Pig

September 9, 2021·1 hr·4 clips

Dan compares Pig to John Wick without violence, framing Nicolas Cage's character as someone who talks through loss.

1. Brownie Points Guide to Cinema reviews Pig, Nicolas Cage's 2021 film about a truffle hunter whose pig disappears from his isolated life. 2. Dan, identified as the host with a film degree, and Nick, who jokes that he only knows how to operate a DVD player, provide the review and compare their reactions. 3. The episode asks whether Pig is an expected revenge thriller or a quieter film about grief, family, and moving on. 4. Dan and Nick explain that they missed Pig in theaters and watched the roughly 90-minute film at home. 5. Michael Cernowski directed Pig as his first feature film after making short projects and briefly working in television. 6. Vanessa Block receives writing credit, while Nicolas Cage, Alex Wolff, and Adam Arkin make up the principal cast discussed by the hosts. 7. Nick says he expected John Wick with a pig, but the film avoids turning Nicolas Cage's character into a conventional violent vigilante. 8. The hosts note that the film moves so quickly that a pause at 55 minutes felt much earlier in the story. 9. Pig begins with attackers entering the woodsman's home, striking him, and taking the pig he uses during truffle hunting. 10. The search leads through Portland's food culture, including truffle buyers, a waiter fight club, and an exclusive restaurant scene. 11. Dan and Nick interpret the film's food-industry scenes as criticism of status, exclusivity, commercial pressure, and culinary clout. 12. Nicolas Cage's character dismantles a chef's self-image by criticizing overcooked pasta and questioning the meaning behind the restaurant's ambitions. 13. The hosts describe Cage's performance as unusually restrained compared with Mandy, Willie's Wonderland, and Color Out of Space. 14. A monologue about people waiting for a tsunami every 200 years leaves both hosts focused on the character's bleak view of suffering and expectation. 15. The hosts repeatedly return to the line, "I don't have sex with my pig," as an unexpectedly memorable piece of dialogue. 16. Dan and Nick connect the missing pig to companionship, arguing that the animal matters to the woodsman beyond its practical role in finding truffles. 17. The review is an informal two-host conversation with frequent jokes, digressions about Thumb Wars, and sudden returns to Pig's emotional themes. 18. The discussion shifts from comedy and Nicolas Cage trivia to sustained analysis of grief, food culture, performance, and the film's subdued pacing. 19. Nicolas Cage viewers seeking restrained grief dramas and unconventional food stories. 20. Viewers wanting straightforward action films or simple revenge plots.

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