Uncool... but what a dream role for Cage
When he’s in the right mood and in therightfilm, Nicolas Cage has always been good. But late mid-career Cage is turning out to be very good indeed. He was outstanding as a reclusive truffle-hunter in Pig, and fabulously funny last year playing a fictionalised version of himself in The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent.
And now he’s back again, playing against type and on absolutely top form in Dream Scenario. There’s nothing remotely cool, dangerous or self-aware (all established Cage tropes) about Paul Matthews.
He’s an ageing professor of evolutionary biology at a lesser American university, where his students aren’t interested in his lectures, younger colleagues are annoyingly more successful and his teenage daughters find him embarrassing. Balding, bearded and wearing ill-fitting dad-gear, Prof. Matthews couldn’t be less prepossessing.
Until, that is, people start dreaming about him. First it’s one of his daughters, then an ex-girlfriend, then most of his lecture class, then nearly everyone… He doesn’t seem to do much in most of these dreams, he discovers, but it gives him instant celebrity.
Advertising agencies want him to push products, younger women want to have sex with him, and even his students and daughters think he’s cool. Until the dreams turn into nightmares…
This is a ‘high-concept’ comedy in the tradition of Groundhog Day and The Truman Show. It slightly struggles to sustain the joke for 100 minutes but Cage is nomination-worthy, there’s beautifully played support from the likes of Julianne Nicholson, Dylan Baker and Michael Cera and, all round, Norwegian writerdirector Kristoffer Borgli can be very pleased with his Hollywood feature debut.
‘A high-concept comedy in the tradition of Groundhog Day’
‘Will it succeed? I hope so because it’s a lot of frenetic kitten-filled fun’
With a female director, Nia DaCosta, three strong female leads – led by Brie Larson as Captain Marvel, and even a female baddie played by Zawe Ashton – there’s no doubt that The Marvels represents the Marvel franchise’s biggest attempt to widen its maleskewed appeal.
Will it succeed? I hope so because it’s certainly a lot of frenetic, chaotic, kitten-filled fun. And I haven’t even got to the joyful inhabitants of Aladna, who can only communicate in song.
It might be worth rewatching 2019’s Captain Marvel first, just so you’re up with the whole Kree v Skrulls thing. But if not, just hold on tight for 20 minutes or so as you watch Carol Danvers (Larson), aka Captain Marvel, team up with teenage fan-fiction writer Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani), aka Ms Marvel, and Monica Rambeau (Tayonah Parris), who doesn’t have a nickname but is the astronaut daughter of Carol’s best friend and has a hatful of her own super-powers. Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson), two universe-bending quantum bands and the wickedly scheming Dar-Benn (Ashton) add to the enjoyment.
Anatomy Of A Fall won the Pal me d’Or at Cannes and is exactly what it says. The film begins with the husband of novelist Sandra Voyter (the brilliant German actress Sandra Hüller) falling to his death from a mountain chalet.
The circumstances of his fall are then analysed but centre on one question – did he fall or was he pushed? It’s well acted and intriguing, although it does strain at the limits of credibility quite damagingly at times.
The Eternal Memory is a beautifully constructed and deeply moving documentary about a Chilean television journalist and writer who is slowly succumbing to dementia, despite the wonderful care provided by his adoring wife. Heartbreaking at times, it is the very definition of love.