All the Boys Love Mandy Lane
2008 Dir. Jonathan Levine A group of teenaged friends head off to a backwoods holiday ranch to party, with devastating and splashy consequences, as they are picked off one by one by a mysterious killer. Sound familiar? Though its title sounds more like a rom-com, All the Boys Love Mandy Lane is a fairly decent slasher movie, with more than a few nods to its Friday the 13th influences. A lengthy, languid opening evokes memories of The Virgin Suicides , with a dreamy soundtrack, sun-kissed photography and a hint of tantalizingly forbidden sexual awakening. Connotations of soon to be lost innocence, idyllic memories of high-school sweet-hearts and burgeoning romance come thick and fast as teens frolick in slow motion by swimming pools, and smoke joints in playing fields. The stifling atmosphere of hormonally charged sexual exploration is explicitly conveyed and hangs thick in the air, as do the petty, treacherous, and hurtful interactions many teenagers encounter in high school....