Is Barry Manilow ever rolling in his grave. Wait, is he still alive? Sorry, Barry. Can I just say, to start, that this is not a feel-good movie? Unless your idea of feeling good is falling on a massive chainsaw in the third reel. I mean, wow.
Can I also just say that everything you have heard about Panos Cosmatos' acid trip-cum-horror flick is true. For all the right reasons. This is one f-ed up story, executed by one f-ed up director, acted with f-ed up intensity by Nic Gage, who may be the most under-rated American actor in history. But more on that later.
Not that the plot really matters, but Gage plays Red, who, with his wife, the eponymous "Mandy" - played with searing, zombie-like effectiveness by Andrea Riseborough, lives a kind of quasi-Hippie Utopian life somewhere in a forest. In AD 1983, we are told. Again, not that details matter here. What does matter is that an odd Death Metal Cult lead in a show-stealing performance by Linus Roache happen upon them and then do what Death Metal Cult's do...fill in the blank. After "it" happens the real fun begins, as Red turns Angry Avenger from Central Casting. Sufficed to say Red gets.the.job.done.
Big Time.
I have been sparse with plot and details because what matters here, more than anything including Gage's career-defining performance is Cosmatos' unique visual style. He clearly has a DP but, like Steven Soderbergh it kind of doesn't matter because what comes at you, visually on the screen seems to have been mined from the very depths of Cosmatos' somewhat unhinged mind and soul. Red's visceral revenge fantasy plays out on a palatte of dark tones, with various reds and other hues washing over -- like the blood that washes over his face, and never seems to leave -- and combines a pastiche of crude animation, almost cheap SFX (no CGI here) and a grainy look that echoes 1980s horror films. If Stanley Kubrick had had a music video baby with George Romero, this what it would have looked like.
Oh, and speaking of music. I have rarely seen a film where the score has had more of an impact on the overall experience, than in "Mandy". It is tragic that this was "Sicario"-scorer Jóhann Jóhannsson's last film score, as he died of a drug overdose in Berlin in February of this year. His haunting, lyrical 80s era synth score nails the pathos and drama of "Mandy," and, just as no one could have played Red with the feral intensity of Nic Cage, no one could have written a better score than Jóhannsson'. I still have the lilting chord progression, which reminds me of Stevie Wonder's "My Cherie Amour" in an almost creepy way, echoing through my head.
I have a theory that one out of every 5.3 films Cage makes is good, some are great. I really liked "Drive Angry" which shares some DNA with "Mandy". I don't really know why he has to make so many crappy films, but if it is because he needs to keep working because some a-hole Manager lost a bunch of his money then so be it. Keep working, Nic. Keep giving us films like this and we will forgive the Nicole Kidman family thrillers. Or "The Season of the Witch." OK, we can't really forgive that.
Cage brings his trademark rage to "Mandy" and then amps it up to a level I think few actors would even dare. As has been pointed out in other reviews, there is a scene about halfway through the film where Red is in the bathroom, trying to take stock about what has just happened to Mandy, and the rawness and honesty of his scream could make Lee Strasberg come out of his grave. Wait, is Strasberg still alive?
This is truly great film-making, from a director I personally am going to keep my eye on. On Amazon Prime of course in HD with the volume turned way up on my surround system, this was nirvana. Now I need to go and see it in a theater, for heaven's sake.
Enjoy.
