Mandy (2018) -Review
Amongst Nicolas Cage’s newer works stands Mandy, the beginning of his new era after he broke the ancient curse placed on him by purchasing a stolen dinosaur skull. Or maybe he just finished paying off the IRS so he can be more choosy with his roles. Mandy was the film that kicked off my Nic Cage marathon, so it’s fair to give it some feedback. I have since rewatched the film on a VCR hooked up to a CRT. The Mandy tape was made by the folks at Witter Entertainment. It’s one of the most badass items in my collection.
I watched Mandy on a whim on a cold winter night. It was described to me as an “80s metal album cover come to life,” and that couldn’t be more apt. It is that and more. Anytime someone asks me about Nic Cage movies, I have to tell them to check out Mandy.
Cage works perfectly in his role as Red Miller. The role starts off slow, with Red enjoying home life with his bohemian girlfriend, Mandy (Andrea Riseborough). Nightmarish forces destroy his idyllic life, and Red is uncaged. I’m certain if you see anything from Mandy online, you’ll see a shot of Cage sitting in a shirt and his underwear on a toilet, drinking liquor from the bottle. I’ve seen another image of Cage in Mandy used as a meme online – his face so drenched in blood, you can only see his signature wide-eyed mania. They couldn’t have cast anyone better to portray a madman hell-bent on vengeance. This is peak Cage in his natural habitat.
The color palette in Mandy is pushed to such extremes that I thought there was something wrong with my stream of the film when I watched it the first time. When Mandy first meets Jeremiah (Linus Roache), the screen is drenched in red and the voices are distorted. It feels dreamlike, but it’s a bad dream. I have never experimented with psychedelics, but if that is what a bad trip is like, I don’t reckon I’m interested in taking that chance.
The costumes donned by the biker gang and Red’s later look are somewhere between Mad Max and Slipknot. There’s leather, spikes, and motorcycles to go around. We’re riding to Valhalla, but there’s nothing shiny and chrome awaiting us. It’s gasoline and gore, baby. Metal as hell.
By the way, there’s a freaking chainsaw duel.
TL;DR: Mandy stays in my top five Cage films. 5/5
