There’s no one as fearless onscreen as Nicolas Cage. He’ll play your weirdo, your dad, your vampire; whatever is asked he’ll do. Now was a lot of that fearlessness fueled by the threat of the IRS, forcing him to take literally any role offered? Maybe, but it led to such an insane filmography that I have to respect it. No one loses their shit onscreen like Nicolas Cage, but we often forget that he can be a softer actor as well. And that’s all that Ben Brewer’s Arcadian asks of him. It’s an easy delivery for the actor, who makes being a concerned father trying to wrangle his kids look effortless. Adding monsters and a very vague apocalypse? Looks Cage’s character, Paul, is parenting on hard mode. And his rules are simple: do your work and be back after dark, that’s it. Why? Because whatever comes out at night slaughters anyone caught unawares.
Whether or not you’re burnt out on bleak apocalypse movies you have to lay some respect at Arcadian‘s feet. It’s a movie that doesn’t really care what placed the family in their situation, it just cares about how they’re handling it. Paul’s two kids, Joseph (IT‘s Jaden Martell), and Thomas (Maxwell Jenkins) are handling it quite differently. Joseph is a quiet, awkward kid who is content to follow the rules of this situation and help his father with the housework. Thomas, however, just wants to spend most of his time at the nearby Rose farm and flirt with the farmer’s daughter, Charlotte (Sadie Soverall). The apocalypse is boring but teens will always find a way to have a crush, won’t they?
Thomas’s libido gets him in trouble, as he asks Joseph to cover while they’re supposed to be working and he slips off to see the lady (he calls it “helping out at the Rose Farm”). He spends a bit too much time making eyes back and forward with Charlotte and realizes he is running behind. Sprinting through the forest, he trips into a crevice and bonks his noggin’. Paul, seeing that he didn’t come back goes to rescue and protect his son through the night and winds up hurt.
From here the movie belongs to the kids. Far less compelling but no slouches, Martell and Jenkins quickly take over with gusto and ride out the rest of the film’s drama, action, and scares confidently. It helps that the two boys have believable sibling chemistry, and it helps even further that Charlotte’s parents (Joe Dixon, Samantha Coughlan) are believably paranoid about the farmers they haven’t met. This leads to some very uncomfortable confrontations as the boys attempt to acquire medicine, to save their farm, and to aid the Roses.
Michael Nilon’s script ratchets tension nicely even if the film has a bit too much room to ruminate, leaving gaps where none should be. It’s a minor flaw but it does hinder the film. The creatures take a backseat for most of the film, serving as a nigh-on unseen external force that keeps the plot held up even if they aren’t compelling in and of themselves. The ultimate confrontation backs away from the human tensions, leaving us with a monster fight that isn’t quite as interesting as what we’ve seen up to that point. You can tell everyone really wanted to recapture the magic of A Quiet Place and they just…missed the mark
Look, any Nic Cage fan is going to have at least a mildly good time with this one. It’s an ably performed film that relies heavily on its youngest cast members. That faith is well placed, with Martell and Jenkins putting in the work to make this thing good, but overall Arcadian falls short of greatness by it’s desire to be films that it’s not.
Arcadian is available digitally to rent/buy in all the usual places
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