Mandy
RLJE Films
If you’ve seen the colorfully tense trailer, then you may be asking yourself a lot of questions about what this film is: Is an art house film? An 80s tinged gore fest? A film that captures the first truly dramatic performance that Nick Cage has given since Leaving Las Vegas? Is it torture porn? I myself wondered about what to expect from Canadian director Panos Cosmatos, and it turned out to be everything I thought it would be, and nothing like I thought it would be. Mandy is an amalgam of many genres and influences and has been both despised and lauded by critics and audience members alike. For those with high expectations, there isn’t a clear answer as to what you will get out of this film. No matter what you hope this will be, I can tell you one thing: you will enjoy yourself, so fucking much.
Though the plot is nearly inconsequential, here it is: the film follows a couple (Cage and Andrea Riseborough) living out in the woods, unmoored from much of the go-go culture of the 1980s. They have attained peace, and that tranquility is yanked away from them when a cult leader named Jeremiah (Linus Roache) takes a fancy to Mandy and dispatches his thugs, and a gang of black metal bikers, to fetch her for him. The plot unfurls slowly, taking up the first hour with explanations of Jeremiah’s philosophy, and introducing us to his band of merry dolts and some demon bikers. This segment of the film drags, though it eventually culminates in an emotionally upsetting scene that carries the rest of the film along like a strong current.
Okay, let’s address the elephant in the room, shall we: Yes, Nick Cage does have many amazing Nick Cage high level freakouts, and they had me belly laughing in the theater. I’m talking blood, drugs, fire, decapitation, gore, the works! Nick Cage, a man who has taken recent roles in absolute shit (Left Behind, Army of One, Inconceivable) and absolute gold (Kick-Ass, Mom and Dad, The Frozen Ground) will always surprise us, and this film is no different. Director Panos Cosmatos (son of legendary First Blood: Part Two director George Cosmatos) layered in eighties’ nostalgia, (Reaganism, metal band tees, music, television) trippy visuals, including psychedelic drug references, and a mesmerizing and mystical plot that asks more questions than it answers. Not only does this film supply a large amount of violent gore and nightmaresque levels of animal machismo, but there’s also a winsome natural beauty that comes from Cosmatos’ decision to shoot in the deep forests of Belgium.
The cast is mostly made up of Irish and English actors playing Americans. Linus Roache, an English actor best known for starring on Law and Order, plays the LSD obsessed cult leader, Jeremiah, in a performance that sidles up to Nick Cage’s in perfect, ridiculous harmony. Roache lays himself bare, giving his all in one of the more cheesy and manic performances I have seen in recent years. Andrea Riseborough plays the titular Mandy as a broken, soft spoken woman with clearly evident past traumas, though much of who she is is hidden. Cage’s Red Miller is also very much hidden, his name barely uttered, his backstory only hinted at. I can see evidence of John Wick’s influence in the propensity to let our heroes remain mysterious, until they’re revealed to be as dangerous as their tormentors. Nothing can quite rival John Wick’s dog, but I can safely say that I had immense and ongoing empathy for Red Miller, and it felt good to see him rush through the forest, ax on his back, ready for battle.
While I felt that the director sometimes didn’t establish a coherent use of tone, I enjoyed this film thoroughly. At the top of this review I repeated a lot of questions that have been asked of me in conversation with friends over this film. I haven’t exactly answered them, but here’s what I have to say, in short: expect nothing, and you will be rewarded with everything.
