/Off, Drive Angry and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. Internet film reviewer/ independant filmmaker Brad Jones, another defender, stated, “When Cage is having fun, the audience is having fun.” He hops from serious dramas to escapist fun and back again with ease.

            So, if you think Nicolas Cage is not a good performer, I strongly encourage you to reconsider your opinion. If you weren’t open to that idea, then why are you still reading this? Leave.  Take a risk and submit yourself to the hilarity of Raising Arizona, or the descent into hell in Bringing out the Dead, or anything that looks interesting to you. A world of various joys and hurts awaits those willing to lock themselves in the Cage for a couple of hours. Yes, I did just write that. No, I don’t care.

Recommended Cage Viewing:

·         Raising Arizona

·         Adaptation

·         Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans

·         Leaving Las Vegas

·         Bringing out the Dead

·         The Weather Man

·         Windtalkers

·         Kick-Ass

The Spectrum Files : Long Weekend

 

     As I have stated before, Spectrum was my film school, or at the very least, submersion into cinema.  I've credited the programmer as being some sort of genius.  The first-run films obviously were what sold the subscriptions, but many, many films they broadcast became cult classics and legendary pieces of cinema in the present day. Spectrum: Ahead of the competitors known as SelectTV, ONTV, and ahead of its time.

     In this case, we're venturing into Oz-ploitation.

     For those not in the know, that's a term for horror films made in the 70's in Australia, and Spectrum exposed me to more than one.  Patrick, The Last Wave, Razorback, etc.   But the one that hit home was actually not just Oz-ploitation, but Nature Run Amok.  Two genres in one.  This film was remade a few years back with a different title, but since Jim Caviezel was the star, I refuse to discuss here. What a massive disappointment of a human being he turned out to be.  Damn fine actor, but a weird Ted Nugent homo-sapien.  Join the James Woods cult, I guess.   Plenty of room.

     I may be immature in this sense, and will probably get over it, because Frequency and Count of Monte Cristo are brilliant, and he wasn't the only person involved in those movies' film making process, so I'll grow up.  Give me a minute.

     Anyway, Long Weekend features a youngish married couple who decide to get away from it all, and do some outdoorsy attempts at bonding which they fail miserably at, because they totally despise each other.   Let's be honest.  They're complete twat waffles, as well.  So they take their tempers and hatred for each other out on their surroundings, a gorgeous woodsy soundscape that doesn't deserve their desecration and pollution and bullshit.  So, naturally, it bites back. 

     So, if the woods, animals and creatures who have suffered abuse fight back, has nature truly run amok? 

     As a youngster, not ensconced in understanding, they were victims of animals who lost their shit.  You know, Jaws, Grizzly, Kingdom of the Spiders, ad infinitum?  As the sun dipped under the horizon outside like a cruller into my mom's Maxwell House, I sat there in my parent's living room compelled, and then horrified at the abrupt and FINAL ending. 

    But I know now that people are turds.  And sometimes we reap what we sow. 

    This movie is available now from Synapse films, distributors of some truly awesome cult classic horror, and some scuzzy shit you probably want to avoid.  I only know that from the catalog. 

     Anyways, you can react two ways to this film.  Depressed is one.  Feeling better about yourself as a person is the other.

     

Samhain Project #20 : Carnival of Souls

      Samhain is a Gaelic word, pronounced (Sah-wihn).  According to the History Channel: It's also "a pagan religious festival originating from an ancient Celtic spiritual tradition,  is usually celebrated from October 31 to November 1 to welcome in the harvest and usher in "the dark half of the year".  Celebrants believe that the barriers between the physical and spirit world break down during Samhain, allowing more interaction between humans and denizens of the Otherworld."

       Today is Samhain, and also the end of my little project.  Also today has a perfect film for the Breaking down of the physical and spiritual world: 

     Carnival of Souls is a tone poem for the damned.   It's a darkened soliloquy, that as good as it looks, it puts you off your guard, because you're uncertain of where it's going, given its realism.  You don't feel any more in control watching this than the lead character is in what's happening to her.

     A young woman is in an incredibly stupid car accident at the beginning, and of the three girls involved, she's the only one who appears to survive.  

     She immediately leaves town, taking an organist job at a Utah church.  She lives in a rooming house while there, across the hall from a quasi-incel who you grow to despise.  Fuck it, you hate him from the jump.  (at least I did.)  The kind woman she rents from and everyone else in her new life is worried about her because she is increasingly and obviously coming apart at the seams, due to the incredibly creepy beings that seem to be stalking her from the woodwork, yet drawing her to an abandoned amusement park at the same time.

     I first saw this on USA's Night Flight circa 1985 and couldn't quite figure out what I was being faced with.  Who could blame me?  I was 14.  However, now I see it as an immense work of visual art with a tight script and solid acting assembled by inexperienced Kansans with limited resources to say the least. George A. Romero (the maestro, rest his soul) himself said the film inspired him to make The Night of the Living Dead (one would think the Richard Matheson I am Legend film The Last Man on Earth probably contributed to that too).  It certainly makes sense, despite the different intensities the two films engender. 

     Carnival of Souls has quite a history behind it that one should research if they have the chance, as all involved deserve accolades for creating something completely unique in its time despite an environment that probably didn't support its stylistic choices.  This was the era of radioactive monsters and Edgar Allan Poe films, after all.  Roger Corman would have never touched this one.  IMDb even states a factoid that the lead actress (and damned good here, I'll note) Candace Hilligoss was dropped by her agent after seeing the film.  It took guts and elbow grease to make Carnival of Souls, and The Criterion Collection noticed that and documented it in 2017.   

     This is a movie saturated with Halloween vibes, and I heartily recommend it.

Samhain Project #19: Willy's Wonderland

      

      I've said it before and I'll say it again:  Nicolas Cage is the world's greatest living actor.  In Willy's Wonderland, a bizarrely effective horror/splatstick opus, his character is simply called The Janitor.   Mr. Cage speaks nary a word in the film, and he completely owns every scene he's in.  Literally.  The Man's face is all he needs.   And I have to tell you, his direct-to-DVD, or "limited release" material is getting to be every bit as interesting as his releases in his big budget days.  Maybe more so.

     After the horror trope known as  "Local Yokels trap lonesome traveller for nefarious reasons" is executed by Donnie Darko veteran Beth Grant's sheriff's department, Cage's character is talked into cleaning out a Chuck E. Cheese ripoff restaurant to pay off the damage repairs to his hot rod.

     This place is not what it seems. The freaky animatronic bastards contained within the joint are the current residential vessels for dead serial killer spirits.  But you know what?  

     This is Nicolas Fucking Cage.  

     As the young (and excellent) female lead, Emily Tosta states in a line lifted from Watchmen, "He's not trapped in here with them, they're trapped in here with him!" Incidentally, I'd like to see more of the kid, as she's pretty damn good with the light weight given her here, but the same can't be said for the youngsters around her. So with that weakness, can a movie where a guy alternates between serious deep-cleaning and hydraulic-operated monster killing be interesting?

     Oh, hell yeah.  And Cage has the most interesting fictional product since Mandy's Cheddar Goblin.  It's called Punch Pop.  An energy drink he consumes so regularly, you wonder how his heart doesn't explode. This movie is a ton of fun, and a perfect Halloween entertainment.  A real blast from front to finish, and oh yeah.......I once read that Rob Zombie's usage of Lynyrd Skynyrd's Free Bird in Devil's Rejects was somehow "next level".  This movie removes Mr. Zombie's crown in that category.  Just so you're aware. 

Samhain Project #18: "Goodnight Mommy"

     

      Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz have already been mentioned in The Samhain Project as they are the minds behind The Lodge.  They seem to have a predilection for disastrous aftermaths of horrible family tragedies. 

     This film, Goodnight Mommy, is an Austrian release. As in The Lodge,  there's an awful tragic event, but this one is a bit of a mystery, masked off screen.  Twin brothers Elias and Lukas, played wonderfully by Elias and Lukas Schwarz (at least they didn't need to learn their characters' names) have divorced parents, and seem to think their mother is not who she is supposed to be any longer after plastic surgery, and her subsequent return home's behavior.

     What this leads to  is upsetting bloodletting and pain for all involved.  Much like The Lodge, the selfishness of parents in the face of unimaginable loss bequeaths confused pain on the young, who are often ill-equipped to handle it, and often can turn to dark methods to face it.  

      I hate to repeat myself, but much like The Lodge, this is not a happy film, but a quiet, sinking slide into an inevitable worst case scenario.  Watch at your own discretion.    Michael Haneke made a strange and effectively disturbing Austrian film in 1997 called Funny Games, that was anything but fun, however.  He directed the English language version 10 years later with Naomi Watts in the lead.  They're using Ms. Watts in the remake of Goodnight Mommy, but Fiala and Franz are not directing it. 

     Naomi may be a bit of a glutton for punishment.  She may need to form a support group with Susanne Wuest, the mother of Lukas and Elias.  She's powerful in this film.  A character arc that draws you from hatred to sympathy in layers of difficulty, with little dialogue.  This is a tough sit, folks, but as Rob Zombie apparently told William Moseley in the shooting of The Devil's Rejects, when he was struggling with his character's cruelty:  "art isn't safe". 

      Or some shit.

Samhain Project #17: Television Terrors

 

Thriller: 1961:  "Pigeons From Hell":     

      Thriller ran for a couple of seasons on NBC in the early 60's.   Boris Karloff served as your Rod Serling-esque master of ceremonies, albeit just presenting you with the horrific scenarios and not the morality plays and attempts at wisdom through shock Serling did masterfully with The Twilight Zone.   Stephen King himself to this day regards Thriller as the best horror television has had to offer. 

     "Pigeons from Hell" is an episode that garnered attention years later and for good reason.  It's a bizarre sketch about two young brothers taking a road trip and winding up with their car stuck and immoveable in a swamp not far from an abandoned plantation. 

     The old empty house is a horror trope as old as story telling.  This one, however, is a little more bent than your average tale.  This isn't just an abandoned house, of course, and those that dwell within it have cruel and sinister agendas, probably made more malevolent by the passage of time.

     The acting is a bit overboard by Brandon DeWilde, but balanced by Crahan Denton as the local sheriff.  Wonderfully shot for its time, it's a good way to spend Halloween hour, if you can find yourself a copy. 

The Ray Bradbury Hour, 1985: Season 5:  "Zero Hour": 

     The first time I heard Ray Bradbury's radio classic Zero Hour, it creeped me and my kid out.  It was first aired in 1955, and you can hear it here.  It was quite controversial for its time, mostly for the use of children as antagonists.  (This is still a bit touchy, but far less as evidenced by the piece I wrote days back on Who Can Kill a Child).  

 

      Updated here for a 1985 audience, but set in future that appears more like today,  screen veteran Sally Kirkland and a very young Katherine Isabelle (Isobel here) star.  She's no stranger to horror audiences thanks to excellent turns in the Ginger Snaps trilogy, the unparalleled television Hannibal, and Christopher Nolan's Insomnia.  She's about 8 years old here in this episode, and still working today regularly.  

     Seems children around the world have enlisted themselves in the army of Drill; an unseen character who uses the kiddos to plan an invasion.  (the name and somewhat similar plot were used in the 2016 series The Whispers) Buncha crazy kids. 

     

    Until they're not.

     Which I think is Bradbury's point, genius that he was.  Maybe we should listen to the little ones a little more often, eh?  This episode doesn't pack anywhere near the wallop that the rising terror in poor mom does in the original radio play, but any chance to see Bradbury's work put to the screen is a chance that should be taken.  Sadly, the DVDs aren't of the greatest quality should you track them down, but they're inexpensive more often than not and well worth it. 

Tales from the Darkside:  1984:  Trick or Treat:

      George Romero's long running syndicated treasure has a Halloween treat for you, in a spin on A Christmas Carol, where instead of Ebenezer Scrooge hating Christmas, you have a different asshole, who is just as much a cruel penny pincher, but he loves Halloween.  It's an excuse to mentally torment children of those who owe him money.  

       Let's just say, the morality play is terrific here, as Barnard Hughes ("That's the problem with Santa Clara, all the damn vampires") plays the Satanic Scrooge, and with great vigor.  What a show he puts on right until he, as Scrooge does, gets his just desserts.  Is there a Tiny Tim to bring redemption this time?  Well.  We are talking about George A. Romero here.....

     Veteran director Bob Balaban makes this a creepy blast that fits the season in tone, look, and content.  This one should be a Halloween tradition of the highest order. 

Night Gallery. (1969): "They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar 

      Rod Serling presents a story here, where situations present themselves that may seem like ghosts, it's really just a guy, Randolph Lane, filled with regret seeing the old glories dance in front of his eyes. What a writer Serling was, of situations and dialogue, his work was so stellar, even after his seminal Twilight Zone.  

      Seems our hero is 25 years into his career as a plastics salesman working for long time silver and small screen legend John Randolph, and being assisted by future game show host Bert Convy.   But, as Yogi Berra once said, "the future ain't what it used to be".   He's a widower now, and his sales success isn't what it once was.  William Windom as Lane, is absolutely devastating as he struggles with a question mark of a life.  He's not a failure, but he lost his wife young, is at a downturn at his job, and has many miles to go before he sleeps.  

      Diane Baker is terrific as his empathic secretary, who serves as anchor, not just to the lovable but struggling Lane, but the story, as she delivers the blows that make you cheer, and positions the world to catch a person's fall.  This is just a terrific piece of television.  Though it may not be ghostly or horrific, the second, very brief segment of this season finale, The Last Laurel, has enough of both. It also provides chuckles to boot, to give you what you may have been looking for, but didn't receive in the first 40 minutes. 

  

     

Samhain Project #16 "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark". (1973)

   

     This nifty little made for TV number is exactly what 70's TV horror was all about, minus any involvement from Dan Curtis.  This one was so loved by Guillermo Del Toro that he produced a remake directed by Troy Nixey with Guy Pearce and Katie Holmes starring.  Not a box office smash by any means, as the film lacked punch.  Not that the '73 version is a cacophony of horror, but I get why Del Toro has feelings for it. 

     It seems the grandmother of Kim Darby (The little girl who enlists the aid of Rooster Cogburn in True Grit, makes sentient desserts that terrorize John Cusack in Better off Dead, and even gets murdered by Michael Myers in Halloween 6) has left her a sizable abode that she and her cranky-ass husband played by Jim Hutton (who couldn't outact his son Timothy no matter what the stakes may be).  They do the old school horror movie chestnut of ignoring warnings from old dudes.  Several times, for God's sake.

     The house has issues, and of course they're deadly, (and freaky little fuckers to boot).  The effects are more passable than some of the size work for the Hobbits in The Lord of the Rings, and the cast is okay with a lightweight script.  A burn-on-demand Warner Archive DVD is the only way to get this flick at this point, and be prepared to turn your TV up to 90 because there's not a subtitle or closed caption to be found.  Somehow a director's commentary was made available, though.  Which is kind of ironic.  

     As far as it goes, it's fun, nostalgic, worth more than a few chuckles, and the tiny antagonists are freaky enough to at least make you feel like leaving the lights on is a good idea for a couple nights.  Plus, Darby drives a Chrysler that I believe doubled as a submarine in World War II.  All around enjoyable.