“They lit
her on FIRE! They were weirdo, hippie-types, whole bunch of 'em.
And
then there was some muscle - it didn't make any sense.
There were
bikers, and gnarly psychos, and... crazy evil.”
Red Miller
 |
| Hard day at the office, Nic? |
1983, the Shadow Mountains. Free-spirited artist Mandy and her timber-working partner Red live together in a secluded cabin. The pair, both of whom have known past hardships, share an intimate and profound love. However, their idyllic life is shattered when Mandy inadvertently attracts the attentions of deranged cult-leader Julian Sands and his sinister followers. What transpires is a surreal decent into tragedy, lunacy and carnage- with chainsaws.
Script: 1/2
Mandy, as a script, is a fairly simplistic affair- a generic part-A-into-part-B revenge plot; man goes on the warpath to avenge the death of a loved one. However, director Panos Cosmatos, something of an auteur (with the equally striking Beyond The Black Rainbow also under his belt), would likely be the first to admit he's not really all that interested in the story- his passions are undoubtedly rooted in the aesthetic and mood of the film. This, and the general hallucinogenic nature of the film, make reviewing the script in isolation quite difficult. While the plot may be fairly standard, the dialogue is tight and well judged; both Mandy and Red are given ample time to develop as characters, and their relationship is portrayed with a raw vulnerability. After the portentous first half, the film takes a fast nose-dive into the more grime-house elements, and from here the dialogue becomes minimal, although offers up a few memorable lines destined for cult status.
Pace: 1/2
The film really unfolds in two sections; the first and slowest part belongs to Mandy Bloom, as played by Andrea Riseborough. It's a slow-burning scene-setter that, while it may feel meandering at the time, does pay dividends later- without this, the films emotional core, all that follows would ring far more hollow. Bloody revenge is all the more cathartic because of the tender relationship at the film's heart. After this point, with Mandy dead and Red having survived his ordeal, things move at a fair lick, with our now dead-inside hero out for blood, and it moves from one bizarre and grotesque set piece to the next. One small nag I did have with this is concerning the structure of the film, which sees Red overcoming the biggest dangers at the start of his quest, rather than working his way through a string of progressively harder trials (which would be more traditional in a film of this nature), but it's not big deal in the scheme of things...
Acting: 2/2
Given the confines of the world Panos Cosmatos has conjured (which clearly lies somewhere between a lucid nightmare and a prog rock record sleeve), everybody acts in, if not a believable, then at least an 'emotionally honest' way. Riseborough's Mandy is transfixingly off-kilter, and given enough screen-time that she doesn't feel like a plot-point just to get Nic Cage's Red dueling with chainsaws. This brings us to cage himself. Now, he's a man who's had to endure some slack in the past; as much derided for his choice of projects as he is for his scenery-chewing portrayal of losers, loners, lunatics. It's easy to overlook the fact that, actually, Nic Cage can act. Here, he imbues Red in with a sense of taciturn pathos- you can see very clearly just how much he adores and is in awe of Mandy and her imagination. This makes what might otherwise have been a fairly exploitative death-scene into something very heart breaking. In those scenes you can literally see the light going out in Cage's eyes, enduring a loss that has all but killed him also. This isn't the goofy-meme Nic Cage we know and love, but a glimpse of something real, and a fierce reminder that the man still possesses some true talent. That said, after this, we get to see Cage do what Cage does better than anyone else, only taking time out from his mission only to forge a silver ax, snort cocaine, and sample demonically-tinged LSD. Oh, that, and to watch a TV advert for the Cheddar Goblin (must be seen to be believed). Linus Roache is on villain duty as the cult leader Julian Sands- dangerously manipulative and unhinged, driven by a ravenous and fragile ego. Like cage and Riseborough, he also brings a little something extra, making his character skin-crawlingly vile. Sands may be a caricature, but that makes him no less of a monstrosity. But, before we discuss the asthetic, I can't move on without a special mention for 80's movie veteran Bill Duke (of Predator and Commando fame- he's barely aged a day) as Red's loyal friend Caruthers. Duke, effortlessly cool here, delivers possibly some of the best lines in the film, and the delivery of his monologue is a thing of pure style- which makes me wish I'd seen him in far more films.
Aesthetic: 2/2
So, this is pretty much the raison d'être of the film; pockets of mist and shimmering lakes, the geographical splendor of a forbidding temple, neon gleams and deliberate sun-spots, a lurid spectrum of colour, garish green strobes, and the grain of dirty celluloid. And that's all without mentioning the animated sequences! Really, there's no way to describe the film's look in a way that does it justice- although anyone who's watched the trailer will have a clear understanding of what I'm referring to. While it may make the occasional nod to the likes of 80's horror cinema, including the garishness of Dario Agento, the film is really it's own thing. For me, the stand-out visual cue came with the arrival of the Black Skulls, a demon-like posse of of bikers, resembling the Cenobytes of Hellraiser by way of Easy Rider. Their motorcycles appear from out of the forest as silhouettes in blood-red smoke- and given Nic Cage's presence in the film, a sad reminder of the Ghost Rider film which could have been.
Intention: 2/2
The film is self-consciously, unapologetically, ludicrous. By turns inventive, macabre and darkly tongue-in-cheek, and never less than intriguing, Mandy is a kaleidoscopic experience of phantasmagoric imagery and dreamlike dialogue set to an ominous synth soundtrack. Best viewed as an experience rather than a narrative, it's sure to divide it's audiences. Those looking for grungy blood-letting may leave disappointed by the leisurely pace, while those of a more patient and 'arty' disposition may find it hard to difficult to stomach the decapitations, mutilations and other explosively repulsive gore scenes. But it is what it is, and I have a suspicion that nothing has been left to chance- this is exactly the film its director had intended to make- something of a rarity in this day and age.
Final Word: 8/10
Mandy is a fever-dream of a movie, with all that this entails; it's disjointed, excessive, idiotic and haunting. It's also a love-letter to 70's & 80's genre-cinema in a way that's less obvious and more deftly handled than anything pumped out by the likes of Rob Zombie or Quentin Tarantino. My advice to anyone watching it (and I do recommend watching it) would be to 'feel' your way through it rather than 'think' your way through it. To go back and ask yourself questions such as “were the bikers actually demons?” or "what's the deal with that crazy closing image?" would be to almost miss the entire point of the film- that is, if there is any point to it, outside of it's guilty surface pleasures. Sit back, drink-in the imagery, revel in the ambiguity of its mumbled dialogue, allow yourself to be carried along, and succumb to the arch-dread of the late Jóhann Jóhannsson's dazzling soundtrack.
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