The movie about Nicolas Cage’s pig getting stolen was the best movie of the year. Yes, we know how that sounds, but we say it without one drop of irony.
Pig was written and directed by Michael Sarnoski, who grew up in Milwaukee and attended University School before going to Yale University. Pig is his first feature film, and that’s insane. Not only because of how good it is, but because of how bold. Off the strength of Pig, he’s already slated to direct A Quiet Place: Part III in 2023. So we’d like to take a second right at the top here to officially claim him and every great movie he makes after this as Milwaukee’s own.
Pig, put simply, is about a reclusive man named Robin, played by Nicolas Cage, who lives alone in the woods with a truffle pig. His pig is stolen. He goes to get his pig back.
When you first see the trailer for this film, you might think it’s going to go something like this: truffle pig stolen, crazy Nic Cage goes John Wick, beats people with sticks, shoots them with guns, screams Cage-style, gets pig back, very wacky, everyone laughs.
And my God, it is not that. Not one bit. (Well, he does scream one time, and it is funny, but besides that, not one bit).
The film establishes itself as something different from the first scene. We watch Robin walking through the woods with his pig, digging truffles out of the dirt, cooking dinner on a pan outside his small, wooden cabin, eating on the back step as the sun sets. It’s a quiet series of moments, all about the sounds of the forest, the way Robin moves, the bond he has with his pet. There’s a sweetness and a sadness to it. When Robin is inside his cabin, he plays an old cassette tape with a laughing woman’s recorded voice – “Go away, get out … I’m trying to surprise you” – and then he quickly turns it off, unable to take listening to her voice. That’s the only hint we need to grasp his grief and what drove him away from the city.
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
The movie’s inciting incident happens as expected – two people show up in the night, hit Robin over the head, and steal his pig. Robin enlists the help of Amir, the 20-something he sells truffles to, and they set out for nearby Portland to find his pig. From there, nothing about this movie is predictable.
If you haven’t seen it, describing the rest of the plot would be a disservice to you. (And maybe if you haven’t seen it, just stop reading this article right now and watch it). To put it simply and spoil nothing: where you expect a zig, you get a zag.
As Robin and Amir enter Portland, we learn more about Robin’s past and encounter people who knew him before his retreat into the woods. Amir, initially a pretentious, irritating salt bae-lookalike, becomes a crucial companion/foil on Robin’s journey, and Alex Wolff (probably best known for his role in Hereditary, the scariest movie ever made) plays Amir with a compelling balance of comedy and tragedy. The two of them traverse the city’s underground, its fancy restaurant scene, its cemeteries and hospitals, and its suburban homesteads in pursuit of this pig.
The movie is both not about the pig and absolutely, 100% about the pig. At its core, it’s about grief. And loneliness. And the blessing of companionship. “We don’t get a lot of things to really care about,” Robin says during a pivotal conversation, and that’s pretty much the crux of it. A spouse, a pet, a passion – the things that make life worth living, and the pain you feel when they’re taken away. Robin’s weariness is palpable throughout, and we learn about the loss he’s experienced in touchingly quick glimpses, without any overwrought flashbacks or big dumps of exposition.
As a result of getting hit in the head when his pig is stolen, Robin spends a significant chunk the movie with his bruised face covered in dried blood. What starts out as a dark sight gag – “Um, excuse me, do you need medical attention?” “No.” … “Does your face hurt?” “Yes.” – quickly becomes much more than that. His pain is violent and visible, and he refuses to wash it off. The movie delves gracefully into this exploration of grief and loss without ever losing its value as entertainment. At every moment, you’re rooting for Robin to get that pig back. And it never loses its sense of humor (Robin stealing a bicycle is a genuine laugh-out-loud moment.).
Oh, and if this isn’t clear yet, Cage absolutely kills it. It’s insane that he wasn’t nominated for best actor. There’s a very strong argument for this being his best performance ever (although the Face/Off fans will certainly have something to say about that). In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Cage said that he wanted to return to a naturalistic style of acting, less operatic than his usual approach, and he very much succeeded in that effort. Robin is a quiet figure, hulking but reserved and sparing with each word. His rage and sadness is hidden in clipped sentences and pained looks, as opposed to the wild howls and flailing limbs of, say, the also-quite-good-but-for-very-different-reasons, Mandy.
The movie looks great, too. The shots of Robin’s cabin make a fella want to abandon civilization set out into the wilderness. For a first-time director to have this much style is dang impressive. And the soundtrack by Alexis Grapsas and Philip Klein is top-notch. Man, this movie is just really, really good. And we’re not just saying that because Sarnoski is from Milwaukee. It’s a genuine gem.
In a just society, Michael Sarnoski and Pig would both have “Oscar-winning” before them, but this is the fallen world we live in. So for now, we’re satisfied to know in our hearts that someone from good ol’ Milwaukee made a fantastic, moving, remarkable film not quite like anything we’ve seen before.
