2018
USA, Belgium
Mandy
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The metro-sexual evil dude is creepy as hell. Kind of Silence of the Lambs-y. Very interesting that the director introduces him, twice, with his head sideways across the screen. It's unnerving. In fact, the whole cast is pretty awesome. They tread that line between being repulsive characters and being repulsive people you wouldn't want to spend time watching in a movie. I don't know where this is going to go but I'm very interested in finding out if creeps me out or bores me to death. It could go anywhere. With the motorcycle riding Tetsuo-like characters on board all bets are off. I'm at the point where Nic Cage is watching something burn. If everybody keeps their mouth shut from here on out, it would be great. The sound design and soundtrack are excellent. ----- OK people. Drop what you are doing and go see this movie. I don't know what to say about it except that my wish that everybody would keep their mouth shut in the second half came mostly true. My letterboxd blurb: Exquisite sound design and soundtrack. Pure sludge. Beautiful beautiful photography and little tricks. Story and script aren't players here. I wrinkled my face at a lot of the slowly delivered, overly dramatic goth speeches, but they are almost exclusively limited to the first half. Second half is kill after kill, some better than others. Near Dark meets Deadpool. It's Peak Cage Rage with some very welcome wack humor. And homo-erotica! I don't watch a ton of horror, especially these kind of gore-fests, but I haven't seen much of anything that's as confidently and unabashedly this nuts and beautiful. I can't shut up about Mandy. She came and she gave without taking. First of all, I almost punted the film, twice, in the first ten minutes or so. I don't like films that start off with five minutes of credits, slowly exposed. And to top it off they roll to a horrible horrible piece of music. It's like countrified vocal trash bullshit. I too often judge a film by the director's taste in music and this beginning disgusted me--NOTE: this song is NOTHING like the rest of the film's fantastic score. So that was the first almost punt. I was able to skip past it. Then, as character intro to the film's couple, Cage comes home: Cage: "Knock knock" Mandy: "Who's there?" Cage: "Erik Estrada" Mandy: "Erik Estrada who?" Cage: "Erik Estrada from CHIPS" Help! Then the worst: the first scene, Cage and Mandy in bed pillow talking. Cage is gently rubbing Mandy's shoulder with his thumb for what seems like an hour. OMG. I couldn't take it. I'm convinced that this wasn't some unconscious thing no one noticed. It was done purposefully to gross people out. Anyway, a sign that a flick has resonated big time with me is: I am immediately going to watch the director's previous film: Beyond the Black Rainbow. I'm going to watch the other flick that premiered at Cannes (Nancy) with the actor who plays Mandy: Andrea Riseborough. My heart sank when I learned the guy who did the soundtrack, Jóhann Jóhannsson, is dead--at 48 from a drug overdose. I can totally see how people would hate this movie, or at least think it wasn't any good, not worth sitting through. There are a number of things that are weak. But man! The creative vision on display, executed with such confidence, is undeniable. “YOU RIPPED MY SHIRT! YOU RIPPED MY SHIRT!” Only Nic Cage could deliver that line the way he does. clap1.gif Summary: Taking place in 1983, Red is a lumberjack who lives in a secluded cabin in the woods. His artist girlfriend Mandy spends her days reading fantasy paperbacks. Then one day, she catches the eye of a crazed cult leader, who conjures a group of motorcycle-riding demons to kidnap her. Red, armed with a chainsaw and other weapons, stops at nothing to get her back, leaving a bloody, brutal pile of bodies in his wake. |
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