Why Nicolas Cage Thinks Netflix's Marriage Story Should Be 'Required Viewing'

Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson in Marriage Story
(Image credit: (Netflix))

Controversies aside, Oscars season is the best time of year to delve into the conversation of movies. And at the end of the day, the enjoyment of movies is subjective. Sometimes a film has the power to feel like it’s speaking directly to us. For Nicolas Cage, that movie was Marriage Story this past year.

While Nic Cage was at the premiere of his new movie Color Out of Space this week, he was asked about his take on the 2020 Oscar nominations. The actor admitted it’s an especially competitive year and thinks they’re all deserving of recognition, but he couldn’t help but gush about Marriage Story. Here’s what he said:

I think that’s a very important movie. I think anyone who’s even considering divorce — and the families — it should be required viewing. Having been through it, family law is absolutely the worst.

The 1996 Oscar-winner for Leaving Las Vegas called out Adam Driver’s important performance in the Netflix film. He’ll go up against Antonio Banderas, Leonardo DiCaprio, Joaquin Phoenix, and Jonathan Pryce in the Best Actor category. Marriage Story also received five other Oscar nominations including for Best Picture, Best Actress for Scarlett Johansson and Best Supporting Actress for Laura Dern.

The movie certainly strikes a chord with those who have been involved in a divorce in their lifetime, and Nicolas Cage has been through four. Last spring, Cage and Erika Koike filed an annulment just four days after a “whirlwind marriage” in Las Vegas. Cage’s post-divorce activities included an angry karaoke sesh of “Purple Rain” – not unlike Adam Driver bursting into song toward the end of Marriage Story?

Written and directed by Noah Baumbach, Marriage Story was an organic project born out of his intimate discussions with Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver, and Laura Dern. It certainly feels like a personal story about the end of a marriage as a couple deal with lawyers to maintain custody of their son between Los Angeles and New York.

But as Nicolas Cage told Extra TV, it’s a massive year for movies and Marriage Story may not be taking home all the Oscars it’s in the running for. This year, Joker, The Irishman, 1917, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Parasite and so forth are up for competing awards as well.

Nicolas Cage’s new movie Color Out of Space is an exciting H.P. Lovecraft adaptation that follows a family after a meteorite lands on their farm. The actor has several intriguing projects in the works, such as one where he’ll play an exaggerated version of himself in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, plus National Treasure 3 is reportedly back on track!

Color Out of Space hits theaters on January 24.

Sarah El-Mahmoud
Staff Writer

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.