Mandy. (18.)
Directed by Panos Cosmatos.
Starring Nicolas Cage, Andrea Riseborough, Linus Roache, Richard Brake, Clément Baronnet and Bill Duke. 121 mins.
There's a biblical sweep to the career of Nicolas Cage: he's lost and then he's found. And when he is found he'll go and get himself lost again. He seems to have been lost for some years now, churning out low budget rubbish, but this psychedelic revenge thriller was supposed to be one of his good ones. If this is what we see as Cage found, then he is truly lost.
Mandy is Death Wish rendered through a thousand 70s prog rock concept album cover. Cage is a humble lumberjack whose girlfriend Mandy (Riseborough) attracts the psychotic attention of a demented hippie cult, led by Roache. The second half is blood-drenched mayhem and garish morbid excesses, all shot in a heightened visual style. Usually, Cage vs the scenery is a one-sided contest with him chewing up everything in sight, but here the scenery really makes a fight of it. Cosmatos' (son of Rambo director and all round 80s Stallone enabler George P.) vision is so unhinged and lurid it seems to be having a freak-out contest with its star. No doubt seen with an intoxicated, enthusiastic audience in a packed, rowdy auditorium at some point around midnight this battle might be amazing, but overall it's a contest which nobody wins.
Nicolas Cage reviews:
The Trust
Dog Eat Dog
Army of One
Joe
Kick Ass
Bad Lieutenant
Snowden
Directed by Panos Cosmatos.
Starring Nicolas Cage, Andrea Riseborough, Linus Roache, Richard Brake, Clément Baronnet and Bill Duke. 121 mins.
There's a biblical sweep to the career of Nicolas Cage: he's lost and then he's found. And when he is found he'll go and get himself lost again. He seems to have been lost for some years now, churning out low budget rubbish, but this psychedelic revenge thriller was supposed to be one of his good ones. If this is what we see as Cage found, then he is truly lost.
Mandy is Death Wish rendered through a thousand 70s prog rock concept album cover. Cage is a humble lumberjack whose girlfriend Mandy (Riseborough) attracts the psychotic attention of a demented hippie cult, led by Roache. The second half is blood-drenched mayhem and garish morbid excesses, all shot in a heightened visual style. Usually, Cage vs the scenery is a one-sided contest with him chewing up everything in sight, but here the scenery really makes a fight of it. Cosmatos' (son of Rambo director and all round 80s Stallone enabler George P.) vision is so unhinged and lurid it seems to be having a freak-out contest with its star. No doubt seen with an intoxicated, enthusiastic audience in a packed, rowdy auditorium at some point around midnight this battle might be amazing, but overall it's a contest which nobody wins.
Nicolas Cage reviews:
The Trust
Dog Eat Dog
Army of One
Joe
Kick Ass
Bad Lieutenant
Snowden
