"Mandy" - Review

What defines a cult movie? It’s a question that’s surprisingly hard to answer. Ask five different people, and you’ll get five different perspectives on what makes a film a cult classic. For my money, a cult film is a film that doesn’t adhere to genre norms or rules, and defiantly marches to the beat of its own drum. This year we’ve seen two stunning and wild cult films, the first being Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You, and now Panos Cosmatos’ surreal, haunting, and completely and utterly bugnuts insane Mandy.
 
Red (Nicolas Cage), a logger, lives in peaceful harmony with his girlfriend, Mandy (Andrea Riseborough), somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. It’s 1983, but not a 1983 anyone actually experienced; it’s a mythic and archetypal 1983 that only ever existed in horror movies, pulp paperbacks, and heavy metal album covers. We don’t know much about them, but it’s clear they are running from haunted pasts, and have found solace and peach with each other. One day, Mandy catches the eye of the Charles Manson-esque Jeremiah Sand (Linus Roache), a failed folk singer from the seventies, and now leader of an apocalyptic Christian cult. With the help of the Black Skulls – a biker gang comprised of gibbering mutants – Jeremiah Sand and his cult invade Red and Mandy’s home. Sand hopes to enlist Mandy to become part of his harem. When she refuses, the cult proceeds to murder Mandy, leaving Red for dead. When he comes to, Red forges his own battle-axe (!) and goes on a roaring rampage of bloody, ultra-violent revenge.
 
I’ve criticized other revenge movies for being too simple (looking at you Peppermint), and Mandy has a very simple plot, but like with everything, it’s in the execution. Part of why Mandy works where other revenge films have failed is that the film’s world is so intriguing and so surreal that I can’t fault the simple story to guide us through. This is a film that features a commercial for a macaroni and cheese brand called “Cheddar Goblin” – and in the commercial a goblin vomits mac and cheese on a pair of happy children. That’s not something you’re likely to see in any mainstream movie, ever. The other thing is that the film is anchored by a surprising amount of emotion. While we don’t get to know a lot about Red and Mandy, the film makes it clear that they love and complete each other. The moment when Mandy dies you can see Red’s entire world fall apart, and that leads me to Nicolas Cage.
 
Cage delivers a career high performance here. In the opening quieter stretches of the film, he plays Red as a contented man living with the love of his life. When Mandy dies in front him, Cage shows you, just through his face, a man whose world is completely shattered. There’s a scene in a bathroom where Red, in only a baseball tee and his underwear, is trying to process what just happened. Cage wordlessly goes through every single stage of grief in one take. It’s incredible. When he forges his own battle-axe and starts having chainsaw fights with cultists, Cage unleashes his most unhinged performance to date.
 
And here’s the kicker…Cage isn’t the only standout performance! Andrea Riseborough is fantastic as the haunted Mandy, hiding deep wells of pain behind her eyes. When cultists invade her home, her reaction isn’t to become a victim, instead she laughs in their faces, even though she’s obviously terrified. Linus Roache also deserves commendation for his portrayal of Jeremiah Sands – it’s a performance that ping pongs between terrifying, hilarious, and pathetic sometimes all in the same scene. Oh, and Bill Duke shows up for an expositional scene, and he's great too, bringing his world weary spookiness to the film. 
 
Panos Cosmatos directs with a serious sense of style. He gives the film a trippy, dream-like quality. Everything is lit in neon blues and reds, and he also adds crude animation. The opening stretches of the film are slow and methodical – some might say they are too slow – but for me it helped to set up the haunting, contemplative mood. The script by Cosmatos and Aaron Stewart Anh is simple and straightforward, but it gives the film a ton of emotion, and aside from moments of bleak and absurdist humor, it never winks at the audience. It should also be noted that Mandy’s murder takes place entirely off screen, which is different for this genre, as most female victims in revenge films are brutalized for the audience’s enjoyment.    
 
Mandy is one of the year’s best films. I don’t think I can praise it enough. I was reticent to review it on one viewing, so I watched it again – and my esteem for it has only risen. I can’t seem to shake this movie. It’s like if Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, Stephen King and Ken Kesey got together and wrote a Heavy Metal rock opera while on meth. If that description confused you, stay far away from this movie. However, if that description made you pump your fist and yell, “AWESOME” – congratulations here’s your new favorite movie.
 
Four out of four stars.