Maniac (2011)

Starring: Kid Cudi, Cage, and Shia LaBeouf
Grade: C-

A linkup between Shia LaBeouf, Kid Cudi, and Cage is insane. The conversations these three must have had on set might be worthy of a documentary in itself.

Summary

At night, a filmmaker (LaBeouf) films down a neighborhood block where a house is on fire. As the camera continues down the street, two foul, French-speaking criminals (Cudi and Cage) are seen walking away from the scene, with Cage holding the gas can.

At a diner, the two killers discuss having two saltshakers at their table instead of one being pepper, how they agreed on 16 kills tonight (8 each), and they must make it look good because a camera is following them. Cage says he won’t get distracted and that the guilty one isn’t the one who commits the sin. Really, it’s the person who causes it. Cudi smiles hearing this. At night, the two go on their separate adventures. Cudi sits on a park bench and watches a man walk by with his dog. Meanwhile, Cage goes onto a city bus. The filmmaker rushes his sound guy to the van because they’re close to losing the unpredictable killers. Cage finds a girl in a park, chokes her, throws her down, and attacks further. Cudi follows the man with his dog into an alley, beats the shit out of him, and chokes him with the dog leash. Just as Cage stabs the woman, Cudi chokes the man to death while the dog sits to the side and watches. Cage kisses the body of the woman before leaving. Uncaring, the filmmaker tells the cameraman to shift over to his right because he’s framing out the blood. As Cage walks the city streets, Cudi is seen in the early hours of the morning walking in-between yards. He stops by one house to see if he can break into the window but can’t get in. Cage goes into an apartment building with a shotgun, finds a specific room, kicks in the door, and shoots the man inside as soon as he gets up from the bed. The blood splatters all over the room. As the woman cowers in the corner and Cage tries to intimidate her further, he goes over to the fridge. He stands up his gun, grabs a chair from the kitchen table, opens the fridge while he sits down, and has a beer. At the same time, Cudi walks into a drugstore, shoots two customers, and can’t seem to contain his happiness as he looks at some of the products on the shelf. He starts eating one of the candies and offers it to the cameraman. The cameraman doesn’t initially accept it until Cudi’s smile leaves his face. Seeing this, the cameraman accepts the offering, and Cudi goes back to smiling. He steals some products off the shelf, leaps over the two men he just shot, and exits.

Well, the night continues…

My Thoughts:

In a homage to Man Bites Dog, Kid Cudi’s Maniac is an accompanying short film to his song of the same name from his 2010 album Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager. From a creative standpoint, it’s always appreciated when an artist goes above and beyond to showcase his vision to its fullest extent. From concept and album art to a completely different sound and style from other figures in hip-hop at the time, Cudi always stood out in the crowd for being one of those rare, all-encompassing artists who possesses a serious dedication to his craft. With Maniac, the idea was to bring to life that underground, edgy, horrorcore subgenre of rap to life with a black-and-white short presenting a day in the life of two serial killers. The opening is done well, as the viewer is let in on the scenario within the first minute following the two suspicious characters walking away from a burning house with a can of gas, going to breakfast at a diner like nothing happened, and nonchalantly talking about how they have to murder 16 people overnight since this unknown filmmaker is documenting the whole thing. Considering the movie in which the idea is borrowing from, it’s an exciting premise, and the dark rock/rap score that accompanies the two troubled rappers on their exploits is perfect for its slasher premise. It evokes a curdling, intense, and unsettling feeling, which embodies the twisted mood and tone of the 10-minute short.

Cage in particular is a natural. Considering the content of his music and his real-life struggles, it’s not surprising how well he pulls off his role as Cudi’s partner-in-crime. Cage moves and looks like a tried-and-true maniac that has this undying urge to cause havoc. From the shot of his basic expression while washing the blood off his hands in the bathroom after blasting another stranger with his shotgun and how natural he looked with a shotgun in his hands killing someone before taking a beer from the fridge and relaxing in the man’s kitchen, Cage really gives the audience a feeling like he’s done this before. This is especially true even if you didn’t know of his music or background, further proving how well he did with his performance in Maniac. There’s one scene where the all-black wearing Cage sits in a destroyed dark room, and there’s this harrowing shot of the cameraman utilizing a flashlight to scan the room to look at the people he just killed. Once the camera finally shows Cage smoking a cigarette, he gets annoyed with the flashlight being shined directly in his face and he puts his bloody hand in front of his face to cover it. For some reason, it felt like a cool but wicked, Barry Keoghan-like response to the madness he caused. Despite the production being centered around Kid Cudi, he was much less believable in his role. Where Cage settles comfortably as being this man with a violent streak that fuels him, Cudi tries to pull off his role as this psychopath who works at a constant pace to cause crime as if he’s a mental patient who loves every second of it. Unfortunately, his performance didn’t capture what he was going for. He really milks the creepy smile to get this point across, but it’s unconvincing and he looks awkward handling a pistol.

Cudi tries way too hard to convince the audience he’s crazy, being the polar opposite of Cage who does so almost effortlessly. The impression Maniac tries to give is that these two characters are numb to violence and murder to the point where they see this “career” of sorts with a quota they have to meet, with the two trying to hold each other accountable as if they are a sales team. With this, the idea is there and Cudi is made to look more like the “maniac” of the two, but Cage fits the bill better and more believably. When they meet up in the diner and Cage admits he only killed a paltry 7 because he got distracted, it makes you question how this is the case because of how easily he was able to run through everyone he came into contact with and how into it he seemed, such as the shot of him dragging his knife along the wallpaper of some building and looking directly in the camera like he doesn’t give a fuck. With the way Cudi portrays his character, he comes off as the one who would be distracted since he is the one who enjoys this stuff too much and may have too much fun going about his night. Nevertheless, the closeup of the animatronic Santa Clause singing was a lot scarier than Cudi, so do with that what you will. The scene where he talks with the kids in the park and plays with the sunglasses-wearing kid by pointing his toy gun at him was a momentum stopper too. It didn’t fit anything they were doing. Maybe the idea was to tease the viewer that Cudi might do something dastardly to these innocent kids or try to intimidate them for no reason, but this is merely a theory. In practice, it didn’t give off such a vibe. It was just a timewasting, head-scratcher of a scene.

Making the short in black and white and in French is the most pretentious, film school, arthouse trope you can do for a short film, but I will concede that the filter did help the tone. Plus, if it was in English, the dialogue could have the potential for sounding too basic and two inexperienced actors could struggle with that little to go off of, so it’s hard to say if they would have been able to pull it off in a convincing fashion in English. Nevertheless, it was hard to distinguish which rapper was saying what lines with the dubbing of the voices. There are some overhead shots of the diner where they are going through their conversation where you genuinely can’t tell who is saying what between them. Because of this, it’s hard to tell how their personalities differ outside of their reactions when they kill or commit a crime. The only reason we are able to come up with as much backstory as we can is the intro, and the fact that Cudi smiles when he does evil stuff and Cage doesn’t. That’s pretty much it. The conversations they have are basic and uninspired either way, and the extras used in the diner scene act as if they aren’t even human. One guy can’t even eat off his plate in a normal manner, and there’s a shot of two men eating off each other’s plates before high fiving as if they accomplished something. What in the fuck was this about? Besides this, I’m not sure if it was needed to rewind Cage stomping out someone just to replay it. If it was a music video, it would work but doing it in a short film and it not being a recurring gag or something just seemed oddly placed. Furthermore, the content is monotonous even for a 10-minute slasher. Even with the two committing crimes and such, the short comes off as more of a personal release for both men rather than the two trying to tell an eventful or thought-provoking story, which is why the viewer’s attention span will be spotty.

In terms of the actual crimes being committed and the production values, all of it looked fairly solid, especially the extended shot of Cudi using the Molotov cocktail on the couple in the car, the immediate explosion right after, and Cage’s shotgun blast in the hotel. The latter was the wake-up call that saved the short. However, the ending with Shia LaBeouf finally making his appearance and the effects of Cudi shooting him was considerably less effective, as was LaBeouf’s attempt at a French accent. It’s supposed to be a twist, but the execution of it was underwhelming.

Maniac is an ambitious short film used to expand the many talents of artist Kid Cudi, rapper Cage, and allowing for Shia LaBeouf to get in some directorial work. The tone is realized, and the chaos is felt with how its filmed and scored. Even so, there’s nothing special with how its shot, it’s a lot hollower than you realize in terms of story and presentation, and it disappointingly doesn’t maintain its momentum for the full 10 minutes. All things considered however, the effort a musician puts forth to do something unique like this with their work is appreciated regardless of how it turns out.