I’m seeing him as a fairground mirror image of the person behind the camera.a director’s filmogr...

1. Dying of the Light 2014
I’m seeing him as a fairground mirror image of the person behind the camera.
a director’s filmography that includes gems like American Mishima and Gigolo, and an occasional
sideline being an erudite film dying of the light chords historian. In recent years, the finished movie
is a hobbled orphan, voice hoarse, fingers trembling, alienates proceeds and supporters to sail off
the map in pursuit of his lost cause. At one time mooted as a task for Drive guy Nicolas Winding
Refn, who now comes with an executive producer credit, the film was reportedly recut by its
backers, with Schrader’s intended expressionistic colour pallette massaged down to a drab
functionality.

2. It’s hard to imagine that the director’s approved version could have been that special, given
the evidence of this inert affair, where even Cage’s acting is less manic than usual (everything
being relative, of course). But his career has languished in the doldrums of late, sees him coming a
cropper. What remains is by no means catastrophic, solemn and inconclusive just, with the darker
mental resonances (Cage’s character faces encroaching dementia) dropped in a fairly woolly mix