About Nicolas Cage

The NY Times has a nice article about Nicolas Cage. Basically the writer is groping for an explanation for his career. Of course we know you can explain everything with one word: Advancement. Here's a snip:

THERE are any number of characteristic Nicolas Cage scenes in Werner Herzog’s “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans,” interludes you watch with a now-familiar mixture of genuine appreciation and more than a touch of bewilderment. In one Mr. Cage, as the drug-addled cop of the film’s title, enters a room to join a stakeout. The cops are watching a house. And, crammed in the foreground of the shot, two iguanas are watching Mr. Herzog’s low-lying camera, their bodies stretched across the image. “What,” demands the looming Mr. Cage, waving an arm toward the creatures, are these “iguanas doing on my coffee table?” He looks affronted. There aren’t any iguanas, another cop replies, too busy to wonder at the question. Mr. Cage gives the iguanas a small, appreciative smile, eyeballing the animals who continue to eyeball the camera as the image begins to jump and shake. It’s the look of a man who sees something no one else does: he’s in on his own joke. But it’s also the smile of self-recognition.

Read the whole thing.