NEW RELEASES
PIG Nicolas Cage, simply and profoundly, delivers By Ca ro l Bada r acco Padge t t
M any powerful emotions can be conjured up with the mention of a single word. Love, for instance. Betrayal. Murder. The one-word titles of power- ful films can do this too: Casablanca. Alien. Fargo . With the July 2021 Neon release of PIG, the writing and directorial debut of Michael Sarnoski, another unforgettable example joins the mix. Starring Academy Award-winner Nicolas Cage as Rob, the film follows the story of a grizzled, ex-city-chef- turned truffle hunter living in a secluded cabin in the Oregon forest with his beloved truffle pig. Working as a team, Rob and his pig scour the forest floor for truffles, preparing a precious haul of the delicacies for regular pick- up by a Portland restaurant business runner, Amir, played by Alex Wolff. Early on, the viewer learns that the art of truffle foraging is only one connection Rob shares with his pig. The other is the simple peace of daily existence; of living, toiling, and resting in the easy companionship of one soul to another. Few words are necessary in a setting like this. According to Sarnoski in his director’s statement on the film, he was intrigued when he learned that truffle hunters will “camp out on their porches at night, shotgun in hand, to fend off competing hunters trying to steal their valuable pigs.”
Aside from this vital element of the story and of tell- ing it to its fullest, Sarnoski has fleshed out a character in Rob that is complex and relatable—an artist who eschews the modern world and chooses instead to connect with nature and the land. “I put chefs at a very high level in the realm of art,” Cage told Paiella. “… I like going to restaurants… and talking to the chef. That’s almost a spiritual part of my life.” And growing up, he remembers bonding over food experiences with his father (August Coppola), who once
said, “Take this goat cheese and have this glass of red wine and sip it, now isn’t that something.” As Amir and Rob go through a desper- ate and oftentimes violent clash with criminals behind the professional restaurant world in Portland, Rob’s first reconnec- tion to another human is seen. His rough, unscalable emotional walls—and coinciding grizzled physical ap-
pearance—take on an almost imperceptibly different hue as he converses with Amir, relies on his help (and his car), and works alongside him to retrieve his pig. In a rare opportunity with Amir and his criminal father, Darius (Adam Arkin), Rob gets a chance to act the chef again, preparing a meal at the family’s estate, that’s beautifully shot and emotionally moving. And afterward, in Darius’s study, Rob learns that his pig was killed by the rough-handling poachers, and that his quest is over. A telling line that Cage utters in the movie resounds and touches the viewers’ hearts and sensibilities: “We don’t get a lot of things to really care about.” Another moment in PIG that shimmers is when Rob admits to Amir that the forest’s trees truly told him where the truffles lie, with or without the presence of his companion. His pig was simply a beautiful part of that process, and one that he deeply, and convincingly, loved.
Images courtesy EF NEON
restauranteurs that Rob left behind long ago, and that he suspects is responsible. For his role and his animal co-star’s, Cage told Ga- briella Paiella with GQ that he enjoyed working with Brandy, the pig, and that he drew from his experiences with his own pet octopus and crow to help him relate to her. “She wasn’t that interested in people, and I get that,” he noted. “But if they [needed] a very soulful look in her eyes, off camera, you could show her a bit of car- rot.” The tactic worked, because the viewer connects with that look—and in the process gets a very real sense of the emotional connection between the animal and the man.
For the director and co-writer, alongside co-writer Vanessa Block, “That was one of those facts that felt otherworldly yet immediately relatable to me, and that’s where PIG started. It got me imagining what sort of person would be so attached to their truffle pig that this would be a quest worth following.” PIG ’s drama begins late one night as Rob’s cabin is broken into and his pig is stolen—a swiftly executed and brutal kidnapping in the dead of night. And so he turns to Amir to help him find her, and they head to the city and the behind-the-scenes world of upscale
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