Editing Nicolas Cage (section)

=== Reception ===
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| quote = "In Cage's hands, cartoonish moments are imbued with real emotion and real emotions become cartoons. Everything – from individual scenes down to single lines of dialogue – feel like they have been embraced as opportunities for creation. Cage is usually interesting even when his films are not. He is erratic and unpredictable; he is captivating and he is capricious. He is a performer. He is a troubadour. He is a jazz musician."
| source = —[[Luke Buckmaster]], ''[[The Guardian]]''<ref name="Buckmaster" />
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According to ''[[The Guardian]]'' film critic Luke Buckmaster, "any casual observer can see that Cage is entertaining, charismatic and wildly flamboyant." Attributing it partly to the "well-cultured" background of Cage's family, Buckmaster said the actor "is clearly attracted to grotesque characters and is celebrated for his wild and unhinged approach to them. He has the presence of a leading man, and the eccentricities of a character actor." Actor [[Ethan Hawke]] stated in 2013 that Cage is "the only actor since [[Marlon Brando]] that's actually done anything new with the art", crediting him for taking film audiences "away from an obsession with [[naturalism (theatre)|naturalism]] into a kind of presentation style of acting that I imagine was popular with the old troubadours."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1fq1h6/i_am_ethan_hawke_amaa/cacojck/|author-link=Ethan Hawke|first=Ethan|last=Hawke|title=I Am Ethan Hawke – AMAA|agency=[[Reddit]]|date=June 5, 2013|access-date=July 19, 2021|archive-date=March 19, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210319014520/https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1fq1h6/i_am_ethan_hawke_amaa/cacojck/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Film director [[David Lynch]] described him as "the jazz musician of American acting."<ref name="Buckmaster" /> Many critics have accused Cage of [[overacting]].<ref name="Buckmaster" /> Others, including Cage himself, have described his intentionally extreme performances as "mega-acting."<ref name="d4cjN"/><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/screens/2017-01-31/nicolas-cage-takes-over-the-alamo/ |title=Nicolas Cage Takes Over the Alamo: Watch the mega-acting star perform Edgar Allan Poe |last=Whittaker |first=Richard |date=January 31, 2017 |website=Austin Chronicle |access-date=March 14, 2019 |quote=Yet what came out most was how Cage, whose reputation is for what has been dubbed mega-acting, takes his work incredibly seriously. |archive-date=February 26, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190226235703/https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/screens/2017-01-31/nicolas-cage-takes-over-the-alamo/ |url-status=live }}</ref> After the actor's series of mainstream-marketed thriller films during the late 1990s, [[Sean Penn]] told ''[[The New York Times]]'' in 1999 that Cage was "no longer an actor" but "more like a performer."<ref name="6qg2h" /> Despite this, in his speech after winning the Oscar for his performance in ''[[Mystic River (film)|Mystic River]]'', Penn described Cage's performance in ''[[Matchstick Men]]'' as one of the best of 2003.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://aaspeechesdb.oscars.org/link/076-1/ |title=Oscar acceptance speech of Sean Penn |publisher=Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences |date=February 29, 2004 |access-date=May 14, 2014 |archive-date=June 10, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140610214744/http://aaspeechesdb.oscars.org/link/076-1/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

During the 2010s, a growing number of critics described Cage as one of the most underrated actors of his generation.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://spectrumculture.com/2013/10/16/criminally-underrated-nicolas-cage/|title=Criminally Underrated: Nicolas Cage|magazine=Spectrum Culture|first=Alex|last=Peterson|date=October 16, 2013|access-date=March 23, 2019|archive-date=March 23, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190323203417/https://spectrumculture.com/2013/10/16/criminally-underrated-nicolas-cage/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nme.com/blogs/the-movies-blog/in-defence-nicolas-cage-2265796|title=In defence of Nicolas Cage|work=[[NME]]|first=Alex|last=Flood|date=March 18, 2018|access-date=March 23, 2019|archive-date=March 23, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190323203424/https://www.nme.com/blogs/the-movies-blog/in-defence-nicolas-cage-2265796|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.screengeek.net/2018/01/07/why-nicolas-cage-is-secretly-the-greatest-actor-ever/|title=Why Nicolas Cage Is Secretly The Greatest Actor Ever|publisher=ScreenGeek.net|first=Frank|last=Palmer|date=January 7, 2018|access-date=March 23, 2019|archive-date=March 23, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190323203417/https://www.screengeek.net/2018/01/07/why-nicolas-cage-is-secretly-the-greatest-actor-ever/|url-status=live}}</ref>