Nicolas Cage plays Nicolas Cage in Tom Gormican’s The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. Plumbing the shallower end of the “meta” pool for an irreverent, sweet-natured action comedy, the film explores the multitudes within the celebrated actor’s storied career. Cage delivers crowd-pleasing laughs — working best when sharing the screen with Pedro Pascal — that reminds audiences that he’s always been a movie star. Minor spoilers ahead…

Welcome to my coverage of 2022’s SXSW Film Festival! This year, I’ll actually be in Austin, Texas in-person to cover the festival for four days. This year’s festival sees a variety of exciting offerings, with highlights including the new Daniels sci-fi mind-bender Everything Everywhere All at Once, Ti West’s new horror flick X, and Nicolas Cage playing Nicolas Cage in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, plus much more. Below, you’ll find my entire coverage, including a dispatch of capsule reviews. All reviews in viewing order…