Age of Cage: Four Decades of Hollywood Through One Singular Career

About the Author
Keith Phipps joined The A.V. Club in 1997 and became its editor in 2004. Keith later launched the influential movie site the Dissolve with Pitchfork in 2013 and served as editorial director for film and TV at Uproxx. He is currently a regular contributor to GQ, Vulture, TV Guide, and The Reveal, a film review site he created with longtime collaborator Scott Tobias. His work has also appeared in the New York Times, Polygon, the Ringer, the Verge, the Daily Beast, Rolling Stone and on NPR.
“Age of Cage might be the closest we will get to understanding the singular beauty of each of Nic Cage’s always electric performances. You are holding the Rosetta Stone for Cage. Enjoy it.”
―Paul Scheer, actor, writer and host of the How Did This Get Made? and Unspooled podcasts
Icon. Celebrity. Artist. Madman. Genius.
Nicolas Cage is many things, but love him, or laugh at him, there's no denying two things: you’ve seen one of his many films, and you certainly know his name. But who is he, really, and why has his career endured for over forty years, with more than a hundred films, and birthed a million memes?
Age of Cage is a smart, beguiling book about the films of Nicolas Cage and the actor himself, as well as a sharp-eyed examination of the changes that have taken place in Hollywood over the course of his career. Critic and journalist Keith Phipps draws a portrait of the enigmatic icon by looking at―what else?―Cage’s expansive filmography.
As Phipps delights in charting Cage’s films, Age of Cage also chronicles the transformation of film, as Cage’s journey takes him through the world of 1980s comedies (Valley Girl, Peggy Sue Got Married, Moonstruck), to the indie films and blockbuster juggernauts of the 1990s (Wild at Heart, Leaving Las Vegas, Face/Off, Con Air), through the wild and unpredictable video-on-demand world of today.
Sweeping in scope and intimate in its profile of a fiercely passionate artist, Age of Cage is, like the man himself, surprising, insightful, funny, and one of a kind. So, snap out of it, and enjoy this appreciation of Nicolas Cage, national treasure.