Mandy - Atmosphere over story

I'm a huge Nicolas Cage fan and with every one of his new movies (of which he seems to be releasing about four per year) I always hope that this will be the one which re-launches his career and puts him back on the 'A-list' where, in my opinion, he truly belongs (he did win a 'Best Actor' Oscar, remember that?!).  However, most of his output goes straight to DVD (or popular online streaming service, which is beginning to feel like the same thing these days), so my hopes were high when I heard that 'Mandy' had received a standing ovation at its initial screening and even got a theatrical release in America.

Now I've watched it I'm trying to work out whether I liked it or not.  It's not the most inspired story… a couple (Cage as 'Red Miller' and Andrea Riseborough as his girlfriend 'Mandy') stay in a cabin in the woods that must be only a few dirt-tracks along from the one Bruce Campbell did in the 'Evil Dead' franchise and, like Ash, fall foul to the locals.  In this case a cult of humans who want to bring about demons, or something.  Anyway, it quickly turns into a 'revenge tale' where Cage has to go nuts (or 'the full Cage' as many of his fans like to refer to his performance as) and snuff out all those who've wronged our (initially) hapless heroes.

So, nothing we haven't seen a hundred times before in terms of story.  However, what it lacks in originality, it more than makes up for in 'visual flare.' Each shot is perfectly crafted to maximise the atmosphere and add to the horror through simply (and seemingly forgotten in these CGI times we live in) by lighting, set design and simple colour palettes.  The director obviously hasn't got much of a budget to work with (I hear Cage can be hired for roughly the price of a Big Mac and fries) and so utilises every camera trick in the book to create a weird, neon-lit eighties vibe which puts the film almost more in the 'art house' category.

I felt that the human villains were pretty nondescript, however the creatures they conjure up were akin to something out of 'Hellraiser.' Again, the budget obviously didn't allow huge monsters with tentacles, but the lighting and the fact that these things are actually quite hard to see at times, means we have to take our best guess as to what they look like - and they look pretty hideous.  Again, showing that CGI isn't required to create horrific monsters.

During the first half of the movie, I suddenly realised that I was watching a Nicolas Cage film which basically didn't have him in it.  Seriously, he's hardly in the first 45 minutes.  Thankfully, when he does come into it (properly), he does what he does best - go absolutely mental while covered in blood (again, Bruce Campbell could probably have done much of this!) while wielding various instruments of death.  However, for all the film's prettiness, it doesn't really hide the lack of story.  It's quite long for a 'slasher/horror/revenge' film, weighing in at nearly two hours.  As visually epic as the film is to look at, you have over an hour where Nicolas Cage just walks up to one baddie.  Kills him.  Rinse and repeat.

Overall, I'm glad I watched 'Mandy.' Cage is great (if you like his terms of bonkers acting).  It was truly awesome to watch what could be done with simple camera techniques (think what David Lynch does, but more eighties-looking) and it certainly makes a change from watching a superhero flying around New York hitting armies of computer-generated villains.  However, I just think the story could have been a little bit deeper (or edit a bit out of what there was) to make it tighter and generally less repetitive.  Nevertheless, full credit to the director who was the true star of the show.  I hope to see more of Panos Cosmatos' work in the future and would love to see his visual style applied to a more polished script.

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that