For a deeply satisfying movie that hinges on a career-defining performance from one of modern cinema’s most fascinating stars, Ridley Scott’s “Matchstick Men” has a strange way of falling through the cracks. Released to a tepid response in September 2003, this slippery tale of a con artist with a guilty conscience was too much of a tweener to find the audience it deserved, and — much like its twitchy protagonist — was also conflicted about swindling people out of their money. For a major Hollywood film that climaxes with a bare-assed Nicolas Cage running around an L.A. parking garage, its “B” Cinemascore is borderline miraculous.

Even now, 15 years to the month since its debut, “Matchstick Men” lurks in the…

I regret not watching matchstick men before today. This one film in itself is proof that Nic Cage can act and what he is been doing or the directors have been doing all through his life conning him into doing stupid roles except for maybe a few like this one, Lord of War, Leaving Las Vegas and Adaptation.

Any film which has a character with ocd gives a considerable amount of intrigue and likeability. Nic Cage here suffers from a multitude of phobias and he is so believable in his mannerisms. On a whole he just perfectly exectued his role in this film. He attracted so much affection from me even more than Rockwell in this(and I thought he was…

Do people still think Nicolas Cage is the worst actor alive?

Personally, I'm hoping that we as a society can stop directing hate towards Cage's acting skills and instead send it to his choice in roles. There's no reason for the man who starred in Adaptation to be the face of the Ghost Rider franchise. I'm getting off-topic. Let's talk about Matchstick Men.

If someone were to do a Top 5 list for Cage, Matchstick Men would definitely be in it. He plays Roy, a con man (oh excuse me, "con artist") suffering from a multitude of phobias. He's successful at what he does, amassing over a million dollars. Cage's performance is great. He knows just when to include that…

Matchstick Men features a post-Adaptation, OCD ridden Nicolas Cage preformance that rivals with some of the best work of his career. Matched with a young Alison Lohman who manages to keep up with Cage beat by beat and the always cool and relaxed Sam Rockwell. This is all thrown into a mix helmed by legendary filmmaker Ridley Scott which gives us one of the best Cage movies and movies in general I've seen in a while.

Matchstick Men follows Roy Waller (Nicolas Cage), a con artist who suffers from extreme OCD who works with Frank Mercer (Sam Rockwell) in pulling off elaborate schemes on people. When Roy finally meets his teenaged daughter, Angela (Alison Lohman), she helps reinspire Roy and…

I'm one of those people who has to be in the right mood to appreciate certain films. If it's a complex thriller or needs concentration, then watching when I'm tired is a no-no. I'm pretty sure that was the problem when I checked this one out nearly seven years ago, because I got much more from it this time around.
Matchstick Men is one of Sir Ridley Scott's more low-key films. Released back in 2003, and starring the excellent Nicolas Cage and Sam Rockwell, this got some rave reviews but struggled financially. Cage plays a conman with obsessive-compulsive disorder, brilliantly mimicked by Francis Ford Coppola's nephew, who's life is reinvigorated by the arrival into his life of his precocious 14…

One of the worst things about studying in the psychology field is that it opens your eyes to all of the bullshit you find in movies like these.

Don't get me wrong, this is still one of my favorite movies and possibly my favorite Cage performance, but as far as Cage's therapist prescribing him menopause pills to get Cage to see that his anxieties are all in his head...yeah, no. Just no. First off, super unethical for a therapist to lie to his patient like that. Second, while this method does coincide with the placebo effect, that's not how anxieties work. Anxieties like OCD don't just magically disappear like they do for Cage in the film nor can they be…

Hey have you ever been dragged to the sidewalk and beaten till you PISSED... BLOOD!
-Roy Waller

I wonder if Ridley Scott tried to reel in Nicolas Cage, attempted to and gave up or just let him run loose from the very beginning. It’s noticeable they never worked together again, but to be fair Cage isn’t the only actor that’s only worked with Ridley once.

I could not remember who played the daughter in this. It’s possible I haven’t watched this since the year it came out. Was pleasantly surprised to see it was Alison Lohman, she is fantastic in this. My favorite film she’s in is of course Drag Me to Hell. Wish her career wasn’t so sporadic, she’s…

Matchstick Men strikes a psychiatrical light amid the condo of a black comedy. Tourette’s syndrome. Obsessive-compulsive disorder. Agoraphobia. Imagine yourself acquiring all three of these dysfunctionalities. The open environment with its ever-growing human populous striking fear into your delicate mind. Visitors walking on your freshly vacuumed carpet with their filthy shoes on. Consuming tablets to appease the uncontrollable ticks and outbursts. Now imagine Nicolas Cage, portraying a successful con artist, reaching method level of acting by inhibiting these disorders, whilst occasionally initiating “Cage rage” mode at maximum potential. Sounds good, right? And that’s precisely why Scott’s offbeat dark comedy works wonderfully. It balances sentimentality with ferocious humour.

Roy, alongside his protégé Frank, operate fake lottery systems designed to commit fraudulent…

When I lived in Boston I used to get lunch at the McDonald’s in South Station every day. I started going because I loved the Chicken Selects they had for a while, but then they got rid of them and I kept going anyway. It’s not something I’m proud of.

There was always a fair share of shady characters hanging out in the upstairs dining area of the South Station food court, but you got used to it and stopped thinking about it after a while. One day I was eating my bland hamburger and a guy behind me in a scuffed-up black leather jacket started talking to me. At first I was just nodding along politely, hoping he’d leave…

This followed a really similar plot to Leon: The Professional, where a criminal is swayed into being good because of a young girl, but this time there isn’t a love between the girl and criminal, cause y’know, they're father and daughter. I love the depiction of Roy’s OCD, the cinematography and editing of his scenes are super concise, and of course when he can’t find his medication it becomes much more rapid and astray. Cage’s acting is on point, same with Lohman’s, both play their parts super well and have so much packed into their characters, which are complex in the narrative but easy to understand. Not to mention Lohman was 24 when they filmed this. Cage is able to…

Matchstick Men features a post-Adaptation, OCD ridden Nicolas Cage preformance that rivals with some of the best work of his career. Matched with a young Alison Lohman who manages to keep up with Cage beat by beat and the always cool and relaxed Sam Rockwell. This is all thrown into a mix helmed by legendary filmmaker Ridley Scott which gives us one of the best Cage movies and movies in general I've seen in a while.

Matchstick Men follows Roy Waller (Nicolas Cage), a con artist who suffers from extreme OCD who works with Frank Mercer (Sam Rockwell) in pulling off elaborate schemes on people. When Roy finally meets his teenaged daughter, Angela (Alison Lohman), she helps reinspire Roy and…