All The Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006) : Where On Earth Have You Been, Girl?

~review by Marie Robinson

Have you ever wanted someone so bad you’d kill for them? Well, shit I hope not! That’s kind of fucked up. Unless, of course, it was Mandy Lane.
Amber Heard plays the irresistible title character in the anticipated film, All the Boys Love Mandy Lane.

The film was finished back in 2006 but couldn’t be released until now because the Weinstein Company went out of business; however they re-acquired the rights this year and is now available on Video On-Demand with an small theatrical release in October.

When school lets back in for the fall everyone can’t help but notice how smokin’ little miss Mandy Lane got. Now every boy is out for her attention, much to the annoyance of her best friend, Emmet (Michael Welch, The Twilight Saga). After Emmet coaxes a drunken, lust-fueled boy to attempt a deadly feat for Mandy Lane’s attention, he is kicked to the curb for the popular kids.

Mandy Lane’s new group of friends think they are going to have the time of their life and land the girl of their dreams when they invite her out to a private ranch house, but things don’t go as expected when the teens start dropping like flies. But who is the killer that is dealing out all the carnage for Mandy Lane?

As much as it might seem like it at the start, this is not your regular sex-and-booze fest slasher. It’s much more than that. Although this is only writer Jacob Forman’s first screenplay (his next, The Well, is currently in post-production), it is only one more on pretty decent list from director Jonathan Levine. Well, technically this was his first! After finishing All the Boys Love Mandy Lane in 2006 he went on to direct some very well-received films such as 50/50 and Warm Bodies.

All the Boys Love Mandy Lane has impeccable pacing and characterization. The teen-banter dialogue is realistic and entertaining—not in a Diablo Cody kind of way. You get to know these characters, more than you probably care to (they’re scumbags), except for the mysterious Mandy Lane.

 Mystery is certainly part of her allure but it is also her purity. She doesn’t do drugs, doesn’t drink to excess—she’s “untouched”. And she plans to stay that way. It’s enough to drive a man mad…

All the Boys Love Mandy Lane is a clever film and it hits you like a cool, refreshing wave in a blood-red sea of slashers. It’s only a shame we had to wait so long; but some things—like Mandy Lane—are worth waiting for…