ALL THE BOYS LOVE MANDY LANE

yorrick brown · #1 09-12-2007, 04:34 AM

A group of high schoolers invite Mandy Lane (Amber Heard), a good girl who became quite hot over the summer, to a weekend party on a secluded ranch. While the festivities rage on, the number of revelers begins to drop quite mysteriously

love the trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDPL8B1nIhE

STARS
AMBER HEARD

review

Do you remember the girl that everyone wanted? Wanted to know, wanted to see, wanted to touch and wanted to be. What was her name—that mysterious creature that floated down the corridors of countless high schools in countless towns, day after day, year after year, decade after decade? You knew her but you never knew her. She lived and breathed and passed by on a cloud of faint perfume, her name breathlessly blowing in the wind—whispering—Mandy Lane.

Mandy Lane (Amber Heard) is every boy’s fantasy—perfection in every pore. A porcelain goddess put on the earth to torture souls with the bat of an eyelash and the curl of her upper lip. And because the Gods have a sprightly sense of humor, Mandy Lane suffers from the total inability to recognize her seemingly endless charms.

As the film begins, Mandy and her best friend Emmet (Michael Welch, upcoming DAY OF THE DEAD) are invited to local jock, Dylan’s pool party. Ok, that’s not entirely true, Mandy is invited, she just drags Emmet along for the ride—a move that clearly raises the ire of the bleach blond Bo hunk. Once the party is started, Mandy is reluctant to strip down and hop in the pool and Emmet is clearly out of his element. As the Boons Farm flows and the bongs are broken out, Emmet convinces Dylan that to impress the fair Mandy Lane, he should leap into the pool from the roof of his house. And such was the end of Dylan’s golden life.

Nine months later we see Mandy aproaching the end of her junior year. To celebrate, a group of would-be friends are trying to convince the virginal beauty to accompany them to Red’s (Aaron Himelstein, FAST FOOD NATION) ranch house for a weekend of drinking and debauchery the likes of which are generally reserved for early 80’s teen sex comedies. The pair of girls, Chloe and Marlin have their eyes on the boys, Jake and Bird—but like the story goes…all the boys love Mandy Lane.

Things seem to be progressing nicely as the crew spends their days drinking and swimming and smoking and drinking and drinking. But when the sun sets they’ll be stalked and killed off one-by-one leaving virtually no one left but the resplendent Mandy Lane.

Director Jonathan Levine and writer Jacob Forman know conventions. They’re steeped in genre history and their film hits all the high and low notes. The gore is great and the tension is palpable. They never shy away from showing the killer and rely on shotgun blasts to paralyze the audience instead of the usual false jump scares that lesser filmmakers employ. It’s clear that they are confident in their approach to the material and that steady hand shows throughout the production.

At the center of the story is Amber Heard who clearly handles the most difficult role in the film—where each of the other characters is in many ways a stereotype of what you’d find in any given high school in America, Heard had to be so much more. She is required to embody an archetype that can hardly be described—A Helen to the people of her high schools Troy. I cannot stress enough how clearly she needed to be the absolute physical and spiritual embodiment of perfection to play this part. And to her undeniable credit Amber Heard rose magnificently to that occasion. It’s obviously a handicap to title your film ALL THE BOYS LOVE MANDY LANE if you can’t deliver that promise. Levine and his crew did that first aspect of their jobs with resounding success.

Probably one of the most surprising aspects of the film is the director’s decision to reveal the killer early on. If you watch enough horror films it seems clear the path the film is heading in so they decided to slip out that little spoiler early on and get right to the business of focusing on the killings. After all, this is a horror film, and one that is paying as much homage to it’s predecessors as it can bear to handle. Everything from the dusty Texas ranch house and the desaturated lighting scheme to the HALLOWEEN cum FRIDAY THE 13TH morality killings. MANDY LANE hits all the marks, which could have been a detriment to the production, but in the deft hands of Levine adds a rich history to a story that’s been told plenty of times before…albeit with a twist.

I really wanted to like this film and that is usually the kiss of death for a project. But ALL THE BOYS LOVE MANDY LANE is an exception to my caustic rule. It is a solid entry into the slasher genre and a pretty damn good teen thriller too boot. Levine and Forman make the genre work for them in a way that most filmmakers lack the foresight to accomplish. As the blood flows and the breasts come out, the film succeeds where so many others have failed—in recreating a bygone era of 1980’s styled horror with a new millennium sensibility but not resorting to post-SCREAM self-referentiation.

2nd review

My, we've seen this one before. A handful of teens, delegates of every clique in the high school melting pot, find a prime piece of real estate to party and get themselves dead. Oversaturated by "Scream" and its offspring within the last decade, the concept has all the appeal at this point of a sweaty, naked cheerleader abandoned in the backseat of a car after a football squad love fest. Spent. Used up. Unattractive. But like a recent spate of slasher fare-with-substance - "Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon" and "Hatchet" - "All the Boys Love Mandy Lane" is a healthy alternative to the sub-genre's monotony. If Larry Clark, Sofia Coppola and Lucky McKee had a three-way, this is the brood they'd produce: A heady creation with a slavish adherence to slasher conventions and the ammunition to confidently knock 'em down as writer Jacob Forman and director Jonathan Levine see fit. Toss in a retro style, a few decent twists 'n turns, indisputable sex appeal and startling realism and you've got a shockingly good - *gulp* - teen (!) horror film that transcends much of the adult-oriented dreck posturing as filmmaking these days.

Mandy Lane (Heard) is a young girl with a mature demeanor years ahead of her time. Which is probably the reason this enigmatic, nubile blondie has become the libidinal fascination of her male classmates. A catastrophic pool party plunge sets the tone from the onset, revealing what lengths these walking boners will go to to get her attention. The event ultimately drives a rift between Mandy and her geeky BFF Emmet as we find out when we pick up the narrative thread months later. Boys still love her, as does Emmet, it's plainly evident, but what's presently preoccupying her pretty little head is an invite to an expansive Texas ranch for a weekend party with cool kids Jake, Red, Bird, Chloe and Marlin.

Lane accepts, pleasing the wolves of this pack and what ensues is your usual mix of smack talk, truth or dare, cock-blocking, drugs and drinking...much to the chagrin of the alpha male ranch hand, Garth. With the scenario set in place, Foreman and Levine soon implement the stalk 'n kill formula without any heavy-handed red herring hooey. Granted, there is some build-up to the mystery surrounding the killer; once exposed, however (and it's pretty easy to figure out who it is), "Mandy Lane" evolves from an effective John Hughes-like spin on modern youth - replete with often hilarious banter - to a taught, violent reaction to the manipulation, isolation and class structure disseminating within the halls of high schools everywhere.

None of this would work, of course, without a robust and true cast; to Levine's advantage he scores a coup with Amber Heard whose chaste turn as "the unattainable" and slightly wounded introvert steals the show. This is Mandy Lane's film, after all, and if she's not on camera, there's someone talking about her or thinking about her. Levine's camera worships Lane's every nuance and curve, objectifying her and granting her a position of power and sexual authority at the same time. Heard is bewitching to watch and Lane is one of the most provocative final girls to come along in years.

The bleating, horny male herd play their parts accurately: There's the slim bad boy (Jake) who charts his conquests across a map of the U.S., then the smooth-talkin' player (Bird) and finally a frizzy-haired stoner (Red) who, I can only imagine, is only allowed to hang with the other two because of his access to narcotics. Lane's only female competition comes from one coke-sniffin' twig and an image-conscious slut. Everyone's complexities derive from a real place and the cast's naturalism works on every level.

Stylistically, Levine is grounded in the '70s. The film's developing threat and body count that bleeds into daylight terror embraces "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" with loving arms. The soundtrack is a potent blend; not one of those arrogant, hashed-together mixes in an attempt to sell a CD that you want to use as a coaster. Contributions from Bedroom Walls, Nude and even "Our Lips are Sealed" by The GoGo's evoke something nostalgic and care-free yet haunting - a deliberate contrast to the novel kills that are heinous and poised for future subtextual analysis. One lad takes a blade across the eyes in an outrageous and cringe-worthy obliteration of that "male gaze" mentioned in Carol J. Clover's book "Men, Women and Chainsaw."

"All the Boys Love Mandy Lane" will win no supporters from those still wincing from the Virginia Tech massacre (the killer executes his prey wearing a simple hoodie, jeans and a backpack of weapons). It is often unsympathetic to current events, and it is unsafe, as all good horror films should be. Vicious and uncompromising when it wants to be, "Mandy Lane" is a tease who is just warming up as her ambiguous finale rolls credits.

A deft and ambitious debut from Levine and Forman who teach us there's still life in the slasher genre yet...and it looks damn sexy.

WEINSTEINS HAVE SOLD THE RIGHTS TO MANDY LANE.

Sources inside the Weinstein Co. said there were differences of opinion between the studio and filmmakers on how wide to release the movie, with the company preferring a smaller rollout.

Other sources said the company was split internally over the movie, with chairmen Harvey and Bob Weinstein at loggerheads over its acquisition. The recent poor performance of genre film "Grindhouse," released under the company's Dimension shingle, only exacerbated the situation, sources said. The Weinstein Co. denied that there were internal divisions over the movie.

Also a factor is the recent downturn in the horror movie market.

BUT GOOD NEWS FOR HORROR FANS.

as the movie is set for release in america on 1000 screens on feb 8th 2008.
http://www.reuters.com/article/filmN...38370620070717

Superplasmatron · #2 09-12-2007, 05:02 AM

I read about this a few months ago in bizarre magazine, they said it was excellent.

yorrick brown · #3 09-13-2007, 02:07 AM

so at least its coming to the cinemas.plus 1000 screens is pretty good.

as for if it still going to be release in uk at the cinemas ?don`t know.chances are for here oz it`ll be dvd.unless it kicks ass in the states