Talk about not understanding Nic......This article......

mara · a grateful fan

RE: Talk about not understanding Nic......This article......

Warped Woman · Moderator in Motion...........

I agree Lula. People, including critics, are always afraid of and likely to talk down people they can't pigeon hole.

Nic, is...if anything....a true chameleon. He can't be DEFINED.

And if his critics were to truly study his words in his interviews they would find that he himself says he likes to shake things up and to try new things even if they might ultimately fail on the big screen. It's in the attempt that he apparently learns and grows.

I admire that in a person. It one of the reasons I find Nic so fascinating.

Also.....I look at it this way. Often in a BRILLIANT artist's lifetime, they are despised for their creative 'eye'. Their redemption only comes when they have left this life and when their work is viewed thru a future generations eyes.

Nic....is simply.....ahead of his time, so to speak.

-- Edited by Warped Woman at 12:19, 2008-10-02

Lula · Beguiled at Heart and Weird non stop

Oh...well I've just said this in the thread started by OnlyNic, but I will repeat. It seems like when people finally get their heads round his diversity or quality of films they start to slag Nic off for his choices/ability/being deluded...?being manipulative? Or is it the fans who are deluded?! Er ...no, we can see it for ourselves that Nic is a diverse and skilled and respected actor.
This article kind of seems like someone trying to make a desperate argument...and I agree Bonnie, it's contradictory..the most contradictory thing is usually you can't have a thing that both sounds hollow, and is at the same time full of holes, and yet this article is.
Or perhaps the biggest contradiction is you know if you are not into something...why bother? Why bother with the effort of the article? It just seems almost bitter?
Or maybe the most contradictory thing is me using the energy responding over something which just kind of means nothing.
I feel there is a changing tide for Mr Cage. It's like the critics have their own little thing going on, but it really doesn't ring true with what is actually happening in his career. It's kind of like their voices are becoming more and more distant, a bit like an annoying background drone, as Nic continues to shine and give.

yany. · Newbie

i dont get what that articles trying to say.:)

Warped Woman · Moderator in Motion...........

LoL...........I hear ya Mara. That's why I said what I said about it even sounding like something Nic might have said himself years ago.

mara · a grateful fan

You know... I´m quite ambivalent about this article.

I don´t agree in the least when it comes to critizising and putting down Nic´s obvious values as a great actor... but I tend to agree when it says that sometimes Nic takes himself too seriously, and that´s detrimental to him... JMHO.

Ok then, now you can throw your rotten tomatoes at me... *grabbing my umbrella to shield the shelling*

Warped Woman · Moderator in Motion...........

Wow......I have to post this article only because in it's own way, it speaks the truth and sounds like something Nic would have said himself many years ago when at his most revealing self.

Then again the article seems two-faced, nasty and ultimately.....confused. Go figure.....

http://www.tuftsobserver.org/arts/20080929/cage_revisited.html

Cage Revisited

September 29, 2008

by Thomas Sutherland

In the face of criticism, Im stickin to my guns: Nicolas Cage is an awful, phenomenal, hilarious, honest, completely dismissible, totally important, fake as plastic actor And Im right to feel this way.

First things first. I was told that I contradict myself because I dislike Nicolas Cage as an actor but enjoy his films. There is, in fact, no contradiction in that argument. Allow me to explain using a helpful analogy.

I like chocolate-frosted cake. I know that the butter, frosting and fat is bad for me, but I like the finished product. I like Nicolas Cage movies. I know that the watered-down plot, hackney artistry, and shoddy acting are all bad for me, but I like the finished product. I feel guilty for the unnecessary calorie, I feel guilty for the unnecessary Cage.

Its all quite simple.

The majority of comments that I received heralded Nicolas cage as an amazing actor. One went as far to say that he has mastered the craft. Part of my enjoyment is spurned by the fact that Nicolas Cage is just so incredibly popular. Its mind-bending to me. Its terribly confusing; he presses out performances that are mediocre at best, but he is beloved by many.

I know many of you must be thinking, This author is a confused nut. Hes an agitator whose argument falls in on itself before he can hurl it in from the sidelines. Feel safe for a moment, my friends. I am sorry to say that you, actually, are the ones from which the contradictions arise. But please dont blame yourself for the confusion of perception and fact, because Nicolas Cage did it to you.

You like Nicolas Cage for his artistic value, because hes operating on a higher level of craft, but Nicolas Cage, literally, cannot get any more commercial. Hes reached his apex. The beaker is full. Gone in Sixty Seconds? National Treasures 1 and 2? The Rock? Next? Con-Air? Ghost Rider! As Sean Penn succinctly put it, At this point Nicolas Cage is more like a performer than an artist.

The point Penn makes is a very legitimate insight into the way Hollywood commercial success operates. Nicolas Cage is no different than Samuel L. Jackson or John Travolta, in that all of them are hawking highly contrived niche products that they embody, and all of them hope audiences continue to like them.

Yet, somehow Cage has convinced millions of people that he is operating differently than all those hacks. Somehow, Nicolas Cage convinced people that hes doing more interesting work, making more risqué choices, and playing a diversity of roles, when in reality hes just playing Nicolas Cage with different hair or a moustache (World Trade Center, anyone?)

Its impossible for me to say for sure how Cage does this. He was endearing and depressing in Leaving Las Vegas, but the majority of his films after that fall into the latter category. How then, did this man convince us he is a bold artist.

Because he is one.

The genius of Nicolas Cages art lies not in his acting ability, but in his ability to market his own perception. That is not to say that he is purposefully manipulating us, or that he even knows he is doing it. I like to think that its total self-delusion. I choose to believe that Nicolas Cage went Daniel Day Lewis or Kirk Lazarus on his own marketing image, and truly believes that he is a groundbreaking artist and his work is expanding Americas cinematic pallet. In actually, the dialogue in High School Musical was less formulaic than Lord of War.

Heres an example of his delusion. There was a Thai coup detat while he was on location filming Bangkok Dangerous. He later told David Letterman that he estimated his chances of survival were 50%, but refused to halt the project. Nicolas Cage had, somehow, invested himself so deeply into his shallow, poorly-constructed character that he was willing to confront what he perceived as a deadly threat.

Nicolas Cage doesnt have any clue as to how mainstream he actually is. Once a person can fully comprehend that, something great happens: Nicolas Cage becomes funny anywhere. Watching him on television or in an interview, suddenly every story and performance becomes hilarious. Hearing him tell personal anecdotes about befriending Arizonian Native American Chieftains and living in a haunted Louisiana home all become gut-wrenchingly hilarious.

There is nothing funny about watching an actor struggle while he understands how poorly he is performing. But its not like that with Cage. He is confident that he is giving a first rate performance, which makes the inevitable cinematic abortion hilarious.

If you have a heart youll no doubt shout at me, Thats mean! Hes a person and you say hes a joke! Ill cringe with guilt and stutter, I know! Im sorry, but hes been pulling a fast one on you the whole time. Hes somehow convinced you that hes a good actor. You will respond, by my own argument, But hes convinced himself he is one too, and youre right.

But, through his own self-delusion, Nicolas Cage becomes very important. Nicolas Cage becomes more important than maybe any other actor out there, because he becomes a true piece of art. He becomes a living, breathing piece of Warholian art, totally commercial, but arranged and presented so bizarrely, and with such honesty in performance that you have a real emotional experience every time people see him it just usually happens to be uncontrollable fits of laughter.