"Mandy Is Beautiful, Badass, and Boasts the Ultimate" Topic

… Nicolas Cage Performance.

"Sometimes you watch a movie and instantly know it's something people are going to watch and discuss from this moment in history forward. Panos Cosmatos' Mandy is exactly that and we absolutely loved it.

On the surface, Mandy is a very straightforward story. A logger named Red (Nicolas Cage) finds his simple life torn apart when he and his wife, Mandy (Andrea Riseborough), are attacked by a cult, and he goes on a murderous rampage. But Cosmatos—coming off the trippy Beyond the Black Rainbow—is not a surface filmmaker. Like a painter with a canvas, that plot is just the base level. On top of it, layers upon layers are added, thematically, visually, and sonically. The resulting film is sumptuous and, somehow, almost delicious.

How can a film be "delicious," you ask? Mandy is so evocative and colorful, such a feast for the eyes and ears, it really approaches that. Cosmatos and his cinematographer Benjamin Loeb have created a prismatic, lush film. Every frame looks like it was created with a dozen color filters to give it a unique, almost tangible, hue. One frame will be bright blue. The next, deep red. Later, light orange, purple, and green show through, and there's just a sense that, upon multiple viewings, many deeper meanings can be read into the specific choices of the colors in each scene. And even if they can't, they look absolutely gorgeous and help drive the story, especially in multiple long takes where we're left to really think about what we're watching for long periods of time…."
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Amicalement
Armand

Are most of his movies becoming the same lately… nice family attacked by a gang of (pick your goons) and he has to find a way to rescue them?

Occasionally you get the "sins of the past" theme mixed in too.

Trespass, Stolen, Seeking Justice, etc, they all felt like the same movie with different character names and locales.

Are those the only roles left to most middle-aged male actors of his type these days? If so the message seems rather dark.

What's next … middle-aged man loses everything he has left in the world and pushes the big red nuke button somewhere (or cracks the plague canister) and gets rid of the barbarians before taking his last breath? Seems like that would be Hollywood‘s next logical step, at least to me. :)

Of course these days they could never match the ultimate example of that final act:

Dan
PS. For the record I did like Gerard Butler's Law Abiding Citizen, most of it, except for the ending. So I guess the same repetitive stories can occasionally be done passably well.

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand

I saw the title and now have that Barry Manilow song playing in my head.

Just saw it last night and it has joined my top 10 movies of all times list. It opens with King Crimson's "Starless" and has shades of Krull, Heavy Metal, and Natural Born Killers. People are complaining about the lack of back story. It's an age old story of revenge. You don't need an hour to sympathize with the hero. It get's down to business. The art, colors, sets…loved it all.

Are most of his movies becoming the same lately…..

Sounds like it, superficially.

The movie is written and directed by Italian-Canadian Panos Cosmatos. His father, George wrote and directed the movie Tombstone. Son Panos did some work on his dad's film and saved up all his DVD residuals in order to finance his first movie, Beyond the Black Rainbow.

Now BtBR is not everyone's cup of tea. It is a totally bizarre experience that made me want to watch his next movie. And it is totally different from the vast amount of Hollywood movies.

imdb.com/title/tt1534085

Mandy has been getting the same type of buzz that Rodriguez got with El Mariachi in 1992. Hope this means I don't have another 8 years for Cosmatos' next movie. Of course, I have yet to see the movie, so this is all hearsay.

Saw it last night and I really enjoyed it, just like cloudcaptain.

It opens with King Crimson's "Starless" ….

No better way to start a film, imo. The soundtrack was almost like another character in the movie. And it was blasting loud to continuously jolt the audience.

….and has shades of Krull, Heavy Metal, and Natural Born Killers

Yep, I'd say it shares a lot with Beyond the Black Rainbow. Natural Born Killers, Kill Bill and a bad acid trip.

People are complaining about the lack of back story. It's an age old story of revenge. You don't need an hour to sympathize with the hero. It get's down to business.

I thought it started purposely slow, with simple scenes that illustrated the couples relationship. As the movie moves on the pace starts to slowly ratchet up.

The art, colors, sets…loved it all.

Yep, and a special shout out to Linus Roache who plays the main bad guy.

Also the film had some great moments of humour that had the audience laughing: The Goblin Cheddar macaroni commercial, the main cult leader asking Mandy, "Do you like The Carpenters? I think they are fantastic!", and the crazed look on Cage's blood splattered face when he "sees" Mandy sitting in his car.

But I can see the film being very polarizing. Some will watch it and think it's nonsense. And I wouldn't fault anyone for that either.

If it has Cage in it it has a 90% chance of being crap.

So I'd say this is one of the 10%

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand