Willy's Wonderland (2021)

★★★
Good for Nicolas Cage for making oddball movies like Willy’s Wonderland. One could argue that his peak years are behind him, but… are they really? A combination of financial issues and perhaps a desire to seek out imaginative projects has led to an interesting late-career trajectory into low-profile high-concept territory. Though many of these efforts have gone straight to video and are of variable quality, there are hidden gems to be found. The path he has taken is the complete opposite of Bruce Willis, who has appeared in such a staggering number direct-to-video garbage that a rare theatrical appearance at this point would be an accident. Cage, on the other hand, still displays a passion for acting, and we can all benefit from his decision.

In what could very well be this generation’s Killer Klowns from Outer Space (the star of that 1988 film, Grant Cramer, is a producer and has a cameo), Cage stars as a nameless wanderer whose car sustains damage while driving through a small town. A local mechanic introduces him to Tex Macadoo (Ric Reitz), who offers to pay for the repairs if Cage agrees to clean up an abandoned Chuck E. Cheese-style entertainment center called Willy’s Wonderland so that Tex can reopen it. The man, simply credited as the Janitor, is locked inside and proceeds with his assignment. Soon after, he is attacked by sentient animatronic puppets.

Outside, Liv Hawthorne (Emily Tosta) and her friends arrive to burn the place down, but not before sneaking in through a roof vent to get the Janitor out. Liv finds the Janitor and tells him of the entertainment center’s dark history. It was owned by serial killer Jerry Robert Willis (Cramer), who performed a Satanic ritual on himself and seven of his associates and transferred their souls into the animatronic characters just before the police closed in on them. With their consciousness embedded inside the various mascots (a weasel, ape, chameleon, knight, etc.), the cult members hide in plain sight. To Liv’s confusion, the Janitor is unmoved by the story and continues with his cleaning duties while drinking numerous cans of energy drinks.

Cage’s performance is a perplexing one. The Janitor has no dialogue, and his indifference to the threat is a mystery. He engages the mascots in fistfights, then returns to his cleaning duties and plays a pinball machine when it’s time to rest. No explanation is provided for his behavior, nor is any background story given to him. He is simply there. In another actor’s hands, the Janitor would have been a dull character in a forgettable movie. With Cage at the controls, the Janitor is an amusing and erratic figure, and his performance elevates the movie into something watchable. Director Kevin Lewis and writer G. O. Parsons deliberately made the Janitor like this. Maybe there’s no reason for it, other than as a creative decision just to see how good the movie could be with a main character who doesn’t talk.

It would be easy to dismiss the Janitor with that line of reasoning, so maybe there’s something more to him. The Janitor might represent how we view Nicolas Cage, and this movie represents his late career choices, or at least our perception of them. When we see him, we see this enigmatic man who is beyond our reach. With no idea what drives him, we watch him rush recklessly into absurd situations. His actions appear foolish, but then again, an outsider might think that. In reality, the Janitor knows what he’s doing (he wins) and drives away to whatever adventure lies ahead. Nicholas Cage’s consumption of energy drinks is his drive to push through the obstacles and keep going, whatever the difficulties (he appeared in seven movies in 2019).

Tex himself could be a stand-in for unscrupulous producers trying to recruit a down-on-his-luck Cage into appearing in material that is beneath him. Again, this movie is just playing with audience perception. I think Cage knows exactly what he's doing and makes these choices because he believes his talent would complement these scripts. Willy’s Wonderland is a goofy and bizarre movie, but a quick look at the plots (and the posters) to Mandy, Color out of Space and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent reveals that Cage gets a thrill from throwing himself into these cinematic playgrounds. Liv is us. She can’t figure out this guy, but in the end, she decides to go along for the ride. Why not?

Willy’s Wonderland is a self-aware movie about its star and what fuels him. In that sense, it’s like M. Night Shyamalan’s Lady in the Water, for which I am fully convinced was the director’s purposeful attempt to indulge in every one of his critics’ negative observations on his narrative style. Do you think Shyamalan overdoes his cameos? Fine, here’s his biggest role to date, playing a writer who will publish a book so inspirational that it will change the course of history for the better. Do you think Cage is simply settling for lowbrow movies? Fine, watch him do battle with an animatronic weasel, before he walks away unscathed. Cage will walk away unscathed too. Like Liv, we just need to go along for the ride.

© 2022 Silver Screen Reviews