Mandy

2018’s Mandy, directed by Panos Cosmatos.

Starring Nicholas Cage, Andrea Riseborough, Linus Roache, Ned Dennehy, Olwen Fouéré, Richard Brake, Bill Duke, Line Pillet, Clément Baronnet, Alexis Julemont, and Stephan Fraser.

What is it about?

Mandy takes place during the 1980’s and is centered on an American couple, Red Miller and Mandy Bloom (Nicholas Cage and Andrea Riseborough, respectively). They live an idyllic life in the country side, with him working as a lumberjack and her idling away her time drawing William Blake-like compositions and reading fantasy books. One day, Mandy catches the eye of a bizarre cult leader (Linus Roache) and his drugged out disciples (Ned Dennehy, Olwen Fouéré, Richard Brake, Line Pillet, Clément Baronnet, Alexis Julemont, and Stephan Fraser). The cult does a home invasion, and there are fatalities. The cult leaves Red for dead- will he have his revenge on the deranged cult?

Why is it worth seeing?

Mandy may be one of the most self assured genre flicks ever made. It’s a grisly love letter to rock and roll hair metal of the 80’s, and it just goes for it. It’s not afraid to let its monster sized freak flag fly- from outer space.

Here, director and Co-writer Panos Cosmatos essentially creates a diptych. The first portion, is essentially a languid, pastel-smeared story about 2 people meant to be together. Aided by composer Jóhann Jóhannsson’s mellow score, we meet a couple in the midst of a great run of comfort and healing that is ended as prematurely as it is convincingly.

The second portion, is when things become unglued. Switching to a colour scheme that’s closer to someone like Nicholas Winding Refn, we take a trip, not unlike the trips some of the characters take, aided through what appears to be homemade LSD. It’s not a pleasant trip, or at least it’s a trip comprised of such images such as demons, people being burned alive, and chainsaw assisted death. I guess it depends on what you’re into- if it’s a blood soaked descent into the bowels of hell, then this is the film for you (some of it’s unpleasantness reminded me of the ugliest parts of Hobo With A Shotgun).

If you’re going to be descending into the bowels of hell, you’re going to need a tour guide. Who better to point out the grisly sights, than the warped genius of Mr. Nicholas Cage himself. After years of taking roles in dreadful anti-products, here he is perfectly matched with the material, and it’s actually almost sad to see him return to an approximation of his peak mid-90’s form. Not even Bruce Campbell could pull this role off without comically stumbling into satire.

I’m not always a fan of revenge flicks. We typically watch a hero, aided by moral justification, put staggering amounts of bodies into the ground. I always rhetorically wonder if the character could ever feel better after the burials are done, while knowing that your fatalistic actions have created similar justifications of revenge for future crusaders- a Russian Doll of misguided consequence. Regardless, Mandy skillfully goes for a unique kind of broke, and then dials it up to 11- it doesn’t care if you approve or not. It knows what it is.

Rating:

4/5

Trailer: Click Here.