Directed by Panos Cosmatos

Screenplay by Panos Cosmatos and Aaron Stewart-Ahn

Starring Nicolas Cage, Andrea Riseborough, Linus Roache, Bill Duke

Mandy is the kind of movie that will instantly become a cult classic. Those who love it, will love it more than anything. The rest will turn it off in the first five minutes. And if not in five, then by around the 20 min mark. But if you make it past that part, I think you’ll find yourself in an acid tripped journey you may enjoy more than you thought. A couple months ago I said Sorry to Bother You was the strangest thing I’d seen all year, and that that was a great thing. Now Mandy is somehow even stranger, and I’m not sure if that’s even a compliment.

Talking about this movie won’t be easy, since there’s not much of a story. Not much happens either, but more it’s in how it happens. Small actions are dragged out in incredible stretches of time, and shots are held far longer than any editor would have thought necessary. Mandy is a very loud movie, and it’s long, and the director Panos Cosmatos really puts an emphasis on audiovisual storytelling. The dialogue is cryptic as hell, not that there’s much of that to begin with. The color scheme is cool, and the film distorts our characters, bending the shapes of their faces and bodies with psychedelic lights, powered always by 80s rock and roll. The images flicker constantly, and by god the insanity of it all reminds us, that oh yes, we’re watching an acid trip. That’s a revenge story. Dipped in a realm with demons that blends in with our own. I think.

What’s unbelievable is that I’ve seen the movie, and I couldn’t even begin to tell you what it’s about. If it’s even about anything at all. I’m not making any sense, but I don’t think the movie does either. I don’t think it’s supposed to. Or maybe I didn’t really get it.

It takes place in 1983. There’s a couple, Nick Cage and Andrea Riseborough. Their names are Red Miller and Mandy Bloom (apparently). I don’t think the movie ever says them out loud, but I couldn’t make out about half the dialogue so I’m not the best source on that. Cage is a lumberjack, and him and Mandy are deeply in love. There’s something special about Mandy, the trippy visuals and colors alert us to this almost immediately. They live isolated and away from society. Until one day while out walking Mandy passes by a car driven by a cult. The leader is Jeremiah. He sees Mandy and is instantly smitten. He wants her. This is where the movie splits off from it’s first act. It’s divided by three titles, and in the middle is Bill Duke, but we’ll get to him.

From here there is a great freeze frame on Mandy, to show Jeremiah’s obsession. I knew right here the movie was gonna explode. I don’t want to give away too much, but Jeremiah’s cult summons a demon biker gang with a green lighted rock. One of his subordinates blows into it like it’s an ocarina or some shit. They give the bikers some concoction to drink. Whether it’s LSD or some actual magical potion the film never makes clear (maybe  it’s both hah). Together they set off to kidnap Mandy.

No more “story” details. Cage loses his mind at some point (for good reason) as we have expected him to with his career. I teetered from near boredom to fascination in some of these scenes, but I realized I couldn’t look away. In a sequence where Cage is being tortured by being forced to watch something he doesn’t want to, the camera holds on him forever. And it slowly zooms, in slow motion, on his face cringing in absolute pain. It was wonderful to watch. What is this movie doing to me?

Later there’s a bathroom scene, with Cage downing a bottle of liquor while raging at what he has just witnessed. He also pours it on his wounds. And cries. And I loved how he grabs his neck because surely the alcohol has set his throat on fire. In my mind I’ve never seen a movie character realistically overdrink before. This is one of the best scenes. And shot with a super wide angle lense.

But ah yes, Bill Duke. Who lives in an RV in the middle of nowhere. With “Fuck off” written on the door. “Can’t you read” he says when Cage knocks. But then he realize it’s Cage and lets him in. The two have a history. “I’m here for The Reaper”, Cage says, I think. It’s a crossbow with a sight. Duke gives him some specially made arrows. Then the two of them sit down and talk ever so briefly. This is the only quiet time in the movie, where no music is playing (or if it is, super quietly because I didn’t notice it). Cage tells him his mission, of hunting crazy evil, those Jesus freaks. Right, I forgot to mention Jeremiah’s cult is whacko religious nut jobs. And Duke talks about how he knows of them and that they tried a strain of LSD and they ain’t been the same since. At least I think that’s what I heard?

Cage forges a metal axe with his own hands, shaped like a guitar, curved all around its edges like a schimitar. Do we care that Cage knows how to do this? Or that he knows what to do, or where to go, or that he’s hunted “demons” before? Not really. It’s Nick Cage, and that’s all we need. If these guys are demons, Cage has hunted them before. Hence, The Reaper. If not, then he’ll trip balls to get them.

I wish we could all have as much fun as Nick Cage. He deserves some kind of accolade for playing roles like this and showing no shame, no pride, and taking us all for a ride. He’s the only actor on the planet that can pull this kind of stuff off. And we can tell he loves doing it. Just look at him light that cigarette off a decapitated demon’s flaming head. No one is having a better time.

But the cult. Earlier on once they’ve captured Mandy, Jeremiah speaks at length with her. It’s one of the film’s longest scenes, and Jeremiah looks directly into the camera while speaking to Mandy. And the image of his face blends into hers and back, and it’s spellbinding. I lost track of what he was saying and realized my eyes were absorbed in the visuals.

But back to where we were. Cage goes around killing all the cultists, as we well knew he would. He finds The Chemist, who’s been brewing whatever these guys have been drinking. Is it some new experimental LSD like drug? Or does it really allow you to see the other realm where demons and other planets exist? Or are these guys just so high and far gone they just seem like demons. The movie never really makes it clear. I guess it’s up to us to decide.

What I can tell you is this. This is prime Cage. The colors rock, and I love the grainy film look of so much of the movie. And the music is out of control and the violence is crazy and over the top. And of course lumberjack Cage has a show down against a cultist with chainsaws. I got serious Berserk and Kubrick vibes watching Mandy. And I think it’s so great at how the movie hints at why his favorite shirt is his favorite shirt. And how we can’t tell if Cage was hunting demons before he met Mandy or after. And then there’s the Cheddar Goblin. This movie is too cult like even for its own good.

A telling conversation between Mandy and Cage in the opening kinda stuck with me. She tells him her favorite planet is Jupiter, because of the constant raging storm on its surface, the eye of which is big enough to engulf the Earth. When she asks him his favorite he says Saturn. Then changes his mind. “Wait”, he says, “my favorite is Galactus.”