‘Sympathy For The Devil’ (2023) Review – Cage And Kinnaman Fuel Fun Thriller

This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn’t exist.

The modern cinematic landscape isn’t necessarily known for originality, at least not in the mainstream. Remakes and reboots, despite being occasionally great, plague the big cinemas. As budgets keep going up, the problem worsens (and the reliance on computer generated visuals does too). Is everyone out of ideas? Definitely not, but as long as studios have it their way, you wouldn’t know it.

Twenty years ago, Sympathy for the Devil may have gone completely unnoticed. Maybe it would’ve been granted a shrug and a few smiles in most circles. Now though, the film’s by-the-books approach to the thriller genre, accentuated by a completely ridiculous turn from the one and only Nicolas Cage, is refreshing, and deserves more than just a glance. It follows Nic Cage and Joel Kinnaman on a mysterious haul across Las Vegas in the dead of night, and going into this film knowing that and that alone is definitely the best way to approach it. The surprises are sharp and the finale is immensely fulfilling.

The camera moves very slow most of the time, aside from a couple clever moments of cinematography, but the film still maintains a brisk pace all the way through. It’s a tight film, and the limited movement suits the contained setting. But when it does break out, Yuval Adler’s direction adjusts accordingly. He flips the switch and delivers some seriously slick visuals out of the blue at a few intervals, yet always manages to stay true to the film’s grounded, gritty approach also. Consistency goes a long way in cinema, and it’s one of Sympathy’s greatest strengths.

The other landmark achievement being Cage’s performance. He’s been insane many times before, but here, with flaming red hair and a suit to match, he’s just a little bit further over the edge. He’s hamming it up with every single delivery, and even when it comes off as corny, it mostly works for the character. On the opposite end of the spectrum he’s really able to bring the heat, and corny becomes intimidating pretty quick. As his character’s story reveals itself along the way, you start to see his actions in a new light, and Cage’s turn is made even better by that revelation. He may not be in top form here, but he’s a highlight nonetheless.

Kinnaman is very good as well. He had no chance to match Cage, so he just doesn’t even try. Instead, his performance builds alongside the plot until he’s forced to meet Cage at the peak, kettles whistling at maximum volume. Then, he brings his own kind of anger to the encounter, finding a way to avoid Cage’s shadow and cast his own all the same.

The combination of the two result in one of the more interesting thriller duos in a while; a dual performance made powerful by the plot structure. The build-up is compelling, sprinkling sparse details throughout and blowing the whole thing open at just the right time. The climax is a clinic in payoff, and is one of the best looking sequences in the film, too.

Getting there is often troublesome, though. The film taking place almost entirely on the road means little opportunity for conflict, and when it comes, it feels forced. Assumptions are trusted for essentially no reason at all, nobody can miss a shot when they need to hit it, and every outside threat is dealt with before they feel like a threat at all.

In order to get the plot to the right places, the film takes innumerable logical liberties, only kept together in those stretches by the quick dialogue and unhinged banter from our leads. The journey is frankenstein-ed together in a way that leaves you struggling to make sense of it all in the moment, but it still gets you where you need to go in time for the chaos to carry you away into the next screaming match or tall tale, maintaining the crucial fun factor that drives the entire thing.

Nic Cage loyalists will have a particularly good time with Sympathy for the Devil, as the film takes no time to find him and never looks away once it does. But this compact thriller is more than meets the eye, and with another solid lead performance across from Cage in Joel Kinnaman and some impressive direction to boot, it’s a warranted watch for just about anybody who’s looking. This one will likely garner more appreciation over time; the sort of film that ages unbothered until someone is simply looking for some pure entertainment, and sat there on the shelf with a title like Sympathy for the Devil in big red lettering on the cover, situated between Cage and Kinnaman, this film is and always will be a perfect candidate.

Sympathy for the Devil will be available in theaters on July 28, 2023 courtesy of RLJE Films. 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IOwEPjQq9M]