Something for the Weekend

Words by
Lee Cassanell

22nd April 2022

Nick Cage resurrects and Ralph Fiennes dazzles. 

Straight Line Crazy

Ralph Fiennes stars in as blazing account of the life of a man whose iron will exposed the weakness of democracy in the face of charismatic conviction.

For forty years, Robert Moses was the most powerful man in New York. Motivated to improve the lives of the City’s workers, he created new parks, new bridges and a 627 miles of expressway.. But in the 1950s, citizens began to organize against him and his campaigns against the free Shakespeare in the park program and turning a portion of Central Park in to a parking lot. 

Directed  by Nicholas Hytner (The History Boys) and Written  by David Hare (The Reader),  ‘Straight Line Crazy’ has been met with positive reviews and the star power of Fiennes will ensure tickets will be scarce, but if you can snag one or two you’re in for a theatre experience to remember. 

www.bridgetheatre.co.uk


 

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

After blowing a $150 Million fortune and being hit by a heavy tax bill, Nic Cage has spent the last decade paying off his debts by taking any acting role he could:

“I’ve got all these creditors and the IRS and I’m spending $20,000 a month trying to keep my mother out of a mental institution. It was just all happening at once.” the actor recently told GQ Magazine.

His ten years of straight to VOD movies and an avalanche of social media memes mocking his work, Cage’s reputation suffered but according to him, he was still putting in the effort:

“When I was doing four movies a year, back to back to back, I still had to find something in them to be able to give it my all. They didn’t work, all of them. Some of them were terrific, like ‘Mandy,’ but some of them didn’t work. But I never phoned it in. So if there was a misconception, it was that. That I was just doing it and not caring. I was caring.”

Now debt free and able to be more choosey, ‘The ‘Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent’ is the ideal movie for the actor  to prove that his resurrection is official.  

Cage plays a version of himself, a washed up actor who accepts and offer from a billionaire super fan Javi (Pedro Pascal), to attend his birthday party. They develop a close friendship, but the Javi might not be the man Nic thinks he is.

With plenty of references to his previous movies such as The Rock and National Treasure, this is essential viewing for any Cage fan. 

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is at Cinemas Nationwide.