Nicolas Cage asks: ‘What do you really care about?’

I’m still making my way through our list of 173 ways to thrive in 2022 and, honestly, I’m not sure if I can handle that much thriving. Maybe I’ll pick just one or two — Sleeping? sure! That’s where I’m a Viking — and go with that for now.

Also: A whole mess of Hollywood guilds just announced their nominations. Did your favorite movie make the cut? I’m Glenn Whipp, awards columnist for the Los Angeles Times, host of The Envelope’s Friday newsletter and the guy still angry that his lovingly crafted, 160-song Neil Young Spotify playlist just turned to dust. But don’t cry no tears around me. I still have my vinyl.

Nicolas Cage: ‘I am a Goth’

Not long ago, Nicolas Cage and I were sitting in the middle of the Nuart Theatre, the art house bastion that has been a fixture on Santa Monica Boulevard since it opened in 1930. Cage saw David Lynch’s “Eraserhead” here, more than once, midnight showings that remain indelibly etched in his mind. He took his son Weston to the Nuart to see a James Dean double feature of “Rebel Without a Cause” and “East of Eden” because he wanted him to feel the power of great acting and learn from the legend who inspired Cage to pursue movies as a career.

“I used to work at the Fairfax Cinema on Beverly, selling tickets and popcorn,” Cage said. “It was my first job. I was 15 and all I cared about was cinema. I wanted to be in movies. Cinema had always been a friend to me as a child. It helped me through different difficult periods. So working at the Fairfax, in between whatever I had to do, I would just stand in the back of the theater and dream. How am I going to go from here,” and Cage paused, pointing first to his seat and then to the screen in front of us, “to there? That was the meditation.”

We spoke at length about that journey and his best friend, a cat named Merlin, and his pet crow, Hoogan, and his latest movie, “Pig,” for which he should be nominated for an Oscar but probably won’t because that’s the way things go with the Academy Awards. But we can still hold on to hope ... and the promise that Cage will be playing Dracula in a new movie that begins filming next month. That’s a piece of casting that seems both inevitable and very, very necessary.

The man, the legend: Nicolas Cage.

(Ryan Pfluger / For The Times)

Do we have an Oscar front-runner?

Oscar nominations voting began Thursday morning, the same day that the Producers Guild, the Directors Guild, the Writers Guild and American Cinema Editors announced their nominees.

Judging from these groups’ slates, it would appear that reflecting the tastes of moviegoers — particularly from the PGA, a body that has recognized box office hits in the past — is pretty low on the priority list this awards season.

Two movies showed up on all four lists — the sci-fi spectacle “Dune” and the soaring, San Fernando Valley-set “Licorice Pizza” — although others, like “The Power of the Dog” and “Belfast,” might have done so as well, had they been eligible for Writers Guild consideration.

I sifted through these nomination slates and offered up a few thoughts and, sure, hopes, because, again, I am an eternal optimist. It’s one of the ways I thrive!

Alana Haim and Sean Penn in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Licorice Pizza.”

(Melinda Sue Gordon / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures)

Will you be voting for ‘Spider-Man’ for best picture?

Yes, the Producers Guild overlooked “Spider-Man: No Way Home” — not a good sign for its best picture Oscar chances. But the movie has grossed more than $1.6 billion globally — in the middle of a pandemic! — and has audiences roaring their approval. Shouldn’t that count for something? Or is that mountain of money enough reward?

Maybe “Spider-Man: No Way Home” leaves your senses tingling. Maybe it doesn’t. There’s only one way to find out. Take this quiz. And, please, answer truthfully. Doctor Strange will know if you’re not on the level.

“Spider-Man: No Way Home” would like your awards attention.

(Photo illustration by Nicole Vas / Los Angeles Times; Sony Pictures)