Could've gone down the obvious route but didn't
There's always something to look forward to in a Nicolas Cage film. Even though nowadays Cage does abysmal films, there's one or two great ones that come with it and Pig is one of them.
Pig follows Rob, a truffle hunter who lives in the woods with his beloved pig. One day, his pig gets kidnapped and he returns to Portland to search for it.
This film could've easily gone down the simple revenge route these stories tend to have but Pig decided to take a slower and deeper approach. In his directorial debut, Michael Sarnoski displays a lot of promise as a director and storyteller. He takes this simple premise and creates a lot of emotion in it. For his first film, it looks really good. The camerawork is fantastic and I liked a lot of the darkness and dim lighting that captured the devastated mood Rob was in the entire time. Despite its 90 minute runtime, the film does move at a slow pace and the lack of action may be bothersome to some people. I did start to feel the pacing at certain points and I definitely could've been more invested in what was going on but I wasn't.
It was refreshing to see characters handle a situation like in a calm yet emotionally effective way rather than going down the typical action route and a lot of the emotion works due to the solid acting. Nicolas Cage is the best he's been in years. Beautifully understated and a man of very few words, Cage is able to channel the distressed nature of Rob in such a believable manner. As much as I would've loved to see Cage go ballistic, it was a nice change of pace to see him in a role he doesn't normally do. I was also surprised to see Alex Wolff in a film like this but he did a good job as well and played along nicely with Cage. Another great performer was Adam Arkin who had some great scenes with Cage and Wolff.
Pig ended up being an experience I didn't expect. I didn't feel as emotionally invested as the film wanted me to but I admire Sarnoski's unique approach to this story and Nicolas Cage for providing one of the best performances of his career.
Pig follows Rob, a truffle hunter who lives in the woods with his beloved pig. One day, his pig gets kidnapped and he returns to Portland to search for it.
This film could've easily gone down the simple revenge route these stories tend to have but Pig decided to take a slower and deeper approach. In his directorial debut, Michael Sarnoski displays a lot of promise as a director and storyteller. He takes this simple premise and creates a lot of emotion in it. For his first film, it looks really good. The camerawork is fantastic and I liked a lot of the darkness and dim lighting that captured the devastated mood Rob was in the entire time. Despite its 90 minute runtime, the film does move at a slow pace and the lack of action may be bothersome to some people. I did start to feel the pacing at certain points and I definitely could've been more invested in what was going on but I wasn't.
It was refreshing to see characters handle a situation like in a calm yet emotionally effective way rather than going down the typical action route and a lot of the emotion works due to the solid acting. Nicolas Cage is the best he's been in years. Beautifully understated and a man of very few words, Cage is able to channel the distressed nature of Rob in such a believable manner. As much as I would've loved to see Cage go ballistic, it was a nice change of pace to see him in a role he doesn't normally do. I was also surprised to see Alex Wolff in a film like this but he did a good job as well and played along nicely with Cage. Another great performer was Adam Arkin who had some great scenes with Cage and Wolff.
Pig ended up being an experience I didn't expect. I didn't feel as emotionally invested as the film wanted me to but I admire Sarnoski's unique approach to this story and Nicolas Cage for providing one of the best performances of his career.
- ronakkotian
- Sep 14, 2021