How Cage does Nicolas Cage go in “Color Out of Space?”
Richard Stanley crawls out of the cave he’s been hiding in for years to give us this adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s short story The Colour Out of Space. Who better to star in such a crazy adaptation from such a crazy author than the actor who single-handedly invented crazy himself, Nicolas Cage?
I am a huge fan of Cage’s previous film Mandy, and finding out it’s from the same crew only got me more excited to see The Color Out of Space. I love the style of Mandy, and this looked like it was continuing that same style, while also going full balls-to-the-wall insanity. The thing is, this film is just…kind of okay. There are things it does right, but the things that are wrong are…wrong.
The Positives
Right off the bat, I can confirm that this movie does earn its reputation as “insane.” I’d even go as far to say it may be among the top ten craziest movies I have ever seen. The way Richard Stanley handles the visuals is almost masterful. It’s insanely disorienting and very anxiety inducing. He makes a faithful tribute to Lovecraft, embracing the weird and full out insane nature of his stories and it’s clear that Stanley takes advantage of everything he has, even if it didn’t all work out. He uses a unique color palette, adding to the bizarre nature of the Lovecraft story. The Stanley he builds up to the climatic third act is pretty seamless.
Nic Cage goes fully insane and as always, he’s the best thing to witness here. I’m not going to give too much away, but look out for a scene involving him and some tomatoes; it’s classic Vampires Kiss level of Nic Cage insanity.
The Negatives
Everything else though…Wow. The acting from everyone that’s not Cage is some of the worst acting of the year. It honestly feels like the film was focusing all of their direction on Cage and forgot that there were other actors in the movie. Madeleine Arthur, the actress who plays the daughter, is particularly horrendous. Not a single line she delivered was believable, and she could not convey emotion properly. It felt like middle school stage play acting at points, and it was, unfortunately, very laughable. There’s a scene where she starts screaming, and I’m convinced Richard Stanley just went with one take on that shot because he just wanted to go home.
Not only that, she’s an emo teenage girl stereotype, so her character is incredibly annoying and horribly written. It’s clear they were trying to make her the one thing in the movie that’s even close to representation that this movie has to offer, but it backfired horribly. She’s rude to people for no reason and when she suddenly becomes a major character, it’s out of nowhere, and certainly not earned. I’m sure she’s a fine actress in other movies, and maybe the blame is on Stanley’s direction, but it sounded like she wasn’t even trying.
The two sons also give very forgettable performances. As I’m writing this, I actually forgot they were in the movie until now. The only other “okay” performance was Elliot Knight, who plays a detective of sorts, but the problem is that he’s underused and really has no purpose in the movie. By the end he’s just a deus ex-machina. His involvement felt like they were trying so hard to show how “woke” they are, but again, it just came off as awkward.
The screenplay for this is also garbage. I know I shouldn’t expect much from a Nicolas Cage film of all things, but there are lines here that made me cringe for days. It felt like they were trying to cater to die hard horror fans, while also catering to today’s culture.
It’s also clear that Stanley didn’t know how to handle everything else that wasn’t the visuals or Nic Cage. The editing throughout the movie was consistently awful. It’s especially annoying because it felt like they just cut whenever they felt like it, and it felt like they did 15 or more cuts in each scene.
The only time the editing was bearable was in the third act. I don’t know how a movie with a $6,000,000 budget gave us a third act that’s so stylized, colorful, and visually breathtaking. Just thinking that, I can’t even begin to imagine the headache it must’ve been to film and edit all of that. It’s clear that that’s where all the money went. They needed more money. I can appreciate that Stanley wanted to take advantage of everything he had with the money he had, and I always love when a director just does everything they can do with what they have, but still.
The Representation
In terms of representation it’s awkward. REALLY awkward. I already talked briefly about Madeleine Arthur and Elliot Knight and their performances and how poorly their characters are written, but it’s seriously a big problem. One is an annoying teenage girl stereotype and the other is a pointless deus ex machina. It’s clear they were trying to bring some representation to the table but it just because you cast a black actor or a woman doesn’t mean it’s genuine representation, it’s how you write their characters. They’re not really all that critical, and they’re not really all that developed.
Conclusion
Overall, if you want something fun, an off the walls crazy Nicolas Cage fest, Color Out of Space is the movie for you. There are going to be people who will adore this. I saw this with one of my very good friends (a huge Cage fan) and he LOVED it. If you want something like Mandy, that’s not only stylish, but also a filmmaking marvel and loaded with great Cage moments, you may walk out disappointed.
