#28 - Mandy (2018)

Mandy (2018)

(dir. Panos Cosmatos)

Red (Nicolas Cage) and his girlfriend Mandy live a quiet life in their secluded home in the woods. When the leader of a nearby cult spots Mandy and decides he wants her for himself, he sends his followers to kidnap her. She resists and mocks him, so he has her killed. Devastated, Red becomes a little, uh... unhinged, to put it mildly, and goes on a bloody rampage to exact his revenge. A rampage involving crossbows, battle axes, nightmarish motorcycle gangs, chainsaw duels, LSD, cocaine, and most importantly - the Cheddar Goblin. You'll have to watch the film to see what that means.

This is only the second film from director Panos Cosmatos, but he has already proven himself to be a powerful and unique filmmaker. Mandy is unlike any other film released this year - or really, almost any year. The closest things I can compare it to are Cosmatos' previous film Beyond the Black Rainbow or maybe Gaspar Noé's Enter the Void. Visually, it reminds me of Italian filmmakers like Argento and Bava, especially Suspiria. It's surreal, colorful, hallucinatory, deliberately paced, and generally weird as hell. You know those bizarre illustrations that were all over the covers of prog-rock/metal albums (or pulpy fantasy novels) in the '70s? Like, a jagged landscape with three moons in the sky and a wizard riding a tiger? This is basically the cinematic equivalent of those.

Nicolas Cage is firing on all cylinders here in one of his most Nicolas Cage-iest roles in a long time. I honestly think he is a fantastic actor - he gets a lot of crap for often being ridiculously over the top, but I don't see why that is necessarily a bad thing, especially in a film like this. He chews up the scenery and spits it back out, all while covered in blood and wielding a giant metal axe straight from a Gwar video. If that doesn't sound appealing to you, then we are very different people. Linus Roache plays the cult leader, and he is just as good as Cage in terms of making his character larger than life.

This movie will definitely not appeal to everyone. I'd imagine you will either absolutely love it or hate every second of it. I am firmly in the former camp, and I think this will end up as one of my favorite films of the year.