CATCHING UP WITH FILM - THE QUEST FOR A PERSONAL CANON

Uncaged - Matchstick Men (2003) & National Treasure (2004)

This year, I am going to try to get through the whole oeuvre of Nicolas Cage because my fascination with this man and his contradictions is endless. God help me. Matchstick Men (2003) Ridley Scott was a director who knew enough to let Nicolas Cage work and bring his unique energy to his character. At first, all the signs point towards a bad movie that doesn’t know how to use Cage. His character is strongly defined by his obsessive compulsive disorder and all the usual signs of this condition are there in conventional form: the nervous twitching, the insistence on certain patterns and repetitions. But the disorder is weaved in so effortlessly into the story that we quickly become used to Cage

Uncaged - Adaptation (2002)

This year, I am going to try to get through the whole oeuvre of Nicolas Cage because my fascination with this man and his contradictions is endless. God help me. To borrow a term from the two friends on the Blank Check podcast, this movie is so sweaty, literally and figuratively. Other than the large man sweats that Nicolas Cage’s twin brothers Charlie and Donald Kaufman accurately suffer through, this movie, and the screenplay specifically, has to exert itself so hard to make the story, if you could really call it that, work. Charlie Kaufman had made his name with the unlikely hit and critical darling Being John Malkovich, which was so far ahead of its time that it somehow plays even better

Uncaged - Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001), Windtalkers (2002), Sonny (2002)

This year, I am going to try to get through the whole oeuvre of Nicolas Cage because my fascination with this man and his contradictions is endless. God help me. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (2001) I happened to love the Louis de Bernieres’ novel that this movie was supposedly based on for its colorful characterizations and beautifully drawn relationships not just between the central couple but everyone else. Instead, this movie is a thudding bore that made this vibrant novel, a stately wartime romance with three leads (Cage, Penelope Cruz, and Christian Bale) that have very little romantic chemistry in other pairing. Most of the secondary characters are cut for efficiency and to the movie’s d

Uncaged - Gone in 60 Seconds (2000) & The Family Man (2000)

This year, I am going to try to get through the whole oeuvre of Nicolas Cage because my fascination with this man and his contradictions is endless. God help me. Gone in 60 Seconds (2000) Gone in 60 Seconds is basically just another slick Bruckheimer production. The man knew how to deliver a product that would do well in theaters and provide solid B entertainment, and occasionally, these movies could transcend their lowly origins when a director was really given some serious freedom to do what they wanted (Michael Bay for The Rock or Simon West for Con Air). Dominic Sena might have had considerable success as a music video director, but his feature film career is decidedly much less illustri

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