It took me awhile to finally narrow down what this movie was and what it was doing… but I got there. I’m not sure I’ll go there again since sometimes I enjoy life, you know? This movie, however, does not. Though, perhaps, it once did.

Pig stars Nicholas Cage as a recluse living in the woods with his truffle-huntin’ pig. It’s some pig. Valuable for those truffles it hunts that are sold to upscale restaurants in the city. Which makes it valuable for a couple of crooks who break in and steal the animal. Cage then goes on a… well, I’d like to say a violence-drenched revenge kick since that’s what John Wick told me people do in movies like this and that’s certainly the kind of pulp mayhem Nicholas Cage often acts in these days… but no. That’s not what this movie is.

This movie is… slow. It’s ponderous. It’s thoughtful. It’s grief. It’s rage but it’s not revenge. Even though I thought every other minute that the unhinged Cage was, indeed, going to go all John Wick, that’s just not this movie. It just doesn’t self-promote and write on a big scoreboard what it it is doing… and it takes a long time to figure that out for sure.

Was I antsy and a little frustrated watching this movie? Yes… yes, I was. I did get a little impatient at times. But when the credits rolled to a great cover of I’m on Fire by Springsteen, I realized the movie had cavitated into my soul and was living there. I walked out of the theater thoughtful, pondering, morose… and the fact Boom Clap by Charlie XCX was playing on the theater intercom was just a weird juxtaposition for how I felt.

This feeling I had was something special. Maybe not something to be chased, but feeling anything after most movies is rare enough. I’m not sure I want to watch this again and I can’t say it was always a pleasure, but when a movie works, it works. And Nicholas Cage should be applauded for finally being an actor again and not a wacky meme generator.

Not that I dislike Cage in full Cage Mode… that’s fun too.

Score: 90