The other day I turned on Shudder the streaming app for horror films and watched a movie staring Nicolas Cage called “Mandy”. This was a film brought to my attention by many people within the film community and #FilmTwitter. While usually Nic Cage is an actor I don’t mind his films are always hit or miss for me because of his occasion to over act when its not called for. I believe the last Nic Cage movie I really enjoyed was “National Treasure” but that was a lot due to my love history.
“Mandy” is a film about, outsiders Red Miller (Cage) and Mandy Bloom (Andrea Riseborough) lead a loving and peaceful existence in the Pacific Northwest in 1983. When their pine-pine-scented haven is savagely destroyed by a cult led by the sadistic Jeremiah Sand (Linus Roache), Red is catapulted into a phantasmagoric journey filled with bloody vengeance and laced with deadly fire.
The movie takes a slow burn, showing and developing the relationship between Red and Mandy. We see them secluding living a happy life together in love. That is until the film starts to take its dive and turn into mind melting madness when Jeremiah and his cult of loyalist show up and decide that Mandy is the body and soul they must possess to join their group. After members of the cult call on demonic bikers (Yes! Demon Bikers!) they kidnap the couple. We see Jeremiah preach his ways and beliefs and this is when the film changes its tune and becomes a wild journey into director Panos Cosmatos unearthly imagery and set pieces.
Cosmatos who also wrote the script with Aaron Stewart-Ahn, understands how to set the mood of this film from its opening God’s Eye view shot of a dense fog overtaking a dark forest establishing the aesthetically appalling and ominous feel of what is to come. Combine this opening shot with some prog-rock music and you have a clash of images and sound that continues to establish this hellish experience we are about to embark on. Cosmatos is able to craft a story in style and feel that tells the classic abducted and violated woman in a way most films fail to understand. He treats the events leading up to and the unfortunate circumstances with sincere gravity.
The violence and dive into madness in this movie is fueled by a gripping and captivating Nicolas Cage performance that is anchored by his focused and emotional outbursts. This film is bloody, nasty, each shot is handled with conviction and masterful vision. The set pieces are some of the best and most deranged you’ll find in a movie this year and the final moments of this film will stay with you.
4 out 5
