Summary:
Set in alternative world in 1983. Red Miller hunts a religious cult after they murder the love of his life, Mandy.
My Thoughts:
Almost every year around the movie festival season, I start scouring the Internet for whispers of films that will eventually come my way, and this was one that caught my eye early on. I’d been waiting to see this film for months, for how often do you get a crazed Nicolas Cage chainsaw fight movie that appeals to the majority of critics? I’d guess close to never. So, having this film built up in my mind for a while, I was finally able to sit down and watch it, and let me tell you, it did not disappoint. However, I say that with a little pause. As far as craft, uniqueness, general tone, action, and overall craziness, this film receives a five star rating from me. But… there are some things that I, personally, take issue with as a Christian, and most of that comes from the underlying themes that Cosmatos worked into his story (more on that later), and that brought my rating down a full point. I did really enjoy the story and this film as a whole, but I didn’t fully appreciate his message.
“I’ve come for the reaper.”
(SOME SPOILERS IN THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH)
Red Miller (Cage, “The Rock”) is a lumberjack living in an alternative version of 1983. He spends his days working and his nights with his artist lover Mandy Bloom (Andrea Riseborough, “The Death of Stalin”). One night a cult leader named Jeremiah Sand (Lunus Roache, “Batman Begins”) sees Mandy and lusts after her, so he summons a group of Bikers to steal Mandy away; the bikers kidnap Red as well. The cult drugs Mandy and Jeremiah attempts to have sex with her, but Mandy, under the influence of drugs, finds the situation funny and begins to laugh at Jeremiah. Furious at Mandy’s refusal, Jeremiah binds Red with barbed wire and forces him to watch as he kills her. The cult leaves Red for dead, but Red survives and begins a dark, bloody, and drug-fueled quest for vengeance.
(SPOILERS END)
So first of all I loved the look and feel of this film. Cosmatos (“Beyond the Black Rainbow”) uses extremely vibrant tones and colors (primarily reds and blues, but there are scenes with mustard yellows and shades of green). The result is a neon wonderland that Red must traverse, and it’s absolutely dazzling and undeniably stylish. The intensity of the lights was such that I was continuously reminded of Argento’s “Suspiria”. Cosmatos doesn’t stop there as far as messing with the way the colors and textures look on certain things; he’s constantly playing with the way the lights look or how certain rooms are designed. As I mentioned above, there are a lot of drugs used in this movie (primarily LSD and Cocaine but there is also a “Bad Batch of Acid” that makes an appearance), and every time a drug is used there are cool camera tricks or visuals that look incredibly polished and really amp up the awesomeness of this film. During the scene when Jeremiah tries to seduce Mandy, we see things the way that she would be seeing them after having taken LSD. She gets double vision and Jeremiah’s body seems to have a holy aura to him, which makes his long monologue even more intriguing. Also during that scene there’s a part when Mandy and Jeremiah’s faces meld into one and then fade back to Jeremiah’s face, before shifting back to Mandy’s face. The way the scene plays out is hypnotic and sensual and the end result is quite beautiful. There’s another scene that is entirely one shot of Nic Cage downing a liter of vodka after Mandy’s death, and the entire bathroom where he’s standing is covered in mustard yellow; it’s the scene where Cage really starts to loose his mind (the yellow perhaps a reference to The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Gilman?). Even more impressive are some of the dream sequences that are entirely animated to look like an 80s cartoon.
As far as acting goes, I think this might be one of the better performances I’ve seen from Cage in a long time. Everyone in the film acts in a stylized way; everything is drawn out and lengthy- lines are delivered and then given room to breathe before someone else responds. Cage himself has very few lines, so a lot of his acting is physical and based on his body language. Honestly, I’m one of those people that absolutely love to see the man go nuts, and there’s plenty of that in this film, but surprisingly, there’s a lot of emotion that comes from the hatred Cage displays. The scene I mentioned above, where Cage downs an entire liter of vodka, was one of the more physically demanding scenes I’ve seen in a while. Andrea Riseborough was really good as Mandy; she came off dreamlike and almost otherworldly, and that worked wonders for the tone and style of the film. Linus Roache was completely unrecognizable from the role I most know him from: Thomas Wayne in “Batman Begins”. He gives a performance that really elevates the creepiness of his character and the cult to which he belongs.
The action and violence in this film is all practical effects, and sometimes it’s really brutal. The pacing is rather slow for the first forty minutes of this movie, so by the time we get to the first scenes of real violence, the images seem unnaturally brutal and disturbing. The way that the violence plays out throughout the rest of the film is the same way; paced out, slowly delivered, and then they linger on the horrifying effects of what happened. The way that Mandy dies is absolutely horrendous, and watching Cage slowly work through the cult towards Jeremiah is totally satisfying because of that.
I mentioned above that there were some parts in this film that I didn’t care for, and a lot of that had to do with the religious iconography and how it was used to create another meaning for this movie. Jeremiah and his cult are surrounded by images of the cross, and Mandy wears shirts depicting pentagrams, or logos for Black Sabbath, things of a darker nature. As the movie played out in front of me, it became apparent to me that Cosmatos thinks of all religious groups as a kind of cult, and this film was a pseudo metaphor for killing religion or God. The themes become more and more prevalent as the film comes to a close, to the point that it’s darn near impossible to ignore what Cosmatos is saying near the end. If you can ignore Cosmatos’s heavy-handed commentary on religion, then this film really has a lot to offer.
Verdict:
I really enjoyed this film. Honestly, I’m really close to saying that I loved it, but the themes that I don’t quite agree with hold me back. This movie is wonderfully inventive, beautifully shot, and totally unlike anything else I’ve ever seen before. Plus, you get to see Nick Cage fight with chainsaws. What’s not to like?
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