Nicolas Cage won Best Actor for Leaving Las Vegas, playing a man drinking himself to death, and it remains among the most unguarded performances in American film.
He changed his name from Coppola to avoid the association and has taken an enormous number of roles since, some for tax reasons he has discussed openly, which produced a filmography of extraordinary variance.
The good work is very good. Raising Arizona, Adaptation, Bad Lieutenant and Pig are all performances by someone willing to look ridiculous in service of a scene.
Face/Off is the purest showcase, requiring him and John Travolta to impersonate each other’s performances, which both do with visible delight.
Amy Morton8MM (1999) rates 5 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Joel Schumacher directing Andrew Kevin Walker's script about a private investigator tracing a snuff film, with Nicolas Cage restrained and Joaquin Phoenix excellent, undone by a third act that…
Elisabeth ShueLeaving Las Vegas (1995) rates 9 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. A man goes to Las Vegas to drink himself to death and states the plan in the first twenty minutes. Mike Figgis shot it for around four…
AwkwafinaNicolas Cage's gloriously unhinged Dracula anchors a comedy about escaping a toxic boss, undercut by an overstuffed plot. Reframe Dracula's servant Renfield as a man in a toxic codependent relationship with his narcissistic boss, and play it as a workplace…
Elizabeth AshleyNicolas Cage delivers one of the most committed and bizarre performances ever as a yuppie who thinks he's turning into a vampire. Vampire's Kiss earns its 6.5 as a fascinating, deeply strange film that is far more interesting as a…
Alessandro Nivola1997 John Woo action with Travolta and Nicolas Cage swapping faces as cop and terrorist. Face/Off is John Woo's 1997 American action film and one of the principal entries in both Woo's filmography and the broader 1990s American action canon.
Abigail SpencerThe Forger is Philip Martin's 2014 American crime drama. The work struggles between dramatic family content and the art forgery procedural that the title promises.
Devon Sawa2015 David Hackl drama with Cage as a Texas power lineman raising his niece while battling storms and corporate negligence. Life on the Line is David Hackl's 2015 American drama.
Danny GloverThe film depicts Stanley Hill, a Columbus Ohio engineer whose wife is murdered after they witness a corrupt official. The work operates as standard late-career Cage action revenge thriller.
Bridget MoynahanAndrew Niccol's 2005 Nicolas Cage international arms trade drama. Among the most accomplished commercial cinema examinations of the industry.
Jessica BielNicolas Cage's precognition thriller with two-minute future-seeing capability. The unreliable narrator ending recontextualizes the entire production.
Professional ghostwriting for executives, founders, coaches, and authors who want to get the book done right. 113+ books authored. 54+ ghostwritten for clients.
Ready to discuss your book?
BOOK YOUR PRIVATE CONSULTATIONNo pitch. No pressure.
© 2026 Richard Lowe. The Writing King. All rights reserved.
