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Panos Cosmatos Guides Nic Cage Through a Hellscape

WHEN VICTORIA, BC- BASED FILMMAKER PANOS COSMATOS LOST HIS FATHER — legendary Tombstone director George P. Cosmatos — he channelled his grief into his writing. Rather than some outwardly sappy exploration of his feelings, however, the resulting scripts were white-knuckle revenge flicks: 2010’s Beyond the Black Rainbow and this year’s stunning epic Mandy.

“They’re both kind of art therapy,” Cosmatos says of his two features. “They’re the cinematic equivalent of being in a room, watercolour painting on rolls of paper or something.”

Mandy stars Nicolas Cage as Red Miller, a man who seeks revenge when his lover Mandy (a haunting Andrea Riseborough) is kidnapped by a creepy sex cult via a group of demonic bikers. Throughout Red’s journey, we’re exposed to Cosmatos’ retro visuals and Jóhann Jóhannsson’s ear-piercing score. The result is a truly immersive and downright beautiful hellscape.

“I try to look at the films as I make them from a distance, in a way,” the director says. “I think of them as kind of pop culture artefacts.”

Cosmatos didn’t have to face the loss of just his father while directing the film — he also lost Jóhannsson, who died at the age of 48. “I really loved working with him,” Cosmatos recalls. “He feels like a merging of my father and my mother in that he was quite gruff, but also incredibly sensitive and artistic.

“It was wonderful working with him,” Cosmatos continues. “I think what got him to decide to do the movie was I said this is essentially a rock opera, and I think he totally understood what I meant by that — to create a sort of feeling of a sweeping rock opera, but without being pastiche or on the nose about it.”

In fact, nothing about Mandy is pastiche or on the nose. Instead, it’s a stunning and singular work from a visionary director.