© SpectreVision – Umedia – Legion M – XYZ Films

A couple lives an idyllic life together somewhere way out in the woods. Mandy (Andrea Riseborough) wears her trusty Mӧtley Crüe T-shirt and reads fantasy novels, while Red (Nicolas Cage) dotes on her and dreams crazy dreams. But then a band of weirdos arrives and starts spouting some mystical, hallucinogenic, prog rock-inspired gobbledydook. I guess they’re a cult, but it feels more accurate to describe them as a bastard manifestation of the most destructive forces of nature. So when they put Mandy down for good, Red is wired for one thing and one thing only: unhinged, hardcore vengeance. That means essentially a 45-minute, unbroken Nicolas Cage freakout. Panos Cosmatos’ trippy, delirious style, in which he tints nearly every frame in a blood-red envelope, is a perfect fit for Cage at his most extreme. It’s practically a deconstruction of becoming un-Caged, with the silliest moments (the sword-style chainsaw fight, Cage just giving multiple takes of bulging his eyes out) making their points the clearest.

I give Mandy 3000 Screams of Agony out of 5000 Violations.