Really enjoyed this blog post, great to seee some of NIcs' latest films included. I would certainly add Bringing Out The Dead, Red Rock West, Snake Eyes and Matchstick Men to the list!

http://swtch.tumblr.com/post/31074790263/a-handful-of-important-lesser-known-nic-cage-films

I don’t love Nic Cage the same way people who like Ghost Rider and National Treasure II like Nic Cage. I gravitate toward his more realistic, grittier works likeBad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans for their universal themes, virtuosic performances, and the way the stories inevitably spiral out of control.
And of course I love me a good ole fashioned Nic Cage freakout.

Below is a list of some of my favorite lesser-known Nic Cage works. I hope you watch and enjoy them as much as I did.
(P.S. I don’t give away too much of the plot.)

Trespass (2011) starring Nic Cage, Nicole Kidman. Directed by Joel Schumacher (A Time to Kill, The Lost Boys)

In Trespass Nic Cage is a prominent diamond dealer who wears suspenders and eyeglasses. Within the opening minutes the police come to the door, but they aren’t real police! They’re terrorists holding Kidman and Cage ransom for their diamonds. What follows is an hour and a half of Nic Cage fighting, bargaining, and giving us the etymology of the word “diamond” as the situation stays in Cage’s house but spirals out of control in a typical Cagian fashion.
From Wikipedia: “This film became the fastest movie to be released on home video after its initial theater release. This record was previously held by 2003’sFrom Justin to Kelly, which was released on DVD after 29 days; Trespass made it in only 18.”

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009) starring Nic Cage, Eva Mendes, Xzibit. Directed by the legendary German auteur Werner Herzog (Aguirre: The Wrath of God, Fitzcarraldo)

During Hurricane Katrina Nic Cage dives into a flooded prison cell to free a drowning inmate, but Cage injures his own back while doing so. What begins as an addiction to painkillers quickly snowballs into a modern epic of alcoholism, drugs, corruption, and taking the oxygen tubes out of an old lady’s nose and holding a revolver to her head. Eva Mendes stars as a high-class prostitute/close friend of The Bad Lieutenant. X to the Z stars as the gangster “Big Fate.”
What makes BL:PoCNO an important film is its message: how an ordinary cop slides from selflessness into corruption, holding himself above the law as he hunts for drugs outside of nightclubs and coercing a woman into sexual intercourse while doing lines of her coke as the woman’s boyfriend sobs while the maddened Cage exploits the woman on the hood of a car - it all serves as a precautionary tale for those of us not riddled with The Bad Lieutenant’s nasty afflictions. Bad Lieutenant is also a commentary on modern life, in that the dilapidated New Orleans serves as a backdrop to a society worn by the decay brought upon by urban vices and lack of government oversight (as shown by Cage, a city cop, acting unchecked as a ruthless gangster). Through Cage’s unparalleled performance we see how fragile life really is. This movie also has some of the best Nic Cage Freakouts I’ve ever seen.
Highly recommended.

co-cop Val with The Bad Lieutenant

Knowing (2009) starring Nic Cage, Rose Byrne. Directed by Alex Proyas (I, Robot, Dark City)

I legitimately enjoyed this post-apocalyptic thriller. Here Nic Cage plays a MIT astrophysicist whose son brings home strange messages from school. Cage is a widower who meets, through his son, Rose Byrne’s character whose daughter also brings home some creepy messages. Numerology, solar flares, and Rose Byrne’s hotness ensue.

Seeking Justice (2011) starring Nicolas Cage, January Jones, Guy Pearce. Directed by Roger Donaldson (Dante’s Peak, Thirteen Days)

This movie is also legitimately somewhat interesting. Seeking Justice begins as a tepid revenge story but soon twists and turns into a Hitchc***ian thriller. To avenge his wife’s assailant, Cage joins a New Orleans vigilante group only to later realize that the group’s intent may not be as kosher as it first seemed.
The best part of the movie is when Cage slowly drives an Escalade through a garage door.

Was justice sought with Cage’s arrest? 

Wild at Heart (1990) starring Nic Cage, Laura Dern, Willem Dafoe. Directed by the Lynchian arthouse director David Lynch (Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, Eraserhead)

The previous movies on this list were released in 2009 through 2011, which may lead you to believe that Nic Cage peaked during this period. However in Nic Cage’s oeuvre we cannot forget the bizarre American road movie Wild at Heart. Here Cage plays an Elvis-loving, snakeskin jacket-wearing outlaw named Sailor who brings his girlfriend Lula (Dern) around the American south as they run from both the law and bounty hunters. While he and Lula attend a metal concert, Sailor gets in a fight and then sings Elvis’ “Love Me” on the dance floor. I like to think that, in this movie, Cage played a heightened version of himself as an Elvis-singing outlaw badass.
If you like David Lynch’s style, or weird unsettling movies, then this movie is right up your alley. If you enjoy yourself a goofy but lovable Nic Cage character, then this should work for you too.

-fin-