Since making his feature film debut in Fast Times at Ridgemont High back in 1982, Nicolas Cage‘s career path has made for a fascinating journey. He gained widespread fame and acclaim as the eccentric darling of independent cinema, culminating in an Academy Award win for Best Actor, before he quickly reinvented himself as an A-list action star by headlining The Rock, Con Air and Face/Off in the space of a year.
These days, he’s more prolific than ever, but has recently made a concerted shift away from being the biggest name in a succession of generic VOD genre films, a void now filled by Bruce Willis, to choose the most interesting projects that come across his desk. The most recent was drama Pig, which follows Cage as an isolated forager with a mysterious past, who ventures into society for the first time in over a decade in an attempt to reclaim his prized porker.
The 57 year-old delivers one of the best performances of his long and illustrious career, once again proving he’s still a formidable talent with the right material. Critics have been going wild over Pig, and on Rotten Tomatoes it’s now officially the highest-rated live-action film he’s ever been a part of, with a 97% score from 158 reviews putting it level with the animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
Cage has been a part of ten titles that boast Rotten Tomatoes ratings of over 90%, which is an impressive return for any actor, never mind one who’s been written off more than once. Pig is a thoughtful, moving and often very strange character-driven drama, one that doesn’t rely on the leading man’s signature manic energy in the slightest, but still leaves a mark.
