Sympathy For The Devil is the newest experience starring Nicolas Cage. I use the word “experience” because it seems when the actor is on screen, what you’re watching transcends the word “film.” Directed by Israeli director Yuval Adler (The Secrets We Keep, The Operative) and co-starring Joel Kinnaman, it is coming to theaters on July 28th, 2023.
The film follows The Driver (Kinnaman) as he’s about to meet his currently-in-labor wife at the hospital before The Passenger (Cage) forces his way into the backseat and takes The Driver hostage and far away from his wife. The unlikely pair begin their journey that devolves into an experience I don’t think either participant was expecting by the end.
Sympathy for the Devil immediately grabs you and doesn’t let you go until the credits roll. The film was a tense ride from beginning to end, with an increasing aura of anxiety and a fantastic score that rises to meet it. The score and soundtrack worked wonderfully together, with the soundtrack complimenting the setting well and the score emphasizing the atmosphere. I also found the film’s cinematography to be wonderfully dynamic. It brought a sense of dimensionality to a number of the shots that otherwise could have come across as a bit dull.
The microsecond Nic Cage comes on screen, and you know what kind of performance you’re getting from him. As we now expect, he doesn’t take his foot off the gas until the end. Cage’s performance as The Passenger is downright vile and chaotic, and it mirrors Joel Kinnaman’s meek character of The Driver well. The chemistry between the two actors was so intense and palpable, which was vital as they are the only two characters on screen for most of the movie. Nic Cage puts his whole being into every role, and it always creates enjoyable characters.
I’ll admit I haven’t been overly excited by Joel Kinnaman’s previous performances, but I think he absolutely killed it in Sympathy for the Devil. The range he delivers was unexpected for him and this kind of movie. Even outside of dialogue, Kinnaman’s facial expressions and how he physically plays off Cage were also impressive. To paraphrase a great man, we will be watching his career with great interest.
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The ending was the only thing I felt let down by. It fell a little flat and gave credence to the old “it’s more about the journey than the destination” proverb. There are things I liked about the finale, but I felt, as a whole, it did a disservice to the journey it took to get there. Overall, the film could have used a few more minutes to flesh out an ending that could have satiated the hunger the rest of the movie had built up.
Nic Cage is one of the most entertaining actors in film history, and Sympathy for the Devil is no exception to the rule. He offers one of his most outrageous performances yet and will end up being one of my favorites of his. His character works well, bouncing off Joel Kinnaman’s antithetical mild-mannered performance. The film clocks in at a modest 90 minutes and is one of the more fun 90-minute movies I’ve seen in a while.
If you want to see Nic Cage do what Nic Cage does best, then check out Sympathy for the Devil when it hits cinemas this Friday.
