Brow Beat

When Slate film critic Dana Stevens considered "the baroque, hyper-mannered performances" of Nicolas Cage two years ago, she noted a common thread in the high and lowbrow projects he pursued (he rarely goes in for straight middlebrow drama, she pointed out). "Both," Stevens argued, "evince the taste of a man drawn to extremes of experience."

Now the artist Adam Lucas has isolated an extreme element of Cage's performances that rarely elicits critical comment: total silence. Lucas strung together four minutes and 33 seconds of wordless moments from across Cage's oeuvre to create a "performance" of John Cage's landmark experimental composition, 4'33". Even when he isn't speaking, the "mannered weirdness" of Nicolas Cage comes through loud and clear. Enjoy.