MANDY IS JUST MY KIND OF MOVIE
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Couple of things you should know about me and movie going. A. That I tend to grade on a curve whenever I feel someone who is trying to deliver something truly (keyword truly) unique. And I'm not talking about that kind of person that seeks to be smarter than their audience or surpass their colleagues with something way more clever than they believe their peers ever could have dreamed of. And definitely not that person that seeks to only arrive to us with merely a unique concept and clearly no follow through on that great concept (and Yes, I'm talking to you hotel Artemis) . No, I'm talking about that person, with whom while watching their film you can almost feel that childlike energy, that kinetic, furious, passionate, barely contained fire, - if at all - that drives every one of us whenever we stumble upon an idea that will not loosen its grip upon our imagination. The kind that makes me imagine the writer director of this film being possessed sitting there at their desk, eyes jittering from side to side, just scribbling away incessantly, unable to stop themselves from leaping from word to word, sentence to sentence, page to page, action to action - whether or not that's what actually happens. B. I'm an experience type of reviewer and movie goer I'm big on my experience, I'm not necessarily a technical movie goer. I understand film theory, I understand the importance of structure, and often times I can see the lacking of it in a film in which my experience is already a poor one. But as I said before, if I am already immensely enjoying my film experience in your movie I am a teacher grading on an immense curve. All of a sudden willing to toss aside how believable your film might be, how riddled with plot holes your film might be, how detestable your characters might be, how lacking in technical proficiency your film might be. Because ultimately I was too enamored with how beautiful your film was, how much your film wooed me, how much it made overtures to my various senses, how much it enchanted me. How your actors mesmerized me, how scared I was, how much I may have laughed, how much I may have cried. If my experience feels more like a positive one than a negative one, I can forgive cardinal sins in structure, and I can somewhat put to the side - let's be honest maybe “a lot of what” put to the side - film theory for a second and just bathe in the glow of being thoroughly entertained for a couple hours or more. Mandy was such a movie.
Panos Cosmotos's wild blend of nostalgia, video games, fantasy, and rock and roll, with a committed Nicholas Cage front and center. Cosmotos movie does not nail it for me politically. In fact, in many other cases, I probably be sitting here writing about how it's just another woman in the fridge type story using its woman, the namesake infact of the movie as a convenient excuse to take us on a journey of male aggression, gratuitous violence, and anarchy. But I'm not writing about that because the story was too wild, the colors too gorgeous, Nicholas cage's performance too balls to the wall insane and committed and vainglorious. All of this in a two hour heap of dismembered bodies, exaggerated over the top monologues, and primal screams. Cosmotos brings us both something we've seen before, or at least know of and yet something wholly original. A movie where I ultimately knew what was going to happen within the first thirty minutes of the film and yet I also was made to feel like I had no clue as to what would happen next from one sequence to the next through the entire duration of the film, right up until the ending, it's typical and yet wholly unique.
It reminded me of so many of those books I used to love as a kid. Books inspired, and clearly influenced by and from authors like Tolkien, or Herbert, or Robert E Howard's Conan pulp. But nowhere near as good in the execution. They usually grabbed me with a well illustrated cover, and an eye catching title (Im making all of these up) like ; The Gates of Baldermoor, The Dragons of Huron, Time and Shadows volume one. I also gleamed portions of the film as being inspired by Ralph Bashki's underrated animation film heavy metal or at that least aesthetically influenced by it. It harkened me back to a time of cult leaders and a time when devil worshipers were the worst of us. And while it had me on an IV drip of nostalgia, it fed me on a, steady diet of arresting visuals, outstanding camera work, and a manic, unpredictable, rabid performance by Nicholas Cage, and Linus Roache, that kept circling two words around my head, tigers blood and dragon juice. Because that's how bat shit crazy and amazing it was.
I'm writing more about the experience than the technical aspects of this movie, because I believe that that ultimately is what Mandy is...the movie going experience. Rather than a movie you go into toting your experience. I really couldn't tell you how technically proficient, it may or may not be because somewhere along the road I just got lost in the proverbial sauce. It was fun, it was outrageous. It was visually poetic. It was nostalgia based, without using the nostalgia as a crutch. There were some pacing troubles near the end there, and Mandy, the movie's namesake was unfortunately not truly apart of this film in any meaningful way beyond being a prop for Nicolas Cage's unhinged rage fest. That was maybe the only real disappointment and I don't want to minimize it. Mandy did a lot of things really really well and while I thoroughly enjoyed myself watching it. I felt like this movie could have moved beyond a cult classic to an actual masterpiece had it featured more about Mandy and rooted her to the story in more than name. Not only would it have begotten more interesting narrative choices, but considering her condition, I think you would have had a movie with some very interesting, even if accidental commentary. And something, ultimately, that I think would have moved beyond its sort of superficial in all the best ways, cult feel, and right into pantheon of Film making.
As it stands Cosmotos film is a movie that raises an eyebrow and makes you sit up and forward in your seat. I think if he builds upon this, this may be a director to watch in the future, and although I can't recommend Mandy for everyone those of you who like me, like it when you stumble upon something so interesting and so one of its kind, that you tend to grade the movie on a curve and never mind the devil in the details, then this is also definitely your movie.