#23: Phenomenon/Leaving Las Vegas (with Jason Webber)

This week on the pod, we start to crystallize the essence of John Travolta and Nicolas Cage’s mid-90s careers with two decidedly different films about characters engaged in holy martyrdom! Jason Webber, author of Purple Bananas: How Prince Saved Me and Other Selections from the Soundtrack 2 My Life and Juggalo publicist extraordinaire, hops on board for a two-part bender of Phenomenon and Leaving Las Vegas. In Leaving Las Vegas, Cage pours himself into the role of a low-functioning alcoholic publicists who decides to drink himself to death in Sin City, with the help of a sex worker (Elisabeth Shue) who loves him without wanting to change him. It’s a heartbreaking film that won Cage his Oscar, thus ensuring that yes, we do have to take him seriously as An Actor. On the other hand, Travolta indulges a different sort of Christ complex in Jon Turteltaub’s Phenomenon, a schmaltzy bit of Capraesque Americana where he plays a thoroughly-average car mechanic who suddenly gets photographic memory and telekinesis thanks to a mysterious light in the sky. Is it aliens? Is it a toomah? Will being a holy-anointed supergenius give him an ounce of additional game with the hot single mom (Kyra Sedgwick) he wants to woo? The answers will whelm you! Pledge to our Patreon at patreon.com/travoltacage Follow us on Twitter @travoltacage Email us questions at [email protected] Podcast theme by Jon Biegen Podcast logo by Felipe Sobreiro