I'm interrupting the regular programming. Occasionally some weirdo movies work their way onto this blog and this year has gifted me with "First Reformed" by Paul Schrader, starring Ethan Hawke, and "Mandy" by Panos Cosmatos, starring Nicolas Cage. One is about a New England priest grappling with despair and the other is a surrealist horror-revenge flick. Each of them is so fucking good and multi-layered and could spur like 200 thesis projects. I can't stop thinking about the striking thematic similarities between them and how the directors approach these themes with completely opposite styles.
"First Reformed" is purposely austere and cold (very New England-y, huh). The camera is constrained and the shots are long and methodical. We're in a very controlled setting.
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| seriously there is not even furniture in this room |
"Mandy" is all warm reds and psychedelic fuzziness. We get fabulously weird establishing shots of strange landscapes, strobe lighting, you name it. However! Several key first-half shots are long and methodical. The director is also firmly in control here, even when it seems like we've entered bizarro land.
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| welcome to hell |
We also see similar angles on the ethereal/savior woman trope. Both main women get trippy fantasy scenes and bookend their respective movies by appearing in the final shots as visions/miracles to the protagonists. Amanda Seyfried and Andrea Riseborough's takes on these two characters are full of depth and strength, despite the differences in storyline. Of course leave it to the women to be the stable people in movies about damaged men ... my eyes just rolled so hard they fell out of their sockets.
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| a miracle has perhaps appeared, although without furniture |
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| that fateful moment of meeting |
Both center around a type of "scripture": Ethan Hawke's priest narrates the movie via journaling and Mandy narrates (symbolic?) scenes from her fantasy novel. And of course there's the other Scripture. These are two movies that frankly involve plots to destroy churches. The cult in "Mandy" and the neighboring commercial-esque church in "First Reformed" exude a religious corruption/wrongness that goes hand-in-hand with the environmentalist themes; destruction of the earth is a sin and these hypocrites have to pay. We even get symbolic dead defenseless animals in both movies!
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| could this church be any less welcoming |
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| fuck it, just burn it all down |
Our protagonists, as played by Ethan Hawke and Nicolas Cage, are two tortured souls trying to manage (poorly) their despair after emotional losses. Rev Toller has lost his son, his marriage, and a parishioner he was trying to counsel. Red has lost the titular character, his wife Mandy. And we're just here along for the ride as they descend into versions of madness. Two of the most emotionally brutal scenes in these movies involve barbed wire, so we as the audience have a cringing visceral reaction to these images of physical pain (manifesting the characters' mental pain). It's hard to watch, and it should be. The culmination of these scenes is to go to the "next level" and realize how fucked up our protagonists have become -- we get Cage's screaming, vodka-chugging scene and Toller's, uh, almost Drain-O-chugging scene. These scenes come at different points in their respective movies, but the effects are very similar.
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| this is very unpleasant and close-up |
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| this is also very unpleasant and close-up |
Finally, there is a fun Hollywood triangle between Ethan Hawke, Nicolas Cage, and Paul Schrader! Schrader directed Cage in "Bringing out the Dead", then Hawke and Cage made "Lord of War" together (with the same director who worked with Hawke on "Gattaca"), then Cage made two more recent movies with Schrader, and now this Hawke/Schrader team-up. Also Hawke and Cage are fans of each other despite (or because of?) complete opposite acting styles. Let's all have a dinner party together, folks. Make it happen.
Of interest:
Bottom line: Did you not hear me say GO SEE BOTH OF THESE MOVIES IMMEDIATELY
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