It’s fair to say that Nicolas Cage, as an actor, is always at his peak, but unlike every other actor, there is a second peak of all-out, batshit crazy that we honestly haven’t seen in a good while from the actor. In its trailer, it looks like that second peak is returning in Sympathy for the Devil, in which Nicolas Cage plays a crazy killer who kidnaps Joel Kinnaman in order to… well, that’s not quite clear, but it is definitely full-on insane.
The YouTube thumbnail, featuring Cage sweating like Dwayne Johnson in a Fast and Furious movie with a look of true insanity in his eyes, should be enough to sell anyone on this movie already. However, if you’re into knowing plots and stuff, Sympathy for the Devil is about a character known only as the Passenger (Cage), who hops into the Driver’s (Kinnaman) care just as he’s about to go inside to witness the birth of his child. Things seemingly get out of control very quickly as all is not as it seems and the Passenger and the Driver appear to have some secrets they’re hiding.
The film, touted as a psychological thriller, comes from The Secrets We Keep director Yuval Adler. That movie was a twisty, turny thriller as well but lacked Nic Cage throwing that extra level of crazy in. The actor has been steadily revamping his career over the past few years, delivering a slew of incredible performances that range from a man missing his pig to himself to Dracula, but it’s been a good while since we’ve seen him go all out “The bees!” and this looks like the film that’s going to let him do it. It’s also his return to Las Vegas, the city that gave him an Oscar with his performance in Leaving Las Vegas. While not as splashy a casting, (Who could be?) Kinnaman is a fantastic choice to play straight up against Cage’s psycho.
Sympathy for the Devil will release in theaters and apparently on streaming on July 28, 2023.
