Tag: Movies You Might Have Missed

Nicolas Cage Shines In Modest But Surprising “Pig” (Short Review)

Nicolas Cages gives one of his best subdued acting performances in the drama “Pig” from writer/director Michael Sarnoski.

If you are looking for an entertaining and thoughtful drama as a break from explosive super hero films, look no further than Pig (2021), starring a scraggly Nicolas Cage. While the premise and the star may make one expect a certain genre, the film may surprise you.

In Pig, we meet Robin (Cage), living in the woods of Oregon with his only companion, a pig who helps him hung for truffles. The film never fully explains how Robin ended up in these living conditions, but we piece together much of the story, recognizing early on that Robin is grieving a loss.

Before we get to know more about the pig, though, thieves show up and make off with the pig. Thus begins Robin’s trip back to his former environment in the city to try to get his pig back. For much of this journey, Robin is joined by the man who purchases his truffles, Amir (Alex Wolff).

From there, one might expect Cage to go into full action mode to track down the pig-nappers. But the film goes in another, more serious direction as Robin leads Amir on an adventure that is as much about living and grieving as anything else.

The film, which also features Adam Arkin, is an impressive debut from writer/director Michael Sarnoski. I sought out the film after seeing several people on the Internet use superlatives about the film that I will not repeat here. I was perhaps a little disappointed as those comments made me think the film would be life changing. While it did not change my life, it is still a very good film and you should seek it out without me building your expectations too high. Take it for what it is, an excellent story with one of Nicolas Cage’s finest subdued acting performances. If then you find even more from the tale, then that is all good too.

Pig is currently streaming on Hulu and available for purchase or rental through the usual services.

What did you think of Pig? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Tommy Lee Jones and “The Homesman” (Missed Movies)

    Tommy Lee Jones The odds are pretty good that you might have missed even hearing about a movie last year directed by and starring Tommy Lee Jones that also featured Hillary Swank, Meryl Streep, John Lithgow, James Spader, Tim Blake Nelson, Hailee Steinfeld, and several other stellar actors. But through the miracle of DVDs, you may now catch up on the odd but fascinating movie The Homesman (2014).

    The movie is based on a book by Glendon Swarthout, who wrote several books that have been made into movies, including Bless the Beasts and the Children and The Shootist. Although the actors and crew argue about whether or not The Homesman is a Western, the film is set in the 1850s of what was the West at the time, the Nebraska Territory (although much of it is filmed in northern New Mexico). And, like many Westerns, the film features beautiful images of the open landscape with wonderful cinematography (by Rodrigo Prieto).

    Much of The Homesman centers on Mary Bee Cuddy (Swank), a resourceful, intelligent, and lonely woman living on the frontier. In several disturbing scenes, the movie shows us how harsh conditions and tragedies affect the mental health of three women who live near Cuddy. As a result of their deterioration, the townspeople select Cuddy to take the mentally ill women back to civilization. As she prepares for her journey, Cuddy encounters George Briggs, who through some odd circumstances she recruits as the “homesman” of the title, a term for someone who takes immigrants back home.

    Threads of mental illness, loneliness, and the harsh landscape run throughout the movie, which features haunting images throughout. Few movies present such scenes of oddness that touch on the fact that the Old West must have contained many disturbed characters, although we see flashes of it in somewhat odd movies like Missouri Breaks (1976) (with Marlon Brando in an odd portrayal of a character talking to his horse) and Dwight Yoakam’s interesting but messy South of Heaven, West of Hell (2000). Similarly, there is a standout strange scene in Dances With Wolves where Costner encounters a soldier driven crazy by his time on the frontier.

    Homesman is made up of many such images but ties them together in a fascinating story that seems real and honest. None of the characters are perfect and they all have their own demons and weaknesses. Because of that, the movie strays from the traditional Western format that focuses on heroes who save the day. The movie is not predictable, and while not perfect, you will not soon forget it. Tommy Lee Jones continues to show a unique directing eye as he did in The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005) and The Sunset Limited (2011).

    Conclusion? If you have a taste for an unpredictable honest raw movie about unusual but real characters, and if you enjoy beautiful shots of the desolate Western United States, you might enjoy The Homesman. While it is not a great classic, it is a memorable unusual film that generally received good reviews and is worth your time.

    {Missed Movies is our continuing series on good films you might have missed because they did not receive the recognition they deserved when released.}

    What did you think of Homesman? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Missed Movies Roundup: Contrasting East vs. West Edition

    Below are some good reviews of some good movies that we liked that you might have missed. Both of these movies, which are very different, are available on Blu-Ray and DVD.

    How Do You Know Reese Witherspoon How Do You Know (2010) seemed to fly mostly under the radar as just another romantic comedy, perhaps partly because of the generic-sounding name. It bombed with critics and bombed at the box office, perhaps partly due to poor marketing, as explained in The Washington Post. But How Do You Know was written and directed by James L. Brooks, who also directed and co-wrote screenplays for As Good As it Gets (1997) and Terms of Endearment (1983). And like those two movies, How Do You Know features Jack Nicholson, although in a smaller role than the previous films. While How Do You Know does not live up to those predecessors, it does have a touch of the Brooks magic in that it is not a predictable romp with two-dimensional characters like so many modern romantic comedies. The film features nice performances by Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, and Paul Rudd. If you have high expectations, though, you might agree with Manohla Dargis at The New York Times that it is “an airless, sometimes distressingly mirthless comedy.” Okay, the reviews are pretty much horrible (except this one from Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald). At the beginning of the film, I felt like something was missing, but as it went on, it was entertaining. It is not great, but if you are looking for a decent romantic comedy and go into it with modest expectations, you might be pleasantly surprised by this film.

    Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring (2003) has critics and audience ratings of 90+% on the Rotten Tomatoes website. I do not think everyone will love it, and suspect that the high rating among audience members is because the people who would see this movie are the ones who would like it. Among others, Movie Habit gives the movie a good review. The South Korean film starts off with a boy being raised by a monk in an isolated area, and it follows the boy as he grows into a man. The movie has dialogue, but not a lot, so it is almost like watching a silent movie in a beautiful setting full of symbolism. I am still trying to decide how much I like it, but unlike How Do You Know, I will remember this one for a long time.

    {Missed Movies is our continuing series on good films you might have missed because they did not receive the recognition they deserved when released.}

    What did you think of How Do You Know and of Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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  • Missed Movies: Project Nim (short review)
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    Missed Movies: Project Nim (short review)

    project nim nim chomsky documentary

    Project Nim (2011) is a fascinating documentary that follows the life of Nim, a chimpanzee who was part of an experiment in teaching chimps to communicate. Nim Chimpsky, named with a humorous nod to linguist Noam Chomsky, became famous for his ability to use sign language as part of a study by Herbert Terrace, a Columbia University behavioral psychologist. The documentary shows the ups and downs of Nim’s life where he is repeatedly removed from his environment in the name of science. The film asks questions about the role of communication and our human relationships to animals.

    Although the movie shows Nim repeatedly abandoned, it also features several people who cared very much about the chimp. Ultimately, it’s the human stories in the film that make the movie compelling. While Nim’s behavior is interesting to the scientists because it tells us about chimps, the behavior of the people in Nim’s life is what makes the film interesting. Because it tells us more about us.



    Bonus Review (Because why should you trust me?)    : Ethicist Peter Singer wrote an interesting essay about the film, the science about animals’ use of language, and the ethics of scientific experiments on primates in the New York Times Review of Books.

    What did you think of Project Nim? Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • Nicolas Cage Shines In Modest But Surprising “Pig” (Short Review)
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  • Missed Movies Roundup: Contrasting East vs. West Edition
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