Sympathy for the Devil
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Joel Kinnaman
Directed by: Yuval Adler
Written by: Luke Paradise
Producers: Allan Ungar, Alex Lebovici, Stuart Manashil, Nicolas Cage
Only In Theaters - July 28, 2023
Run Time: 90 minutes
Synopsis: After being forced to drive a mysterious passenger at gunpoint, a man finds himself in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse where it becomes clear that not everything is at it seems.
Review: I know what you’re thinking. Another week, another Nic Cage film. Another trailer that seems to promise the lunacy of the Cage that we so deeply crave in our bones but will probably fail to deliver right? We have been burned so many times before.
Well, I don’t know what type of Cage watcher you are - do you tune in ironically, celebratory or casually? - but, personally, I am more intrigued and pleased by the man’s choices and the man’s commitment to picking, performing in and producing a truly eclectic slew of films on a mad variety of topics than I am, necessarily, by all the eye rolling, odd wailing pronunciations and bizarre noggin follicle (hair) decisions… although I am here for that too.
At first when Cage slipped out of the blockbusters and mainstream comedy dramas, that he made his name in, for the world of relatively straight to streaming/video, lower budget fair, I assumed - probably like most of you did - that he was just going the way of the Cusack or Willis. Keeping his hand in, pumping out a movie occasionally to pay the bills and keep the brand alive but his heart was no longer in it.
Well, boy could I have been any wronger?!
Cage’s choices have seen him work across genres, with some of the most interesting directors and writers out there - trying to give each one of them a break as he does so (I’m sure) - and while many will have written him off as someone people just enjoy ironically - and there are probably just as many who embrace this about his work - it is this mid-tier world - hovering somewhere between true low budget, homemade stuff and the bloated, computer generated, unsustainable, ludicrously budgeted world of Hollywood - that continues to give us the kind of character driven, unusual idea driven, genre driven, script driven, weird cinematography driven and even taboo subject driven films that people usually rave about from the 70s, 80s and/or 90s (pick your recent “Golden Age” of choice) - you know, the ones that people claim loudly on Twitter that they don’t make anymore.
Being a website that is more likely going to review these kinds of films over a studio movie (because big corporations would rather spend millions on old fashioned, manual advertising than, hopefully, interesting, home grown word of mouth) I have been privileged to see and review a ton of these movies and while I certainly, often, approach them hesitantly, I have to say, I have been impressed more than I have been disappointed, over all.
[L-R] - Nicolas Cage and Joel Kinnaman in the thriller, SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL, an RLJE Films release. Photo courtesy of RLJE Films.
So, to Sympathy For The Devil, what’s it all about then and is it any good?
Well, actually, I’ll save you any further waiting or suspense, I enjoyed the hell out of it.
It plays out almost entirely as a two hander and so if you’re looking for that film where Cage gets to give goofy line readings while, basically, spewing forth tasty monologue after monologue, with an appropriately ludicrous hair do and all the rolling, goggly eyes he can muster, then this is the film for you.
But this is far from just a ton of enjoyable Cage grandstanding and not much else. The performances, the well written script and the superb, Americana, neon hued, cinematography help to make this taught, compelling, slowly unraveling thriller - with what, initially, may seem like an obvious conceit - rise above its slightly 90s straight to video style, Tarantino rip-off trappings.
It’s also one of those films that succeeds, with its conclusion, to impress you more than maybe it does while you’re in the middle of it. Not that the twist is revolutionary or anything but it is neat, well played, and incredibly apt considering the title of the film and the way the narrative plays with the audiences shifting allegiances. What could have come off as just a clever but empty writing exercise, reveals itself to be storytelling as a fun, tight rope walk where either side of the rope it could fall into cliche or predictability.
Between this, Renfield, Mandy, Color out of Space, Willy’s Wonderland, Pig and the criminally underrated The Trust, we are living in a golden age of Cage… Long may it continue.
