🎥 Movies of 2021, 93: Mandy
An early entry in the collection of “Fancy Genre Directors that Understand Nicolas Cage” movies that has been rumbling along the past few years.
Mandy has chapters but structurally has 2 halves, roughly divided by the Cheddar Goblin sequence. Andrea Riseborough stars in the first half and Cage stars in the second. I found myself much more involved in the first half, where director Panos Cosmatos luxuriates in slow and gorgeous mood.
The second half felt more like a “The midnight film crowd is gonna go apeshit for this!” pander. And I did like it! It was a good pander. It just felt a little targeted.
But the end, when the two halves join again, was astounding.
