← Back to Reviews
in
Mandy (2018) N
I haven't seen Beyond the Black Rainbow yet so I didn't really know what to expect from Panos Cosmatos. None the less Mandy wasn't even close to what I though it'd be.
A picture is worth a thousand words.
Nicolas Cage lives with his wife Mandy in quite idyllic forested region. The peace is broken when the leader of Manson Family wannabees gets obsessed about Mandy after passing her once on the road. Mandy isn't willing disciple and her abduction leads to violence and a ton of movie references.
So about my expectations. I thought I was about to see a serious revenge film with quite a bit of art house elements and great cinematography. I wasn't expecting a grindhouse tribute to 80s B-movies (and some A-movies too I guess, at least depending on who you ask) that shamelessly copies visuals, scenes and dialogue. I also wasn't expecting a parody (or at least I hope it's parody) of... well, I don't really know; grindhouse films, art house films or Tarantino-like pastiches of old B-movies.
Mandy is at its best when there are no actors on screen or they're just standing there like a prop piece - only beautiful scenery and well composed shots accompanied by twisted soundtrack. Acting itself is terrible and the effect is amplified by laughably bad dialogue that can't have been written seriously. Fortunately Mandy is occasionally so bad it becomes mildly amusing.
I suppose the biggest effect the film had on me is that it pushed Beyond the Black Rainbow down a lot on my watchlist. One of the biggest disappointments this year. One of the two popcorn comes from being bad enough to be funny.
I haven't seen Beyond the Black Rainbow yet so I didn't really know what to expect from Panos Cosmatos. None the less Mandy wasn't even close to what I though it'd be.
A picture is worth a thousand words.
Nicolas Cage lives with his wife Mandy in quite idyllic forested region. The peace is broken when the leader of Manson Family wannabees gets obsessed about Mandy after passing her once on the road. Mandy isn't willing disciple and her abduction leads to violence and a ton of movie references.
So about my expectations. I thought I was about to see a serious revenge film with quite a bit of art house elements and great cinematography. I wasn't expecting a grindhouse tribute to 80s B-movies (and some A-movies too I guess, at least depending on who you ask) that shamelessly copies visuals, scenes and dialogue. I also wasn't expecting a parody (or at least I hope it's parody) of... well, I don't really know; grindhouse films, art house films or Tarantino-like pastiches of old B-movies.
Mandy is at its best when there are no actors on screen or they're just standing there like a prop piece - only beautiful scenery and well composed shots accompanied by twisted soundtrack. Acting itself is terrible and the effect is amplified by laughably bad dialogue that can't have been written seriously. Fortunately Mandy is occasionally so bad it becomes mildly amusing.
I suppose the biggest effect the film had on me is that it pushed Beyond the Black Rainbow down a lot on my watchlist. One of the biggest disappointments this year. One of the two popcorn comes from being bad enough to be funny.