Mandy (2018 film)

Mandy is a 2018 action psychological horror film directed by Panos Cosmatos, produced by Elijah Wood and co-written by Cosmatos and Aaron Stewart-Ahn based on a story Cosmatos conceived. A co-production of the United States and Belgium, the film stars Nicolas Cage, Andrea Riseborough, Linus Roache, Ned Dennehy, Olwen Fouéré, Richard Brake, and Bill Duke.

It premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival on January 19, and was theatrically released on September 14, 2018 by RLJE Films.

Mandy was praised for its style and originality, Cage's performance, Cosmatos' direction, and the action sequences. It is one of the last films scored by Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson, who died in February 2018. The film is dedicated to him.

Plot
In 1983, in the Pacific Northwest, recovering alcoholic war veteran lumberjack Red Miller lives with his girlfriend, artist and author Mandy Bloom, who had an abusive childhood. Mandy works as a gas station cashier by day and at night creates elaborate fantasy art, which Red greatly admires.

While walking to work, Mandy catches the attention of Jeremiah Sand, leader of the religious cult Children of the New Dawn. Sand orders his disciple Brother Swan to kidnap Mandy. Swan summons the Black Skulls, a cannibalistic, demonic biker gang that regularly consumes LSD.

After being offered a cult member as a sacrifice, the gang breaks into their home and subdues Mandy and Red. Cultists Mother Marlene and Sister Lucy drug Mandy before presenting her to Sand. The cult leader attempts to seduce Mandy with his psychedelic folk music, but she just laughs at Sand, infuriating him. In retaliation, Sand stabs the bound and gagged Red and burns Mandy alive before him. After Sand and his followers leave, Red frees himself, mourns Mandy's death, and, after consuming a bottle of vodka, wordlessly swears revenge.

The next morning, Red visits his friend Caruthers to retrieve his crossbow and bolts. Before Red leaves, Caruthers warns him of the Black Skulls; Red reinforces his determination by forging a battle axe. He shoots a biker with his crossbow and runs him down, but the biker crashes his car and Red is captured in the process. At their hideout, Red breaks free from his restraints and kills the rest of the bikers. As he investigates their hideout, he ingests some of their drugs, causing him to instantly and severely hallucinate.

Following the images in his visions, Red finds The Chemist, the person who made the Black Skulls' LSD. The Chemist tells Red where to find the cult. At their makeshift wooden church in a quarry, Red kills the cult members one by one in increasingly brutal fashions. In the tunnels beneath the church, Red finds Mother Marlene and decapitates her. He then confronts Sand, taunting him by throwing Marlene's severed head at him before crushing his skull. He sets Sand's body and the church on fire before driving away. As Red drives, he hallucinates Mandy smiling in the passenger seat of his car, while the landscape behind him now appears fantastical and otherworldly.

Production
On June 7, 2017, Nicolas Cage was announced as the star of the film. Production used the Arri Alexa camera, coupled with the Panavision anamorphic format, to achieve the film's old-school atmosphere.

Legion M, an entertainment studio that allows fans to invest in and be part of the creation of films, was a production partner for Mandy and hosted a panel discussion featuring director Panos Cosmatos and others at the Sundance Film Festival in 2018. Cage made a surprise appearance at the event.

The weapon forged by Red was based on the “F” from the logo for extreme metal band Celtic Frost.

The song "Starless" by the English progressive rock band King Crimson plays over the opening credits. It is taken from their 1974 album Red, which is also the name of Cage's character.

Release
The film premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival on January 19. It began a limited cinematic release on September 13, 2018, playing at a maximum of 250 theatres, and was released on VOD on September 14.

Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, of critics have given the film a positive review based on  reviews, with an average rating of. The website's critics consensus reads, "Mandy's gonzo violence is fueled by a gripping performance by Nicolas Cage—and anchored with palpable emotion conveyed between his volcanic outbursts." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 81 out of 100 based on review from 30 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

Reviewing the film after its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, Nick Allen of RogerEbert.com praised it, writing that "for all of the endless feral performances that Cage has given, in movies good, bad and forgettable, Cosmatos’ style-driven, ‘80s-tastic passion for weird worlds and characters takes full advantage of Cage’s greatness, and then some."

In a five-star review for Dirty Movies, Stephen Lee Naish called the film "a blood soaked revenge caper," praising Cosmatos for a "masterful approach" that "aligns him with Kubrick and Lynch in delivering perfectly believable and fully realized worlds and characters that operate within their own laws of physics." Meanwhile, film critic Christopher Stewardson said the film "is sure to become a cult favourite all of its own." In December 2018, Esquire named Mandy the top film in its 25 Best Movies of 2018 So Far.