Critics reviews

"Pig" is a blend of absurd cooking melodrama, jokey revenge thriller, and allegory, and Cage is the connective tissue holding all those ridiculous elements together. He may have abandoned the brightest spotlight, but he’s lost none of his edge.

["Pig"] strains to mean so much and to matter so much that it vitiates itself into illustrative, portentous absurdity. The film is redeemed only by the dour, weary, mournful, stubborn, and wise performance of Nicolas Cage, which is not so much a star turn as the project’s sole raison d’être.

The movie is both laudibly earnest and, conversely, slightly hollow for feeling so overly limited to its strict plans, its deck of emotional cards splayed plainly before the viewer with a warying sense of one-to-one screenplay interventions, with this mattering because, later, that.

You could easily mistake ["Pig"] for a revenge movie, or at least some kind of hillbilly-noir quest narrative. But those expecting a sillier variation on "John Wick" or "Taken" or even previous idiosyncratic Nicolas Cage outings like "Mandy" may be in for some disappointment. "Pig"... is in no way that kind of movie. As it proceeds, it expands its vision and compassion, even as it de-escalates the tension.

At a time when so many people are struggling to find something of value in their lives, when people are fleeing jobs, cities, futures they thought they wanted, Cage has crafted a quiet soliloquy about grasping onto something that has meaning. In some ways, this is one of his most emotionally brutal films. But it’s also cathartic, a story of realizing that you can strip away everything and find a meaning, a connection, that finally gives your life some definition.

"Pig" is pretty much a facile parable about loss as Rob and various characters he encounters mostly come to acknowledge that they have lost what they love. Sarnoski's film is not much deeper than the ground where the prized truffles are hiding, which is disappointing.

Though its plot follows the same rough outline of a “John Wick”-style shoot-em-up, “Pig” is actually a quiet and often melancholy meditation on loss, anchored by a character who wishes he could shake free of the person he used to be.

Stunningly controlled... ["Pig"] is a mournful fable of loss and withdrawal, art and ambition. Told in three chapters and a string of beautifully delineated scenes, the movie flirts with several genres — revenge drama, culinary satire — while committing to none... And while “Pig” can at times feel engulfed by its own sullenness, there’s a rigor to the filmmaking and a surreal beauty to Pat Scola’s images that seal our investment in Rob’s fate.

A hefty order of longing served with a side of crime thrills, “Pig” is flavorful, fascinating and fancy, crafted by someone who knows how to create a dish that’s accessible yet undeniably gourmet in its complexity.

"Pig" is a small film with a few big surprises executed very well, and well worth going into as blind as possible.

"Pig" is not only a mesmerizing while meditative drama about love and loss. It is also a powerful reminder that Cage is one of the most talented, most captivating movie stars of our time.

A brutal, elegant, mournful, captivating and magnificently filmed story... Through it all, Nicolas Cage delivers a performance of simmering greatness, grabbing every inch of the screen without hamming it up, dominating scenes in which he has very little dialogue, and moving us deeply.