Mandy

And Satanism

And so it begins… a week of the great Nicolas Cage. Few actors were as prolific as Cage was during my incarceration. Part of this is likely due to the money he owed the IRS during those years, a reported $20 million. I like to imagine it as a Cage action movie where he has to outrun the IRS, all the while his paychecks shrink and he is forced to film in the most unusual places, working even harder to compensate for his diminishing commercial value. The fact that this strategy worked (as opposed to Cage selling all his castles, dinosaur bones, and other assorted rich guy stuff) gives me a bit of a personal thrill.

As a result of this experiment, many of Cage’s movies during this period showcase a tired and defeated old man. We bootlegged one particular effort while I was down, a dubious Lifetime-level movie called “Inconceivable” pairing Cage and wife Gina Gershon (“Face/Off” reunion!) against an evil, young and seductive surrogate (Nicky Whelan, apparently filling in for Lindsay Lohan?). Eventually it ends up being a throwdown between Gershon and Whelan, and I’m not sure if that’s because Cage spends the movie looking flustered and overwhelmed and maybe not entirely sure where he is. Depending on the day of shooting, he may have either just gotten off a plane from Bulgaria, or was conserving energy for another flight to Bulgaria. “Inconceivable” was one of four 2017 releases on Cage’s own calendar. It shows.

That being said, some of his performances were in the realm of “Mandy”, which was one of eight credits he sported from 2018. This is Cage at his most interstellar, playing a lumberjack who performs manual labor for what seems like one reason: it’s the only way he can maintain a lifestyle that keeps him going home to his girlfriend Mandy. It’s a peaceful, modest existence, because Cage’s Red has found something he truly loves, and has built his life around her. Isn’t that what we’re all chasing?

Mandy is played by the beguiling Andrea Riseborough. We don’t get a lot of her, unfortunately, but from a physical level, the transformation is affecting. I first noticed Riseborough in the terrorism drama “Shadow Dancer”, but I remember just staring at her in “Oblivion” and wondering, who exactly is this gorgeous glass of cold milk? But in “Mandy”, she sports a severe scar across her face, a gangly frame swallowed by baggy heavy metal shirts that dangle off her elbows as she sketches passionately. She is not conventionally gorgeous in this film, but her beauty stems from how she looks at Red, and how he returns the affection. She’s the girl every boy avoided in the library after school, and it wasn’t until after graduation when they all realized that was proof of their bad taste.

Alas, “Mandy” leans fully towards tragedy. There’s a sickening Satanic cult that pierces the film’s serene heavy metal vibe. Mandy and Red are taken, and Red must watch as Mandy is punished for what is, essentially, her failure to be impressed by their drug-fueled hair-metal aesthetic. The cult is led by Linus Roache, who typically plays noble people like a lawyer on “Law And Order” and Batman’s dad in “Batman Begins”. Here, he’s just another weak-chinned loser pretending to be an intimidating toughie, so when Mandy mocks her, her final brave act, he removes her from the equation.

This action mobilizes Red. But first, he must grieve. And this is a moment that has been memed plenty, the looping anguish of Cage as he drags his legs around the house, alone in his tight white underwear. This peaceful, pastoral existence has been eliminated forever, and Cage, in essence, explodes himself within the blast radius of his own tragedy. It’s emotionally naked acting, and even with Cage embracing his own theatrical methods, not a laugh, not a lark. It’s a man torn asunder. How could I have been in prison, missing this Cage?  

What follows is a slow, hallucinatory revenge tour. Panos Cosmatos previously directed “Beyond The Black Rainbow”, a similarly trippy 2012 sci-fi thriller that, in essence, is “Stranger Things” but without the boys – a movie set in the 80’s about a girl who can reach another dimension, experimented on by the government, that nonetheless grooves on a wild synth score. While that was an intriguing and enjoyable pastiche, this feels more of a singular creation. The late Johann Johansson composed the eerie score for this film, and his operatic orchestral scream meshes intensely with the picture’s death metal soundtrack. All the while Red graduates from mere man to knight of vengeance, taking on one near-mythical weapon after another. The entire time, you must wonder how much of Red is left, or if his body and spirit have been taken over by something far more malevolent. Was it there all along, lying in wake, underneath the embrace of Mandy? With other actors, this probably sounds like ridiculous nonsense. It’s Cage that makes it Biblical.

The movie is filled with Satanists, many of which would have been welcomed in prison with open arms. You wouldn’t think prison is the place to find religion, but if you believe you’d better serve somebody, they’ll facilitate that and get you the appropriate literature. I saw this when dealing with varying religions, most of which I recognized. I was considerably struck by Odinism, which certainly has some crossover with Satanists. Early on in your prison stay, you will be asked by officials if you follow a certain religion, and it will allow you to receive religious material unavailable to others, and you will even have the occasional religious meal. The Odinists, who are largely represented through white supremacist beliefs, didn’t get their own meal, but they were still given their own meetings and reading material, much like Muslims or Christians.

Because these are being run by our federal government, the F.B.O.P. will largely opt for supporting Christianity above other religions, and being a Christian will put you in a dominant group. Officials respecting Muslim customs in my experience shows that they are diligent and respectful, though largely out of fear and/or worries of reprisal. The religion in prison is largely handled by a chaplain, and that chaplain will almost always be a Catholic priest.

“Programming” is supported by many politicians on the left and right regarding how we can train and teach prisoners to rehabilitate or learn new skills. But typically, you’ll hear politicians on the right advocate for programming that leans towards Christian religious instructions, and based on the idea that if certain people find Jesus, they will shy away from criminal behavior. I noticed there was a program available for violent offenders in the final years of a sentence, largely because violent offenders cannot go from low security institutions into camps (and “violent offenders” is a qualification that actually includes several nonviolent charges). It was entirely based in religious instruction, specifically Christian, and did not in any way shorten your sentence. Ultimately, prisons will respect your religion, or at least make an attempt. Though without question, Christianity is the preferred status.