I am confused by Nicholas Cage

Weird title for a post, I know, but I’ve been to see a couple of NICHOLAS CAGE films in the last month. One was really good – LONGLEGS – and the other really wasn’t – ARCADIAN. There are few actors who star in so many varied films. The only comparison who immediately springs to mind (though I’m sure there are others) is the legendary DAVID CARRADINE. Carradine, as you may remember, starred as Philip Evans in the 2007 movie adaptation of my novel AUTUMN. Like Cage, he was in some great films – DEATH RACE 2000, KILL BILL for example – and many not-so-great ones.

What makes an actor like Cage or Carradine chose the projects they get involved with? I’m not being facetious, I’m genuinely interested to know. Over the last year or so I’ve seen Cage in an astonishing variety of stuff including RENFIELD, THE UNBEARABLE WEIGHT OF MASSIVE TALENT, and WILLY’S WONDERLAND to name but three. There are plenty of others I’ve missed, not least PIG and DREAM SCENARIO. The guy has a truly remarkable and wide-ranging filmography.

Anyway, because everybody is talking about LONGLEGS, I thought I would too. And though no one’s really mentioned ARCADIAN, I’ll talk about that as well.

In pursuit of a serial killer, an FBI agent uncovers a series of occult clues that she must solve to end his terrifying killing spree.

First things first, I really enjoyed LONGLEGS. I didn’t think it was quite the classic horror that people seemed to initially be saying, but I thought it was a very good, unsettling, self-contained film. Self-contained might seem like an unusual plus point but, believe me, I’m appreciating more and more when I get to read a book or watch a film or TV series that stands on its own and isn’t part of some cinematic shared universe or whatever. And yes, as someone who has written two long(ish) book series, I know how hypocritical that might sound.

LONGLEGS rattles along at a really good pace and maintains a brooding sense of unease throughout. MAIKA MONROE and ALICIA WITT are standout, and Cage is satisfyingly wild as the titular character. Okay, maybe I’ve answered my original question. Perhaps Cage agreed to star in LONGLEGS (which he also produced) precisely because his is such a bizarre character that requires an over-the-top performance. Whatever the reason, LONGLEGS really hit the mark for me. Also, great use of aspect ratio variations (very nerdy, but I love it when a film messes with the size of the screen).

I can’t be quite so positive about ARCADIAN, though.

A father and his twin teenage sons fight to survive in a remote farmhouse at the end of the world.

This one’s a frustratingly by-the-numbers end of the world movie. It’s one of those tenuous stories about people who’ve survived the apocalypse who a) are clean, well-educated, and have fresh haircuts, and who b) manage to forge remarkably wholesome existences for themselves in the face of (apparent) grave adversity, only to c) throw it all the way for the most pathetic of reasons in the most pointless way.

It also ends with relative happiness, exactly as most apocalyptic stories shouldn’t/wouldn’t.

You can probably tell from the level of my sarcasm that I didn’t enjoy this one as much as I’d hoped. That’s a real shame, because it has a great opening, and the monster design and movement, though seen all too briefly, is off the scale good. And look, I get that sometimes less is more, but when you’re telling a story like this, you need to give a bit more than nothing at all. It feels lightweight and empty. For the film to matter to us, we have to be invested in the characters, and on this occasion I really wasn’t. Not even in Cage, whose performance felt weirdly out of place to me. It’s definitely worth a watch, and the climactic action scenes are fun, but don’t get your hopes up too high.

Anyway, no matter why he picks the projects he does, long may Nicholas Cage continue being Nicholas Cage.

Have you seen either of these yet? Am I being unfairly harsh on ARCADIAN?