Starring Nicolas Cage, Andrea Riseborough, Linus Roache, Ned Dennehy, Olwen Fouéré, Richard Brake, and Bill Duke, the film follows Red Miller (Cage), a lumberjack seeking vengeance against cult leader Jeremiah Sand (Roache), as well as his devout followers, for the murder of his girlfriend, Mandy Bloom (Riseborough).

Despite this, it received critical acclaim, with particular praise for its visual style and originality, Cage's performance, Cosmatos' direction, and the action sequences.

[5] In 1983, in the Pacific Northwest, recovering alcoholic war veteran lumberjack Red Miller lives with his girlfriend, artist and author Mandy Bloom, who had an abusive childhood.

Mandy works as a gas station cashier by day and at night creates elaborate fantasy art, which Red greatly admires.

After Sand and his followers leave, Red frees himself, mourns Mandy's death, and, after consuming a bottle of vodka, wordlessly swears revenge.

[9] Production used the Arri Alexa camera, coupled with the Panavision anamorphic format, to achieve the film's old-school atmosphere.

The website's critics consensus reads, "Mandy's gonzo violence is fueled by a gripping performance by Nicolas Cage—and anchored with palpable emotion conveyed between his volcanic outbursts.

[18] Reviewing the film after its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, Nick Allen of RogerEbert.com praised it, writing that "for all of the endless feral performances that Cage has given, in movies good, bad and forgettable, Cosmatos’ style-driven, ‘80s-tastic passion for weird worlds and characters takes full advantage of Cage’s greatness, and then some.

"[19] In a five-star review for Dirty Movies, Stephen Lee Naish called the film "a blood soaked revenge caper," praising Cosmatos for a "masterful approach" that "aligns him with Kubrick and Lynch in delivering perfectly believable and fully realized worlds and characters that operate within their own laws of physics.