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

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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?

Arrival (2016) - Villeneuve, Heisserer and Adams head sensational sci-fi wonder

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+ Best Adaptation of the Year + Best Science Fiction Movie of the Year

A sharp, excitement-inducing poster for Denis Villeneuve's Arrival

Peoples of the world react with curiosity and fright when twelve mysterious space ships of alien origin arrive in different countries to simply hover and present riddles for us to grapple with. At the US site, a linguistics professor works against the clock to understand the event.

Arrival is the 8th fiction feature by Canadian master filmmaker Denis Villeneuve (Sicario (2015)) and is written by Eric Heisserer (The Thing (2011)), based on Ted Chiang's (Tower of Babylon (1990)) novella Story of Your Life (1998).
It is an intensely exciting ride, which feels extremely real throughout. It presents what can be described as a classic sci-fi story and the dilemmas it spurs: If an alien intelligence landed on earth and didn't make its intent known to us, - how would we react? This The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)-like premise gets heightened through the catch that there's not one or two but 12 alien vessels, which force people of different languages and cultures to try and work together to grasp the intent of the uninvited guests. Appropriately, the story centers on a linguistics professor, and her and her fellow scientists' work gets pitted against the realities of a majorly militarized command with uneasy communications with other arrival nations, and the untrustworthy nature of people in flocks. The fickleness of our unity as a race and our security gets probed effectively in the story's thrilling developments.
Amy Adams (The Ex (2006)) is nothing short of marvelous as professor Hannah, who arrives at the job with a heavy personal trauma gnawing at her soul, which gets illuminated increasingly as the film progresses. The performances of Jeremy Renner (The Bourne Legacy (2012)), Forest Whitaker (Rogue Nation: A Star Wars Story (2016)), Tzi Ma (Million Dollar Arm (2014)) and Michael Stuhlbarg (Seven Psychopaths (2012))) all add to the integrity and believability of the intelligent story, making it extra tense.
Arrival unfolds unexpectedly and is underscored by a terrific score by Jóhann Jóhannsson (The Theory of Everything (2014)). The visual effects, sound design, elegant, complex cinematography (by Bradford Young (Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018))) and production designs are first-rate. Maybe the conclusion is less than the ride that comes before it but that doesn't take much from the impressive work done here.

Related posts:

Denis Villeneuve: 2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2016 in films - according to Film Excess
Incendies (2010) - Villeneuve's dreary and depressing, wildly overrated drama

Watch an official trailer for the film here

Cost: 47 mil. $
Box office: 129.8 mil. $ and counting
= Too early to say (but already a box office success)
[Arrival premiered September 1 (Venice International Film Festival) and runs 116 minutes. Filming took place in Canada in and around June 2015. The film opened #3, behind holdover hits Doctor Strange and Trolls, with a 24 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it by now has spent 5 weeks in the top 5. The film has yet to open in big markets Italy and Japan. It looks like a shoo-in for several Oscar nominations and has already conquered the #100 spot on IMDb's user-generated Top 250, as well as two Golden Globe nominations and its place on AFI's Top 10 of the year list. Arrival is certified fresh at 93 % with a 8.4 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Arrival?