One Of Nicolas Cage's Best Movies Is Taking Over Netflix's Top Charts

Some of Nicolas Cage's best work is as a laconic recluse forced to interact with a world he's trying to leave behind. Indeed, he gives one of his finest performances in David Gordon Green's 2013 drama "Joe," in which Cage's namesake just wants to run a humble lumber business but is forced to step up to protect his young employee from his abusive father. The veteran actor won plaudits for his work on "Joe," and rightly so, as it demonstrated his ever-present yet infrequently indulged ability to render a quietly intense performance — something I was hoping to see more of in "Longlegs" before Cage introduced himself by shriek-singing his character's "Fire Fire Fire, Hiss" tune.

Luckily, "Joe" is far from the only movie in which we get to see a more tastefully restrained Cage. 2021's "Pig," for instance, sees the actor in full-on grizzled recluse mode as Robin Feld, a truffle hunter living a life of solitude in the Oregon wilderness. His quiet life is rocked, however, when he's attacked and his titular foraging pig is stolen, prompting Rob to return to nearby Portland in search of his lost animal pal. It's on this trip that we learn much more about his tragic past.

Like with "Joe," both Cage and the movie as a whole won critical praise, which was quite the accomplishment for first-time director Michael Sarnoski. Robin Feld has since come to be known as one of Cage's best roles (one that also happened to bring out a very real fear for the actor), while "Pig" itself has a nearly perfect Rotten Tomatoes score, even though it was outright snubbed by the Academy. With that in mind, it's nice to see the movie doing well over on Netflix.

During its theatrical run "Pig" made $3.8 million on a $3 million budget, which doesn't exactly qualify it as a surprise hit. Still, the movie fared extremely well with critics and has remained one of Nicholas Cage's best late-career works ever since. "Pig" reminds us what it feels like to care, and as such, its resurgence is always a welcome development.

Now, the movie is doing just that courtesy of Netflix, where "Pig" is climbing the most-watched films chart in the United States. Cage's drama hit the service on May 26, 2025, and has immediately emerged from the obscurity of the Netflix servers by charting at number four as of May 27 (via streaming viewership tracker FlixPatrol). It's not a number one debut, but there's plenty of time left for "Pig" to make its way to the top of the film charts as the week progresses.

In order to do so, however, it will need to overcome the Mark Wahlberg family movie "Instant Family," which recently became a Netflix success and looks to have some staying power on the streamer's charts. That film is currently in the third position, right behind "Fear Street: Prom Queen" and "The Wild Robot." That's some pretty tough competition, but this is also a world where Kevin Hart's Lift can become a number one Netflix hit. Besides, "Pig" is totally worth your time.

"Pig" might not have been a huge box office success, but it did well enough during its small theatrical run. More importantly, critics were very impressed with Michael Sarnoski's drama, singling out Nicholas Cage in particular. A film with a premise as simple as "Nicholas Cage goes in search of his stolen pig" could have easily devolved into "John Wick" territory, but the film surprises by revealing itself to be a mournful and affecting drama.

/Film's Chris Evangelista surmised in his "Pig" review that Cage gives one of his best performances in the haunting drama, while The New Yorker's Richard Brody maintained that Cage's portrayal "makes the movie." Tim Robey of The Daily Telegraph even provided a summary for long-suffering Cage fans, writing, "Anyone who's been keeping faith with Nicolas Cage, through all his career's snaking cul-de-sacs and mad escapades, has a tremendous reward in store when they sit down to 'Pig.'"

With that in mind, you could do a lot worse than joining the Netflixers and giving "Pig" a stream. Considering a heist movie with an 8% RT score recently dominated the Netflix charts, I think it's important that you do.