Respond to these rapid questions in our Pig quiz and we will tell you which Pig character you are. Play it now.
“Pig” is an enthralling and perplexing film to watch. From beginning to end, it never moves in the manner in which you might expect it to. A friend and I were watching it together when she decided to leave halfway through because it wasn’t the movie she had hoped it would be. It’s basically “John Wick,” but with a pig, in which a long-haired forest hermit named Rob (Nicolas Cage) exacts bloody vengeance on the criminals who kidnapped his truffle-hunting best friend. Some aspects of it cannot be described as “working” in a conventional filmmaking sense, but it’s hard to imagine that the film’s writer/director, Michael Sarnoski, and its star and co-producer, Nicolas Cage, were bothered by anything like that, and the film’s dedication to its own eccentric vision is what makes it stick in the memory. For all of these reasons and more, “Pig” is on a short list of movies I enjoyed that I wish I hadn’t been assigned to write about because I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of not knowing what I was getting myself into before watching it. You can be sure that no matter how cautious I try to be in this review, I’m going to tell you something that you’d rather have discovered by chance on your journey. (The spoiler warning has come to an end.)
A cabin in the woods with his pig, who is referred to only as Pig, serves as the setting for the film’s protagonist, Nicolas Cage’s quiet and introverted woodsman Rob. We see them out hunting for truffles together, and we see Rob adoringly cooing over Pig while frying mushrooms in a frying pan. Pig appears to have a natural talent for discovering rare and beautiful fungi. A younger man named Amir (Alex Wolff) arrives at the location to purchase a large quantity of truffles. Amir, Rob’s primary source of income, is revealed to be insufficient due to his commitment to living off the grid, communing with nature, and nursing a colossal amount of grief over a woman, according to what we’ve been told. We have no idea how he became separated from her; all we know is that he has audio recordings of her that he can’t bring himself to play.
And then Pig is kidnapped in the middle of the night, his squealing being heard as he is pulled from the house. Rob is in a state of bewilderment. Portland is the closest large city to him, and he wants to go there because he’s fairly certain that’s where she’s been taken, and he has a vague idea of who might have taken her.
If, on the other hand, you’re hoping for a rampage, you’d be better off watching something else. A small amount of violence is depicted in this movie. It is unglamorous and brutal, and as a result, it is difficult to watch. However, despite the fact that Cage’s shaggy man-mountain look harkens back to his role in 1997’s “Con Air,” this is not a revenge film, nor is it much of a “action movie” per se—unless you count scenes in which Rob, a soft-spoken but keenly observant man, verbally batters other people by saying things that strike them in a deep place. He is not being abusive; he is simply stating the facts as he perceives them. However, the ramifications are catastrophic.
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Rob and the world of “Pig” are completely unknown to us when the film begins, nor do we know what kind of world he lives in. Is it a realistic universe, such as in “Leave No Trace,” or is it more stylized, such as in the Wick film series? However, there are some elements that are unreal or expressionistic, so it is more of the former than the latter.
The largest of these is the underground network of chefs, sous-chefs, restaurant owners, and food and equipment suppliers that operates in and around Portland and the surrounding region. This mysterious secret society appears to have a code, a history, and a lot of secrets to share. Rob was once a legendary part of it, until he dropped out for reasons that are not entirely cleared up by the movie’s end. With Pig on the run, Rob’s photographic memory comes in handy, as he recognizes a maitre’d played by David Knell as someone he had worked with for exactly two months many years ago in a flashback scene. He reminds him of the fantasy restaurant he once described to Rob, and he inquires as to whether or not he has ever attempted to make the dream a reality.
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It’s understandable why Nicolas Cage wanted to be a part of this film. As a philosopher-monk, Rob is identified by Amir as being a practicing Buddhist, but he is also a Christ figure, a clown, and a regular guy who, despite suffering catastrophic losses, is too full of himself to connect with and heal his fellow man. He exudes mystery and tenderness, while also displaying hints of repressed despair and rage. He doesn’t say much at first, but as the story progresses, he becomes more expressive, most likely as a result of Rob reentering society and being forced to use communication skills that he’d been storing away for the past few years. Nature is viewed through the eyes of people who are at ease in it, according to the script and direction. When the film moves to the city, the urban landscapes are just as oppressive as the forest was comforting in the previous scene.
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As he smell-tests mushrooms and searing them in a pan, endures a brutal beating, and engages in philosophical discussions with various supporting characters, Cage appears to be at ease in the role of Amir, the film’s second leading man. In some ways, the film’s treatment of Cage is reminiscent of the way Wes Anderson used Bill Murray in his film “Rushmore.” It’s an empathetic fantasy of middle age from the perspective of a young man.
The decision to pair Rob and Amir throughout the film rather than having Rob accompany Amir the entire time turns out to be the film’s genius move. Amir, as written by Sarnoski and as played by Wolff, one of the most original young leading men in film history, is every bit as compelling as Rob, despite the fact that he lacks the ruined grandeur of the older man’s character. In other words, he is a self-aware mediocrity who would be less depressed if he were dumber and didn’t have such a clear understanding of his own shortcomings. As a result, Amir feels as though he is owed more money than he currently has, but has no idea why he feels this way and is not inclined to investigate or question his feelings. This is all part of his overall strategy of wealth accumulation and self-improvement, which includes his truffle resale business in Portland. His habit of obsessively listening to classical music and music education tapes in his car confirms that he is a person who believes he lacks social standing and is attempting to gain it by taking short cuts to higher education and professional success.
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Amir was one of the characters that Jeff Goldblum and Richard Dreyfuss used to excel at playing when they were younger. Wolff is in the same weight division as them. Because Wolff is such a good listener, even when the camera isn’t on him, you can feel him taking in what’s going on in the scene. There are several stunned reaction shots of Wolff that are as entrancing as whatever Cage was doing to provoke that look.
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As soon as the film brings the two characters together, whether in Amir’s car or on a street where we can appreciate the actors’ extreme height disparity, they transform into a classic comedy team: Rob the grizzled old prospector and Amir the urban neurotic, both on the lookout for a pig somewhere in the city. Despite the fact that it was shot in 2019, the sensibility of “Pig” is that of a mid-1970s picaresque character study about smart, sad guys living on the periphery—the kind of film that would have featured lens flares and zooms and slow-motion montages of people frolicking, as well as a harmonica-centric score by Henry Mancini, to name a few influences.
Therefore, “Pig” unapologetically embraces a storytelling aesthetic that will be derided as “slow,” “digressive,” “unfocused,” and a slew of other derogatory adjectives by those who are unable or unwilling to tune into its admittedly unusual frequency. I recognize that it is not everyone’s, or even most people’s cup of tea, but I prefer to accept everything it does with an open mind and heart because it is clearly a film that is both open-minded and open-hearted. It is sensitive to feelings of regret and failure in ways that American films tend to avoid for fear of putting viewers off and causing them to warn their friends not to watch the movie as well. And it appears to comprehend the ways in which people mythologize others and themselves, as well as the reasons for this phenomenon. We live in a world that is equally desolate and cruel as ours, but it is much smaller. Everyone in the group appears to be acquainted with one another. And yet, no one seems to notice. With the exception of the hero, who adores his pig.
The exhibition will open on Friday, July 16th.
For more personality quizzes check this: Boogie Quiz.
