Review: Mandy

(I think) The film concerns Nic Cage going on a vengeance spree after he and wife Andrea Riseborough are kidnapped by a crazy cult (with Linus Roache among its members), and he’s forced to watch Riseborough go through an awful ordeal.

Beware a cult film that gets embraced by critics and film festival-types on release. This 2018 ungodly arty-farty mess from director Panos Cosmatos (son of “Tombstone” and “The Cassandra Crossing” director George Pan Cosmatos) and co-writer Aaron Stewart-Ahn is for me the worst film of the year in a year that already featured another dreadful Nic Cage wannabe cult favourite, “Mom and Dad” (Not to mention “Face/Off” co-star John Travolta’s pathetic “Speed Kills”). Seemingly deliberately aiming for cult status – which never works – the film is as if Cosmatos tripped on acid whilst watching the dreadful remake of “The Vanishing”, filtered it through “The Evil Dead”, but taking in nothing of what made the latter fun. You may also be reminded of “The Man Who Fell to Earth”, “Only God Forgives”, “Heavy Metal”, “Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2”, and “Under the Skin” at various times, but again none of the fun/interesting bits of those films. It’s a self-indulgent, self-consciously weird slog through largely incoherent babbling and arthouse visual nonsense.

I know a lot of people loved it, so obviously it worked for some of you, but this was a real chore for me. Sure, I’m not much of a fan of Nic Cage to begin with, but I thought based on the kick-arse poster that this might be some kind of grindhouse fun. Instead it’s a real grind and no fun at all, unless maybe you’re chemically-induced at the time. I was stone-cold sober and couldn’t make heads or tales of it, although I did rather like the cameo by 80s action staple-turned director Bill Duke, who gets Cage’s vengeful character armed to the teeth. That scene is indicative of what the film could’ve been if it weren’t made by people with pineapples up their clackers. Unfortunately, it’s more than an hour’s slog to get to that point and nowhere near worth it. It’s an attractive-looking film at times, particularly if you can tolerate colour filters and the like. However, it’s a pretty empty exercise and even the colour gets worse since the bulk of the film takes place at night.

Despite having one of the coolest-looking posters in recent memory, this is a dreary, hazy, and boring dirge. A blend of arthouse and cult cinema that fails to work on any level whatsoever, as Mr. Cosmatos is clearly not the Nicholas Winding Refn (“Only God Forgives”) he seems to aspire to be. Even fans of Nic Cage being loopy Nic Cage won’t really get their fill here as he spends about 80% of the film mumbling and by the time you get to the last 20% you won’t likely care. Crushingly dull, but apparently many disagree with me on this one. Some of you may be glad to hear King Crimson on the soundtrack, but I didn’t care about anything or anyone.

Rating: D