We're living through a Nicolas Cage renaissance right now but, even so, Quentin Tarantino has taken a slight step back in time and zeroed in on 2021's Pig as one of the best films he's seen in the past five years.
“In watching some of the Nic Cage stuff, the one that blew me away was that movie he did, Pig," Tarantino said on his Video Archives Podcast on Patreon (H/T JoBlo).
"That’s one of the best movies I’ve seen in the last five years. He deserves to be proud of it… that guy who directed it [Michael Sarnoski] did a killer job. He did a really, really terrific job."
Tarantino – who isn't shy about his movie opinions, including a recent defence of Joker: Folie a Deux – also expanded on why he enjoyed Pig so much, pointing to it being a subversion of what he describes as 'revenge-o-matic' thrillers starring the Con Air actor.
"One of the things that’s great about it, especially after watching all the ‘revenge-o-matics’ we’ve seen, the movie sets it up like all the revenge-o-matics Nic Cage seems to have done in the last five years…this sets itself up to be that, only to decidedly not go down that road in the most creative way possible.”
For those who haven't yet stepped into Pig's pen, the 2021 release features Cage as Rob, a truffle-forager who becomes a recluse after the death of his wife. After his only companion, a pig, is kidnapped, Rob then goes on the hunt for the assailant – to unpredictable ends.
