Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Mandy (2018)

10/17/2021

Mandy (2018) - Get sleepy with Cosmatos' psych-out

♥♥

Strange imagery delineated into a triangle in vivid reds and purples outline this poster for Panos Cosmatos' Mandy

A forest logger gets his fantasy illustrator girlfriend kidnapped and later murdered by a strange religious cult.

Mandy is written and directed by Panos Cosmatos (Beyond the Black Rainbow (2010)) with co-writers Aaron Stewart-Ahn and Casper Kelly (Major Flake (2001, TV movie)).

It is a weird and psychedelic movie that appears to have been made by and for people on drugs. It is hard to comprehend and its many drawn-out, quiet, long shots had me zoning out. For a long while nothing much happens; then a bit happens. Mandy is never a plot movie; it evolves in a radically atheistic, anti-Christian direction, as proponents of Christianity are uniformly heinous, hate-filled murderers, deviants and deranged.

Linus Roache (Barry (2016)) is fascinating as the evil cult leader; Nicolas Cage (Drive Angry (2011)) primarily yells and lends Mandy his cinematic mug. The film turns to gory violence. To me the film seems like an overlong edition of a stylish heavy rock music video, which it probably should have been. Mandy is tiring but has visual qualities and a trippy Jóhann Jóhannsson (Prisoners (2013)) score, among the composer's last before his overdose death in 2018.

Cage gives an interview about the film in this 5-minute video from Sundance

Cost: 6 mil. $

Box office: 1.5 mil. $

= Mega-flop (returned 0.25 times its cost)

[Mandy premiered 19 January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 121 minutes. Shooting took place from July - August 2017 in Belgium and London, England. The film opened #30 to a 225k $ first weekend in 75 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #28 the following weekend in 71 theaters and grossed 1.2 mil. $ (80 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Australia with 106k $ (7.1 %) and Russia with 77k $ (5.1 %). The film was nominated for an Independent Spirit award, among other honors. The-Numbers.com estimate that it made an additional 3.6 mil. $ on the North-American home video market. Cosmatos is returning as director behind 1 episode of Guillermo Del Toro Presents 10 After Midnight (2022). Cage returned in Looking Glass (2018). Mandy is certified fresh at 90 % with a 7.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Mandy?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

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Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

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Philip Baker Hall has died

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Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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10/17/2021

Mandy (2018) - Get sleepy with Cosmatos' psych-out

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