With ‘Longlegs’ blowing up the box office, can Nicolas Cage get back into the Oscar race?
Distributor Neon has one of its biggest hits in theaters right now with Osgood Perkins‘s “Longlegs,” a serial killer thriller that has been compared (mostly positively) to Jonathan Demme‘s “The Silence of the Lambs” and David Fincher‘s “Se7en.” It’s Neon’s highest-grossing movie ever, surpassing the $53.4 million domestic gross for Bong Joon Ho‘s Best Picture Oscar-winning “Parasite.” It was at $71.3 million after this past Sunday.
SEEBox office: ‘Longlegs’ stretches ahead of expectations, as ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ crash-lands
In fact, the movie has become such a hit that one might wonder whether it has entered the public consciousness enough to be remembered at awards time, with Cage’s performance as the title character, a demented serial killer driven by Satan, being mentioned favorably in the predominantly positive reviews.
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A few examples of critics singling out Cage include:
Nick Schager of The Daily Beast notes that the movie “[provides] an unforgettable showcase for Nicolas Cage as a zealous maniac unlike any other.”
Indiewire‘s David Ehrlich called “Longlegs” “a movie that often feels like it’s actively working against the mannerisms of the planet’s most unmistakable screen actor.”
IGN‘s Katie Rife states, “Cage does his version of warbly-voiced weirdo crooner Tiny Tim — an affectation that would be bonkers coming from anyone else, but is just another day at work for Cage.”
SEEBox office: All time domestic top-grossing movies
Although Cage’s role is not that big, whenever he does show up in the movie he’s unforgettable, and right now the Best Supporting Actor category at the Oscars does feel like it could be wide open for some surprises, so why not Cage?
Normally, horror films are not looked on too favorably as Oscar contenders, regardless of their popularity or staying power. Of course, there have been exceptions like the aforementioned “Silence of the Lambs” (1991), which ended up winning Best Picture and four other Oscars, and also William Friedkin‘s horror classic “The Exorcist” (1973), which received 10 Oscar nominations, winning two for writing and sound. Before that Ruth Gordon won an Oscar for her performance in Roman Polanski‘s ‘Rosemary’s Baby” (1968), while star Mia Farrow received BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations.
But those are the exceptions, not the rule. One of the notorious recent horror snubs was Toni Collette, who failed to be nominated for Ari Aster‘s “Hereditary” (2018) despite rave reviews for her physically intense performance. Colette had previously been nominated for an Oscar for her role in M. Night Shyamalan‘s horror film “The Sixth Sense” (1999), which just celebrated its 25th anniversary. Emily Blunt famously won a supporting actress SAG Award for the first “A Quiet Place” (2018), but wasn’t able to convert that into an Oscar nomination.
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Cage is no stranger to the Oscars, though, having won his first and only Oscar for “Leaving Las Vegas” (1995), following that up with a nomination for Spike Jonze‘s “Adaptation” (2002). That was over 20 years ago, and since then Cage has gone from one of the biggest action stars of the ’90s and ’00s to a regular in mostly VOD schlock. But interestingly, if you look at Cage’s Rotten Tomatoes page, you’ll notice a distinct upturn in the reviews for his movies around the start of the pandemic. Last year’s “Dream Scenario,” for instance, was a great example of Cage in a more subdued role a la “Adaptation,” for which he also received almost unanimous praise, though not much awards attention besides a Golden Globe nom.
Fairly recently Cage was also nominated for Best Actor at the Critics Choice Awards for the 2021 revenge thriller “Pig” (also distributed by Neon), and Colette actually also received a Critics Choice nomination for “Hereditary,” showing that film journalists continue to be more open to genre fare than the academy.
When it comes to Oscars, campaigning could be key. Could Neon get Cage to do more promotional appearances towards the end of the year to talk about his quirky character and how he came up with the mannerisms that have helped make “Longlegs” such a box office hit? Will academy voters appreciate that performance as much as critics and genre fans have? We’ll have to wait and see, because later this month festival season kicks off and dozens of other movies will enter the Oscar fray.
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