Netflix's Best New Movie Is An Unlikely Indie With 97% On Rotten Tomatoes
Nicolas Cage stars in the 2021 film 'Pig.'
On paper, the premise for Pig sounds like the setup for a Nicolas Cage punchline: a loner of a man ventures out into the woods to rescue his stolen truffle pig. But it's not a self-aware John Wick-esque genre riff played for laughs, nor is it an over-the-top revenge thriller backed by a big budget. No, this quietly profound film is something much more; it's a meditation on grief and memory that uses its bizarre premise not for shock or irony, but for tenderness. Oh, and it also happens to be one of the best-reviewed movies of the 21st century. And it was added to Netflix this morning, accompanying what is already a stellar lineup of movies for the month of May.
No, Pig is not at all what you'd expect. But perhaps more surprising than the film's shocking sophistication is the fact that more people haven't seen it, that the movie isn't much more talked about. Because very few films have achieved such great success on Rotten Tomatoes: a 97% score from 272 reviews—a feat almost unheard of for any modern film, let alone a subdued indie about a truffle-hunting recluse and his stolen pig. That amount of positive reviews broaches nearly unmatched territory, recalling what many consider to be the highest-rated movie ever on Rotten Tomatoes, Mad Max: Fury Road, which also scored 97% from 439 reviews. Not many films remain in the high-90s when approaching 300 reviews, which begs the question: shouldn't we all be watching and talking about this movie?
Despite its seemingly absurd premise, Pig from director Michael Sarnoski (who also directed A Quiet Place: Day One) is anything but conventional. The film's central star, the often bug-eyed Bela Lugosi super-fan Nicolas Cage, plays Rob, a former fine-dining chef who abandons his past and decides to live deep in the Oregon wilderness with his pig, foraging truffles and avoiding any and all contact with human beings. After a violent break-in that results in his pig being stolen, Rob heads back to Portland not to seek vengeance, but to search for his lost friend—quietly, painfully, and without compromise. What follows is an incredibly emotional journey that requires some heavy acting from Mr. Cage.
Critics didn't just like Pig—they were floored by it. Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert.com gave the film a raving four-star review, calling it 'beguiling' and 'confounding,' the kind of movie that dares to defy genre expectations. Though it teases a gritty revenge plot, the film instead unfolds like a '70s-style picaresque character study. 'Its commitment to its own oddball vision is what makes it linger in the mind,' Seitz writes. 'It's attentive to regret and failure in ways that American films tend to avoid.'
In Variety, Michael Nordine praised Cage's 'best performance in years," marveling at the film's ability to 'feel both out there and grounded, often at the same time.' He notes how Cage's portrayal of Rob brings a wounded sincerity to even the film's most bizarre moments, like underground fight clubs for restaurant workers or chapter titles named after recipes. Cage, he writes, finds something 'close to the profound in it all.'
Sheri Linden of The Hollywood Reporter highlights Pig's unorthodox emotional prowess, describing it as 'a recipe that takes chances, even if not every ingredient works.' She praises the unlikely chemistry between Cage and Alex Wolff, who plays Amir, a snarky young truffle dealer reluctantly drawn into Rob's mission. Their mismatched dynamic anchors the story, with Linden pointing out how Wolff subtly reveals the self-doubt beneath Amir's ambition. 'Through it all,' she writes, 'Cage plays the enigmatic central character at the perfect simmering temperature, and without a shred of ham.'
Pig takes its time, trades catharsis for contemplation, rarely delivers what you expect—and that's exactly why it has resonated so deeply with audiences and critics alike. It's a film about food, yes, but also about identity, about loss, about what remains when everything else is stripped away. Rob doesn't just want his pig back; he wants to remember who he was when he still cared about something bigger than himself.
At 92 minutes, Pig wastes absolutely nothing—not a word, not a look, not a moment. It's a lean, haunting film that sneaks up on you and stays there. And with a Rotten Tomatoes score this high, we can officially deem them gem more than a cult classic—it's a critical titan. And it's now streaming on Netflix. So be sure you don't miss it if you're a subscriber.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Times
15 minutes ago
- New York Times
Andrew Schulz, ‘Podcast Bro,' Might Be America's Foremost Political Journalist
The comedian Andrew Schulz has risen to arena-headliner status on the strength of his irreverent, defiantly anti-woke standup. His material is a high-energy blend of gleeful raunch and precise observation, all peppered with ethnic jokes, slurs and smack talk. (Which, as much as such a thing is possible, generally comes across as good-hearted or, at least, not meanspirited.) But provocation is not the only trick in his bag. In Schulz's most recent special, 'Life,' which came out on Netflix this year, the 41-year-old moved into more vulnerable and narratively driven territory. It's about his and his wife's experience with I.V.F. (told in highly un-family-friendly language). Despite all his success with standup, Schulz has perhaps become even better known for his podcasting. His shows 'Flagrant,' co-hosted by Akaash Singh, and 'Brilliant Idiots,' co-hosted by Charlamagne tha God, are appointment listening for millions, not just for humor but for political discussion too. That relatively newfound breadth and Schulz's ready embrace of disparate subject matter — from politics to sports to theology to culture writ large — has led to him becoming a star of the so-called online manosphere. Although that term, or 'podcast bro,' or any other potentially reductive label one might apply, would most likely frustrate the entertainingly pugnacious Schulz. But whatever you want to call him or his corner of the online world, it's influential. Donald Trump went on 'Flagrant' last fall ahead of the presidential election, and progressive politicians like Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg have been guests on the show this year. For me, that raised questions about what Schulz's bigger goals are, and what responsibilities might come with his growing influence. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Amazon | iHeart | NYT Audio App In the last four or five years, you've really blown up. What has shifted in the culture to enable you to come to prominence? When I started posting stuff on the internet, specifically standup, things changed for me. I was trying to get an HBO special or, back in the day, Netflix is just coming to prominence, or Comedy Central. I was trying to get anything, and I couldn't get any motion with standup. So out of desperation, I filmed my own special, pitched it to everybody, nobody wanted it, and I was like, I'm going to put this online. At the time there was a sensitivity, especially in corporate America, about edginess and jokes. So my gamble was maybe if I put this out on YouTube, there will be an audience that likes this type of comedy. I put it out, and a weird thing happened: Everybody only watched 20 minutes. So I put out a 20-minute version of it, and the next weekend, I sold out a comedy club. The next weekend I sold out another one. I was like, Whoa, there's really something over here on the internet, and I can be my authentic self with comedy despite what the cultural sensitivity of the time is. You obviously have clear ideas about what works with audiences. Does that create a temptation to pander? If you actually are trying to create something authentic, you're going to make less money, but you maintain your integrity. Oftentimes what happens is you'll have an opinion that's maybe a little different, and you'll be rebuked for that opinion for years, and then people will start to come around. Then the same people that rebuked you will start echoing those sentiments with no accountability. We had Bernie on the pod, who I love. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Washington Post
30 minutes ago
- Washington Post
In its third season, ‘The Gilded Age' is as staid and sudsy as ever
'The Gilded Age,' by virtue of its focus on moneyed late-19th-century decorum, is the current HBO drama that hews most closely to network broadcast standards. Indeed, the show was originally tipped for NBC before it got a Bertha Russell-approved status glow-up to the premium cable streamer. But while it eschews the brutality of HBO's reputation-burnishing series such as 'The Sopranos' or 'Game of Thrones,' it induces similar ethical cartwheels in the viewer. We're invited to cheer the victories of an amoral robber baron and his Machiavellian wife, whose campaign to conquer the old-money battlements of 1880s New York forms the overarching narrative of the series.
New York Times
31 minutes ago
- New York Times
Jay Ellis Considers Colson Whitehead His Literary GOAT
So far this year, Jay Ellis has played a basketball coach in the Netflix comedy 'Running Point' and a record-setting M.V.P. in the action movie 'Freaky Tales.' This summer, he's swapping free throws for freestyles as he steps into the role of a hip-hop star in the Off Broadway play 'Duke & Roya,' at the Lucille Lortel Theater. The drama finds him stumbling into a cross-cultural romance with life-threatening consequences. 'At first glance,' he said, 'there's no reason why you think these two people would ever hit it off.' He added: 'We're in a world where everyone yells, no one listens. Everybody really just wants connection, to be seen, to be understood, and I just loved the idea that these two characters do.' Ellis, 43, temporarily relocated his family of four to New York from their home in Los Angeles. One particular aspect of the local culture suits him well. 'I absolutely love pizza,' he said, name-dropping his latest find, Fini. 'My daughter took a bite and was like, 'Why don't we have pizza like this in L.A., Daddy?'' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
