Nicolas Cage fights to keep his sons alive in terrifying new movie Arcadian – streaming on Stan. It’s gritty, authentic, and exhilarating in equal measure, reports David Michael Brown.
Arcadian
Nicolas Cage fans fall into two camps. Or three if you count a certain member of the Flicks team’s manic obsession. There are some who hark back to the Oscar glory days of Moonstruck (1987) and Leaving Las Vegas (1995) when Cage was a contender. A young Brando ready to take on Hollywood by storm.
Then there are others who revel in the method acting delirium kick started when he chowed down on a bug in Vampire’s Kiss (1988) and slipped on cinema’s most iconic snakeskin jacket in Wild at Heart (1990). After a brief sojourn as an action hero in The Rock (1996), Face/Off (1997) and Con Air (1997), Cage now rivals Michael Caine in the number of projects, good, bad, and ugly, that he has said yes too, his willingness to sign along the dotted line only fuelling the Cult of Cage.
The zenith of this Meta mayhem came in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022) when he played a heightened version of himself. Despite being ridiculed for “the bees” in the atrocious remake The Wicker Man (2006) and a succession of cinematic turkeys, the modern Cage era has also seen a healthy amount of out and out classics. Mandy (2018), Colour Out of Space (2019) and Pig (2021) all not only feature Cage at full tilt, but they are also genuinely great movies. And let’s not forget that he is the voice of Spider-Man Noir in the breath-taking Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) and its equally audacious sequel.
Panos Cosmatos’s transgressive shocker Mandy, in particular, gave Cage the chance to go postal and the crazed Oscar winner took that opportunity and ripped it to shreds with a brave and raw performance. A gut-wrenching scream from the very depths of the human soul, his character’s response to the savage death of his life partner at the hands of the cult talisman involved a skulled bottle of vodka, tainted hallucinogens, chainsaws, axes, and head-crushing rage. For many it signposted a new appreciation of Cage’s unique brand of performance.
Compared to that turn, Cage plays it low key in the dystopian thriller Arcadian. Not that makes him any less exhilarating to watch as he generously gives space for the younger cast to work wonders, especially when you hear that Cage, in preparation for the movie, isolated himself with his family for three months.
Showing off protective parental skills that are part Grug from The Croods (2013), part Big Daddy in Kick-Ass (2010) and thankfully nothing like Brent from Mom and Dad (2017), Cage plays Paul, father of twin sons Joseph (It star Jaeden Martell) and Thomas (Maxwell Jenkins, the young Reacher in the most recent TV series) who are fighting for survival on a decimated Earth, 15 years after a global pandemic has killed off most of the population. Taking shelter in a derelict farmhouse, they live in fear of ferocious photophobic creatures that awaken at night. When Paul narrowly survives a vicious attack and is injured by an errant explosion, the boys must use the survivalist skills they have been taught by their patriarch in order to keep him, and themselves, alive.
The monster mash takes in A Quiet Place (2018), 28 Weeks Later (2007) and Gareth Edwards’ Monsters (2010). Former Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) VFX director Benjamin Brewer’s creature feature keeps things lean and mean with a small cast, linear plot, and plausible reactions to the dire predicament that the earth finds itself in.
It’s the human element that Cage wanted in on, as he told Screen Rant: “It’s no secret that I’m a big admirer of family drama; independently spirited family drama. Movies like Ordinary People (1980) and East of Eden (1955),” the actor explained. “I’m also an admirer of horror and science fiction, and I thought, “Wouldn’t it be interesting to do a mash-up?” Where you could have a family, particularly this dynamic where it’s a father and two boys, which is really how I grew up. Sadly, my mother couldn’t be around as much as I would have liked her to have been, so my dad did all the heavy lifting. And then you apply that [dynamic] to science fiction,” before adding, “I say science fiction, not horror, because science fiction could happen.”
The design of the creatures, a weird fusion of dog, simian and what looks like a giant bug took its inspiration from a beloved Disney figure who terrified the director as a child… Goofy. The unnamed monsters evolving to survive as the climatic conditions on Earth deteriorated. And Cage’s character Paul has set up a system to protect his family from them. A way to ensure that his twins will survive. Even if he doesn’t. Every day, as the sun sets the boys must be back home. Everything is systematically locked up, protecting the family from what lurks in the darkness. Being teenagers, however, the best-laid plans fall apart.
Joseph is the more thoughtful and incisive of the brothers, keenly following the rules of his father’s carefully constructed life plan. Even using his inventive smarts to improve their predicament and try and capture one of the beasts. Thomas is the more impetuous of the pair. He takes risks. Especially when he sets his sights on Charlotte (Sadie Soverall) who lives at the nearby Rose farm. As family bonds are tested and allegiances formed, it’s the human frailties that prove as monstrous as the creatures that are trying to destroy them.
Gritty, authentic, and exhilarating in equal measure, Arcadian‘s naturistic shaky camera aesthetic is accentuated by moments of terror and violence that puncture the idyllic rural setting. It’s a testament to director Benjamin Brewer’s past working with Cage on The Trust (2016) and the Daniels on their Oscar-winning but thrifty masterpiece, that he knows not only how to use his lead actor but when to show the rampaging creatures, and when to hold back. Something that a usually gleefully OTT Cage, a tried and tested practitioner of the nouveau shamanic style of acting, has also done with his performance. And the film is all the better for it.
