SPOILER DISCUSSION

1.The idea of going from approaching the movie from the point of the view of the caricature persona of Nicolas Cage would have been more interesting if through the exploration of his actual body of work, the movie ended up revealing the depth present and the way that the exaggeration of what Cage has done is not commensurate to the quality of his work on balance. Instead of exploring the way Cage channels his “Nouveau shamanism” in films as distinct as Mandy, Pig, and Con-Air, the movie instead casually mentions the films and moves on.

The acting interaction that Javi and Nicolas have when the former accosts the latter could have been used as a formal way of allowing Nic to work through his oeuvre; Pascal is great so the exercise would have allowed him to show off his range and given the movie much work to work with. While the bromance and resulting comedy of errors and subsequent reconciliation between the two is entertaining enough, there’s a definite missing potential that feels palpable.