"I saw a guy, Dix, who they also said would be fine and he had a face like a medium-rare cheesburger."

September 22nd, 2012
Birdy, (1984)

Nicolas Cage is Al Columbato

I'm about a month into my Nicolas Cage diary and this is my first sticking point: how do I approach a movie like Birdy?

I have to organize my thoughts. First, this is the first appearance of Nicolas Cage as we know him. Cage's performance here is not good by any standard definition but it's not really bad either. Interesting would I guess be a kind word for it. And isn't that kind of the story of his career?

Cage is supposed to a blue collar, puffed-out everydude who's best friends forever with an introverted spacecase played by Matthew Modine. Not only do Cage and Modine have no real chemistry as friends, Cage out-crazies Modine in scene after scene with his manic charisma. By the end of the film when Cage is on the floor of a hospital with his face bandaged and his legs splayed as he cradles Modine and shouts to the heavens Nicolas Cage the Dramatic Actor has been born and our lives would never be the same.