SNAKE EYES AT #20 ON THRILLIST'S RANKING OF 20 BEST NICOLAS CAGE ROLES
"What precedent does Hollywood have for someone like Nicolas Cage?" asks the staff at Thrillist. "He makes Jack Nicholson look buttoned-up. (Imagine Cage's Jack Torrance.) America's wildest actor, now 58, is enjoying a renaissance that adheres to no playbook anyone could have contrived a decade ago. It works because it makes sense: 'Gonzo' has long been the go-to word to describe Cage's performances, and if he is testing the limits of just how unhinged a movie star can be, that trajectory has roots in early roles like Raising Arizona and Wild at Heart. When he doesn't let loose, his films tend to sink (see: It Could Happen to You and The Family Man). He calls his technique 'nouveau shamanism,' a way to heighten one's imagination in order to feel like a particular character. Now, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent—a hyper-meta curio that wouldn't be possible without the electricity of recent projects like Mandy and Color Out of Space—lets Nicolas Cage play Nicolas Cage, literally. Almost no one else could pull off a self-reflexive gambit to such a degree."
What follows in the article is a ranking of Cage's "20 best performances," kicking off with Snake Eyes at number 20:
Working with director Brian De Palma, fresh off the blockbuster success of Mission: Impossible, Cage brings an admirable sliminess to this rain-soaked, twist-filled crime thriller, which finds him playing a corrupt cop thrust into the middle of an assassination plot at a boxing match in Atlantic City. Unlike many of his A-list peers, Cage has no problem playing unlikable heels. David Koepp's propulsive script sends Cage yammering through the back doors and narrow halls of a casino, the perfect labyrinth structure for De Palma to let his camera crawl over the walls and ceilings. Does everything in this movie make sense? No, not exactly. But when the filmmaking is as flashy as Cage's tropical-print shirt, you won't mind feeling like you're playing a rigged game. —Dan Jackson