Director: Panos Cosmatos
Screenplay: Panos Cosmatos and Aaron Stewart-Ahn, story by Panos Cosmatos
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Andrea Riseborough, Linus Roache, Ned Dennehy, Olwen Fouere, Richard Brake, Bill Duke
Running Time: 121 minutes
Genre: Horror, action
Nicolas Cage has had a curious career. A respected, Oscar-winning actor, he has become something of a cult figure due to his prolific appearances and over the top performances, often in very bad movies. However, when he is in a film that seems to interest him, with a director who knows how to use him, Cage can show what a great actor he is. Mandy is one such film. Cage does not have to worry about going over the top here, because the entire film starts over the top and ends up somewhere in the stratosphere. It is one of the most striking films that I have seen in a long time.
The film is set in 1983, somewhere near the Shadow Mountains in California. Red Miller (Cage) is a logger who lives with his girlfriend, Mandy Bloom (Riseborough), a talented fantasy artist who works as a cashier at a gas station. One day, Mandy is unlucky enough to catch the eye of Jeremiah Sand (Roache) leader of the depraved Children of the New Dawn cult. Infatuated with Mandy, Sand orders the cult to kidnap her with the help of a demonic biker gang known as the Black Skulls, who have a taste for human flesh and a highly potent strain of LSD. As things go from bad to worse, Red sets out on a quest for violent revenge.
The plot itself comes as no surprise from any number of horror, action, revenge films, and you'll be able to tell right from the start how it's all going to end up. That is not the point of the film, though. The point is to bombard the senses with surreal, psychedelic sights and sounds. The film uses pretty much every cinematic trick in the book, and it makes for quite an overwhelming experience. The film is very violent, and very gruesome, the action scenes however are handled with flair and genuinely exciting. The constant, droning soundtrack was one of the last works by acclaimed Icelandic composer Johann Johannsson. Nicolas Cage gives a powerful performance and ends up at his most unhinged, although he looks positively restrained compared to the rest of the film. The film gets a lot of mileage from Andrea Riseborough's ethereal looks, and she gives a striking, sympathetic performance in the title role.
This film is an instant cult film. This is a film that should really only be seen with a like-minded crowd on the biggest screen you can find with the soundtrack cranked all the way up to maximum. Some viewers may be put off by the film's weirdness and violence, but if you can go along with it, it's a unique experience and well worth checking out.
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