Nicolas Cage confronts ‘Massive Talent’
A meta film featuring a singular actor tops the DVD releases for the week of June 21.
“The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent”: An action-comedy starring Nicolas Cage as actor Nick Cage. A self-aware Hollywood commentary as buddy comedy.
In a real stretch, Cage plays a floundering actor who “reluctantly decides to take a gig attending a superfan’s birthday in Mallorca for a milliondollar paycheck, but when he arrives, he learns his host, said superfan Javi (Pedro Pascal), has a screenplay to pitch,” writes Tribune News Service critic Katie Walsh in her review. “Nick also discovers that two CIA agents (Tiffany Haddish and Ike Barinholtz) are hot on Javi’s tail, suspecting that he may have kidnapped a presidential candidate’s daughter, and they’re eager to make
Nick an asset.”
While she found the movie to be thinly plotted, for Walsh “the real spectacle of the film is Cage, who, despite all the ups and downs in his career choices, is an undeniable Movie Star, and when he’s simply playing himself (or the heightened version of himself required here) he’s utterly compelling.”
ALSO NEW ON DVD
“The Bad Guys”: Animated adventure comedy about animals looking to turn over a new leaf and move on from their criminal ways who find its not so easy to lead a quiet life after all.
“After Yang”: A family reckons with the sudden loss of their daughter’s android companion in this meditative sci-fi drama with Colin Farrell and Jodie Turner-Smith. “Cinderella”: Singer Camila Cabello stars in this Amazon Prime movie, a live-action retelling of the Cinderella story with a modernist twist, featuring lots of pop songs.
“Escape the Field”: Six strangers awaken and find they have been placed in the midst of a giant cornfield where they are being stalked by an evil presence.
“Gold”: Set in the near future, Zac Efron stars as a man who discovers a giant gold nugget while traveling through the desert and must keep it and himself safe from both the elements and his fellow man.
“The Cellar”: Horror film about a mother who must confront a malevolent entity lurking in her new house after her daughter mysteriously disappears in the cellar. Starring Elisha Cuthbert and Eoin Macken.
“The Last Victim”: Ali Carter and Ron Perlman star in this modern Western about a small-town sheriff investigating a gruesome murder.
“The Umbrella Academy: Season Two”: With the third season premiering June 22 on Netflix, get caught up on the superhero series about former child heroes reconnecting as adults to renew the good fight. Starring Elliot Page and Tom Hopper.
“You Are Not My Mother”: In this Ireland-set horror film, a girl’s mother goes missing the week before Halloween, and when she returns the next day it’s as if she has become possessed.