The actor has been derided, imitated and made into innumerable memes. But even his worst performance has got more life to it than Ryan Gosling’s latest

Nicolas Cage: most fearless actor of his generation or scenery-chewing joke? The debate rages on; rage being the operative word. Cage recently expressed frustration at being the object of viral internet mirth, specifically “Cage rage” memes, usually featuring the actor at his most wild-eyed in a still from 1989’s Vampire’s Kiss (the one where he turns even a recitation of the alphabet into a maelstrom of thespian exuberance).

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In the 30 years hence, Cage has pushed at the frontiers of acting acceptability, even if that has meant opening himself up to ridicule: the YouTube supercuts of “Nicolas Cage losing his shit” and memes such as My Hair, for example. His latest movie, Mandy, won’t help. It features Cage suffering harrowing loss, undergoing torture, ingesting hallucinogens and going on the rampage against a biker death-cult. Mandy is a doom-metal symphony of stylised excess that only Cage could pull off. In 2013, Cage obsessive Ethan Hawke called him “the only actor since Marlon Brando that’s actually done anything new with the art of acting”, saying Cage had “taken us away from an obsession with naturalism”. His legions of fans (there is a dedicated Reddit thread that calls Cage the “One True God”) would agree.

For comparison, there is a textbook example of “naturalistic” acting out the same week as Mandy: First Man, in which Ryan Gosling portrays Neil Armstrong as a glum, repressed type. Armstrong’s vacuum-sealed personality, First Man suggests, is part of what made him the perfect astronaut, but it has to throw in a lot of retro space action to keep things interesting. Perhaps “naturalistic” acting lends itself to modern blockbusters where the special effects take centre stage? Put Cage in a movie and he is the special effect. One of Mandy’s most memorable scenes is an unbroken take of Cage in his bathroom, in his pants, drinking half a bottle of vodka and morphing from grief-stricken victim into howling, chainsaw-wielding psycho avenger. That’s your next meme right there.

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Cage has likened his style to James Cagney’s in White Heat: “Was that realistic? Hell, no. Was it exciting? Hell, yeah.” To me, he’s one of a dwindling club of movie wild men whose members might include Nick Nolte, Jack Nicholson, Christopher Walken, possibly Joaquin Phoenix. Or, going back further, Brando, Dennis Hopper or Klaus Kinski. Did Werner Herzog ever make a decent fictional movie without Kinski in it? I can only think of one: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, where the lead was … Nicolas Cage.

These are actors who can never convincingly play “normal”, and the movies would be a duller place without them (and without over-the-top freakouts such as Mandy). You could say they’ve gone beyond the frontiers but, unlike Gosling’s Neil Armstrong, they remembered to bring something back.

Mandy is in cinemas on 12 October and on DVD, 29 October