Mandy (2018)

 

Near the Shadow Mountains, recovering alcoholic Red Miller lives a solitary life with his girlfriend, artist and author Mandy Bloom. He works as a logger, while she has a day job as a gas station cashier. In their cabin by a lake, Mandy creates elaborate fantasy art, which Red admires greatly.

On her way to work one day, Mandy walks past a van carrying the Children of the New Dawn, a religious cult led by Jeremiah Sand. Sand is struck by Mandy's beauty and orders his disciples to kidnap Mandy with the help of the Black Skulls, a cannibalistic, drug-addled gang of demonic bikers.

As you have probably already guessed:

• This ends very badly for Mandy;
• This makes Red very, very angry;
• It is not wise to make Red very, very angry.

I think that "female loved one gets killed and man goes on revenge rampage" is a vastly overplayed scenario, but Mandy proves an enjoyably bonkers film despite its very familiar premise and structure.

A bit part of its entertainment value comes from the visual design.  This is exemplified in the costume design of the Black Skulls, who look great, and also in the inventive, rather trippy imagery used in scenes where characters are affected by drugs or other things that interfere with cognitive functioning, or that depict dreams.  For the latter in particular, the film uses animated segments that prove a fun (and presumably comparatively inexpensive) way depict wild and implausible things.  Using animated sequences is also thematically on brand given that the dreams are about Mandy, who was herself an artist.

I do think the first half of the film, before Red's rampage, are the film's best part. The movie takes some time to set its scene, giving us a nice insight into Red and Mandy's life together before it is all torn apart.  That gives Red's fury important emotional weight.  Which is definitely a good thing, given the intensity of molten rage projected by Nicholas Cage, in the role.  It's a good performance within the context of the movie, but without the proper grounding it could easily have seemed farcical and over the top.  Which, for better or worse, is something people have come to associate with Cage.

The rampage itself has its interesting elements, but it is a bit uneven.   For instance, I like that the film sometimes surprises you with how tough or easy to kill some of the antagonists are.  That helps it feel unpredictable.  On the other hand, sometimes the script seems to do misdirection for no good reason, or perhaps just to change its mind about things.  For instance, considerable time is dedicated to a special crossbow that Red owns, but has left with a friend of his. There's an extended scene where he goes to collect it, and much is made of the fact.  But then the weapon contributes absolutely nothing toward his success. Similarly, there is a scene were Red hand forges an admittedly cool-looking axe, but said axe also doesn't really play a big role.

Mandy makes some mistakes, but overall if you're in the mood for a slightly surreal revenge rampage, it'll probably scratch that itch quite nicely.