As a proud Nicolas Cage fan, I could hardly wait for this movie to actually come out. I worried it would miss the mark on things to poke fun at: the references could easily be too broad or too obscure.
The actual product goes broad and mostly succeeds. I think audience members who know Nic Cage's biggest movies and recent career arc will be happy with the jokes. The best parts are when Cage himself gets in on the joke…
The opening number makes it seem like isn't my kind of movie, but it totally wins me over every time. The music and photography are beautiful. Mia and Sebastian's theme in particular gets employed to maximum use every time the piano hits those keys.
Emma Stone's expressiveness and goofiness make her stand out in oretty much everything. Ryan Gosling turns in the second of two peak funny-Gosling performances in 2016 (The Nice Guys being standard-setter). I can't wait to see how Chazelle takes on old Hollywood in Babylon because he was already obsessed with the same ideas here.
Major plot hole: the twins sing about how they love silly puns in their first song and yet criticize the objectively good Immi-Nantes pun. I am subtracting 1 star from my rating for this transgression, bringing it down to 5 stars.
Almost none of this movie is interesting. Cage and Cusack "star" but Cage rarely graces the screen and Cusack appears as some greasy guy always wearing a baseball cap (who might be an undercover cop).
It takes place in an alternate dystopian universe where baseball is the only medium left through which people can feel emotion. The main character and his brother have a good relationship because they play baseball together. They also attend a game and participate in the only recorded fight about minor league baseball fandom.
