Pig

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Pig is one of those movies that might sounds absolutely stupid, just the title itself "PIG" I bet many viewers from the 90s thought is this a "Babe" like movie? but then see Nicolas Cage on the poster and knew this might be good but wtf is it about. You hear Nicolas Cage is playing some truffle hunter looking for his stolen pig and you probably think this is going to be some crazy action packed revenge thing like John Wick but with a pig instead of a dog. Wrong, because what you get is so much better and so much quieter, this thing is slow and really thoughtful and Cage does not go full crazy mode here like he does in some of his other stuff, this is one of his best performances in years and I almost felt sad because it took me so long to watch this movie, well back then I was a Nicolas Cage but was not so deep into content as Im now after the Pandemic, this turn out to be my hobbie so go figure. Nicolas Cage plays Rob as this broken guy who is just trying to exist in the woods with his pig and nothing else matters to him anymore, this is way more about loss and grief than it is about revenge, Rob used to be this big shot chef in Portland but he walked away from all that after something tragic happened and now he just wants to be left alone in the forest with his truffle pig. When his pig gets taken he has to go back to the city and face all the people and the life he left behind, thats where the movie really starts hitting different because you realize this is not going to be what you expected at all. Michael Sarnoski directed this and was his first feature movie which is insane because this thing looks and feels like it was made by someone who has been doing this for decades, the guy gets how to make everything feel real and heavy instead of just cheap entertainment.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11003218/
• Platform: AppleTV+

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Source Alex Wolff is also great in this as Amir, this young guy who sells the truffles and has his own issues with his father and their weird relationship, the two of them together make this strange partnership work really damn well even though they are completely different people from different worlds. Amir shows up in his yellow Camaro blasting music and wearing expensive suits, he is trying so hard to be this important person in the truffle business but you can tell he does not have the respect he desperately wants from anyone including his own dad who treats him like shit. Rob on the other hand does not give a shit about any of that anymore, he just lives in his cabin in the woods and digs up truffles with his pig and that is his whole life now after everything fell apart for him years ago when his wife died. The chemistry between Cage and Wolff is one of the best parts of the movie because you watch Amir slowly start to understand Rob and what he has been through, there is this slow realization that happens where Amir starts to see that all the fake stuff he cares about does not really matter at all when you compare it to real loss. Rob has this quiet strength to him that comes from someone who has lost everything already so there is nothing left to take from him except this pig, the damn pig, the pig is the one thing he still has that means something real to him and when its gone he has to go back into a world he left behind like 15 years ago. You get little hints throughout about who Rob used to be and why people still remember his name even after he disappeared, his name still carries weight in the Portland restaurant scene even though he walked away from all of it and never looked back.

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The movie takes you through this journey where Rob is tracking down his pig and along the way you meet all these different people from his past life, there is this whole secret underground network of chefs and restaurant people in Portland that he used to be a part of and everyone knows who he is so it starts giving you clues of his past life. One of the best scenes in the whole damn movie is when Rob goes to this fancy restaurant and calls out the chef who used to work for him, he does not yell or get violent or anything like that, instead he just calmly tells this guy the truth about his life and how he has been lying to himself for years. The chef thinks he is successful and important but Rob just breaks him down with words, he reminds him that he always wanted to open a pub but instead he ended up cooking pretentious food at this fancy place that does not even make him happy at all. It is one of those moments where you realize Rob is not going to fight anyone or hurt anyone, he is just going to make them see the truth about themselves and its way more powerful than any action scene could ever be in this type of movie, knowledge is true power. There is also this weird underground fight club thing for restaurant workers that Rob goes to, you think maybe this is where things are going to get violent but even there he just stands and takes a beating to get information about where his pig is. He does not fight back or go crazy, he just lets it happen because he has already been through so much pain that a physical beating does not even matter to him anymore at this point in his life, what is a few punches compared to losing your wife.

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The movie really surprise me with how it connects back at the end to Amir's father Darius who turns out to be the guy behind everything, he had the pig stolen but not because of business like you might think, its way more personal and fucked up than that which caught me completely off guard. Years ago Rob cooked this perfect meal for Darius and his wife, it was one happy night in what was otherwise a shit marriage, and Darius blames Rob for giving them that moment of hope before everything fell apart on them, his wife tried to kill herself and now she is in a coma on life support, Darius will not let her go and he also will not forgive Rob for making him remember what happiness felt like, so he steals the pig as revenge for opening old wounds that never healed. When Rob finds out he does not go and kill the guy or beat him up or anything, instead he cooks Darius the same exact meal that he made for him and his wife all those years ago and it completely destroys him emotionally in front of everyone. This is where you see that Rob and Darius are both dealing with the same kind of loss, they both lost their wives and they both handled it in completely different ways but neither of them have really moved on from what happened. The meal scene is really nice but at the same time a lot of tension almost devastating to be honest, you watch Darius eat this food that takes him back to a time when he was happy with his wife and he just breaks down crying like a little kid. It is in that moment that Darius tells Rob the truth, the pig is already dead and has been dead for a while now, it got hurt when the guys stole it and it did not make it through the night. Rob just collapses when he hears this because the pig was the last thing he had left that connected him to any kind of happiness or love, now that its gone he has got absolutely nothing left in this world and you feel that pain so hard, for many other reasons Nicolas Cage is my favorite actor and he knows how to sell a scene like this one without saying much at all, you just see it all on his face and in his body language and its devastating to watch this man lose the one thing he still cared about.

The ending of the movie is quiet and sad but there is also something hopeful about it in a weird way, Rob goes back to his cabin in the woods and finally plays the tape of his wife singing that he has been avoiding this whole time because he was not ready. Throughout the movie you see him pick up the tape and then put it back down because he is not ready to hear her voice but after losing the pig he finally has the courage to listen to it and start dealing with his grief properly instead of just running away. The movie ends with him looking up at light coming through the roof of his cabin, its this moment where you realize he is finally starting to accept what happened and maybe he can start to heal now that he hit rock bottom but honestly how does this connects to the pig? is it because he feels he cant even protect a pig?. This movie is not going to be for everyone because its slow and quiet and does not give you any of the action or revenge you might be expecting when you see Nicolas Cage on the poster but if you give it a chance you will see why people are calling it one of the best movies of the year and one of Cage's best performances ever. The whole thing is shot beautifully with lots of scenes in the Oregon forest that look amazing, the music is also really good and adds to the sad atmosphere without being too over the top about it or trying too hard. I would give this movie an easy 8 out of 10 because it completely surprised me and its a deep movie that makes you think about the little things that matter, like a Pig or a pet, this is the kind of movie that reminds you why you love movies in the first place when they are done right and respect the audience.

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