Songe Riddle

VALLEY GIRL (1983) or

LEAVING LA CIENEGA

- Mixed Media on Board

You might say this is the first real “Nicolas Cage” movie.

It’s not really about his character, the aptly named Randy, instead focusing on the turmoil that titular Valley Girl Julie (Deborah Foreman) experiences falling for L.A. New Waver Randy, while being pulled back to her San Fernando Valley reality (Re-Val-Ity?) by her socially myopic friends.

It’s kind of a sweet story.  And you do wind up feeling a kind kinship with many of the characters, even the judgmental Valley girl friends.  And part of that for me might have been down to those parts being filled by two of my 80s screen crushes, Super-nerdgirl actress Michelle Meyrink and E.G. Daily.  It’s also wonderful to see Frederic Forrest and Colleen Camp as Julie’s hippy parents.

Ultimately, Nic - who seems to be cosplaying as one of the visitors form the 80s mini-series V throughout most of the movie - absolutely steals the show, with a little help from his punk friend Fred (Cameron Dye).

But!

While Nic turns in a fun and charming performance, it also gives us a hint of what is yet to come - Not only playing troubled and brooding fellow, but getting to spend a good portion of the film drunk and acting out on the Hollywood strip!

Three films in and we get to see the foundations of a life in film being laid.  Bravo, Mr. Cage!  Thank you for reminding me that it takes consistency and hard work to achieve our goals.

FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH (1982) 

- AKA “WHERE’S WALDO?”

Is that… No.  That’s not him.

Oh!  Is that…?  No, that’s not him either.

OH!  I found him!  WOOHOO!

I guess this one is Nicolas Cage’s film debut, but finding him in the movie is damned near impossible.

I think he’s in two shots in the whole movie - one at the beginning of the film, when the students are registering for classes in the gymnasium, and one very short shot of him working as a fry cook at the All American Burger.

He doesn’t have any speaking lines, but he does get a credit as “Brad’s Bud”.  Which leads me to believe that he originally had some lines, but they got left on the cutting room floor.

He was originally up for the part of Brad, but the producers thought his performance was too dark.  Apparently he had also lied about his age, telling the producers that he was 18, when he was only 17, which limited the amount of hours he was allowed to work.  The former quality would pay off for him almost immediately in his next film, VALLEY GIRL.

BEST OF TIMES (1981)

What a strange piece of pop culture detritus this is.

Someone got the idea to do a variety show in the vein of LAUGH IN, but centered around today’s modern youth in 1981.

The majority of this show, which never made it past a 48 minute pilot episode, is a series of hammy comedy sketches about dating, music fandom, partying…  You know, teenage stuff!

Mostly forgettable, it is noteworthy for starring a very young Crispin Glover as the audience’s doorway into the wild world of 80s teenagedom.

It also features Jackie Mason as the put upon shopkeeper, that must tolerate the kids’ antics.

And of course, a teenage Nicholas Cage - who at just 17 years old, is credited as Nicholas Coppola.

What struck me as interesting, is that Nick is the cool guy in this.  And not cool in that brooding and intense fellow that we’re used to.  But cool as in hot and confident.  The guy that hangs out on the beach in tiny shorts working out, and knows a thing or two about the ladies.

What the hell am I doing?

Well, a couple of nights ago I decided to watch the movie TAKEN (2009).  I’ve never seen it, and it seemed like a good way to shut my brain off for a couple of hours.  I can be a little bit obsessive at times, which you’ll soon find out.

So I decided to check Netflix, to see if it was available for streaming.

It wasn’t.

But, if you know Netflix, you’ll know that they love suggesting a whole bunch of nonsense that their AI ( We’ll call it Brad ) thinks is related to the movie you were looking for.  In this case, the titles that Brad suggested to me numbered over 30.  

And, thought I - 

Well hell, there’s plenty of brainless stuff here for me to veg out on. Let’s see… we’ve got Asylum Productions films, a few straight to Netflix rip-offs of rip-offs, and Nicholas Cage.

Lots of Nicholas Cage.  Lots and LOTS of Nicholas Cage. 

In fact, I’d say at least half of the TAKEN related suggestions, were movies starring Nicholas Cage.

The first one, was a movie entitled STOLEN from 2012, whose synopses read:

“A master thief is ready to leave his criminal past behind.  But when his daughter is kidnapped, he’s forced to pull off one last heist.”

Clearly a blatant rip-off of TAKEN.  But odd that it was made 4 years later.  I guess no one was trying to strike while the proverbial iron was hot, here.

But almost immediately afterwards I noticed this one:

RAGE (2014)

“When his daughter is abducted, a respectable businessman with a violent past rounds up his old crew to help him find her - By any means necessary!”

I was kind of shocked at how unabashedly these people were riding on the back of TAKEN’s success.

But more so, I was amazed at how many movies Nicholas Cage has been in.  And how many of them seem to be sub-standard cash grabs.  And how he is still making like 5 of them a year.

Nicholas Cage.  The same guy that won a best actor Oscar for LEAVING LAS VEGAS (1995).  The one that worked with visionary directors such as the Coen Brothers and David Lynch.  The one that personified punk rock coolness for hordes of 80s kids like myself, in VALLEY GIRL (1983).

Why is he doing it? 

It’s been suggested that it may be the result of some financial troubles.  Old castle and vintage comic buying debts to be payed off.

Who the hell knows?  Not me, that’s for sure. But as the completist that I am, I was going to have to look into it.

My plan is to watch every show and movie that Nicholas Cage has been in, no matter how minor the role, starting at the beginning of his career with BEST OF TIMES (1981), through to present day.

There will be some tough films to get through, to be sure.  But from 1981 to 1995, there’s going to be some amazing material that I am really looking forward to revisiting - FIREBIRDS not withstanding.

And for each film, I will create an illustration of the most (shall we say) moving impression with which each of his roles have left me.

So, if you want, follow along, as I watch Nicholas Cage’s career play out like one of the characters that he plays so frequently - The relatable everyman, that slowly succumbs to insanity and increasingly severe acts of confusion and desperation.