Premise: A man gets bloody revenge on religious fanatics who killed the woman he loved.
I don’t think I’m ready to reclaim Nic Cage. His 80s and 90s won him a lot of fans. He’s spent most of the last 20 years tearing up his A-list status*. It feels like every year he’s coming out with a bonkers indie movie that has people saying he’s back. The Keanu Reeves comeback only intensified this.
*Although, he’s been more resilient than people give him credit for. It feels like he’s been in the wilderness since that Oscar win in 1995, but he was in huge movies almost every year through 2009.
Mandy is one of those movies that gets an inflated reputation because everyone who sees it likes it more than they expected. It makes sense too. It’s a highly stylized movie with several ludicrous set pieces that tries to weaponize Cage’s biggest instincts. That sounds exhausting as a pitch, but when you watch it, it’s wild and entertaining. For me it breaks down pretty simply. The first hour with the long artistic shots, monologuing, and inciting acts of violence I didn’t care for. It goes on way too long. The second half, when Cage gets revenge, including a chainsaw fight, is a ton of fun. Cage playing to the back row doesn’t do much for me in this mode, but he’s undeniably engaging. I sometimes forget that his Oscar win wasn’t a fluke.
Verdict: Weakly Don’t Recommend
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