“STOG just called me a dork and I’m going to have to live with that for my entire life.”

Lemon, Steal This Episode

Amos & Andrew (1993)
Director: E. Max Frye
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Lerner
Andrew Sterling (Jackson) is a professor of racial justice and best selling author of national fame. On his first night in his new summer home on a remote island in Massachusettes, he is mistaken for a burglar by his new neighbors (Lerner). The police are called in and after a series of mishaps, he finds himself first under police gunfire and then talking, as a presumed hostage, to the Chief of Police (Dabney Coleman), who soon realizes the error and tries to control the damage. This brings us to Amos (Cage), a petty criminal in the local jail who is given an offer - break into the house, hold Andrew hostage, and wait to be arrested, giving the police a scapegoat to point to as the person responsible for the shooting. In exchange, the Chief will look the other way while he escapes. Antics ensue - this a comedy, by the way. As a comedy, it's decent enough - there are way worse movies in this project. The main problem is that the comedy, which leans into its political premise, is often undercut by it.

This movie wants to make a political statement about racism in America - there's a reason it's titled what it is. It points in particular at the racism of northern liberals, rather than a more typical rural south. It is also a movie that has a protagonist say that affluent black men marry white women and educated black men are acting white. It is a movie that depicts the police as racist and corrupt, their first priority being to protect themselves. It is also a movie that depicts the police as Naked Gun-esque bumblers with a clown ass soundtrack. It is a movie that shows the necessity of racial justice while mocking protesters who fight for it. It is a movie that uses the imagery of bloodhounds pursuing a black man and plays it for comedy. This movie has problems, to say the least.

Brad Dourif is also here.

The Family Man (2000)
Director: Brett Ratner
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Téa Leoni, Don Cheadle
Jack Campbell (Cage) is a top executive at an investment firm closing a billion dollar merger. He's wealthy, single, attractive, the world is his oyster. The problem? It's Christmas! And despite his grinchly nature, he is insufficiently wary of Christmas Ghosts (Cheadle), finding himself sent to an alternate timeline where he focused not on his career, but on his relationships and family, most notably his wife (Leoni). I don't really need to go from here, you get it. It's a wonderful life but different. It's fine. The worst part is how often Jack bounces between learning a lesson and being a good guy and then the next scene reverting and being a bad guy. It does it over and over and the only real reason is so they can continue to pad out the middle of the movie. What's weird is how much T&A is in this thing. It's a Christmas movie, it's about valuing family, it's a romance. It's shocking how explicit it occasionally is. Cage has some good scenes but the role is stock standard, not much for him to do besides be the leading man.

Rumble Fish (1983)
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Starring: Matt Dillon, Mickey Rourke, Diane Lane
Rusty James (Dillon) is a teen street tough living in the shadow of his brother (Rourke), chasing a life that isn't his own from an era that no longer exists. It's a great film, the soundtrack is wild and interesting, the cinematography exactly what you'd expect from Coppola doing some of his best work. This a capital F Film so I'm not going to spend much time on it. This movie is art, you can find actual critique on it, you don't need me here. You may notice that Cage wasn't listed above - he's got a minor role here as Rusty James' friend and rival Smokey. It's an early role and sits in line with Racing with the Moon (1984). You can sometimes see a whisper of the more manic energy he grasps onto later, but he's mostly just a young hunk.

Butcher's Crossing (2022)
Director: Gabe Polsky
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Fred Hechinger, Jeremy Bobb
Will Andrews (Hechinger) is a Harvard educated booksboy come to the untamed West to see the land of our great country and find himself. Denied the opportunity to join local hunts, he signs on with Miller (Cage) for an expedition to the mountains where, years ago, Miller had found a sea of healthy, untouched Buffalo. Buffalo are a main character of this movie - it is a demonstration of the brutality, the massacre of the American Bison. I can't recommend going out of your way for it, but I greatly enjoyed this movie. It builds and releases tension well, the shots are beautiful, the characters unnerving. My main criticism of it is that it is at times dark, threatening, harrowing - I would've liked it to lean in on that more, to spend longer in that atmosphere. Time and events pass in the story so quickly, it diminishes the stakes. Cage's Miller is this perfect balancing act of subdued and unhinged, a clear threat to everyone around him but bottled, under pressure.

Total lies, the guy is a Virgo.

The book was the winner of the 1977 Booker Prize, although the writer was suffering from cancer; and may be limited to six months living.