All The Boys Love Mandy Lane

All The Boys Love Mandy Lane follows the title character (Amber Heard) as she agrees to accompany several fellow students to a weekend party at an isolated ranch, with chaos naturally ensuing after an unknown assailant begins knocking the typically unlikable kids off one by one. First-time filmmaker Jonathan Levine, along with scripter Jacob Forman, has infused All The Boys Love Mandy Lane with just about the laziest, most generic feel one could possibly envision, as the movie, for the most part, unfolds in a manner that’s perpetually lacking in surprises and is rarely able to sustain the viewer’s interest for more than a few minutes at a time – with the thoroughly tedious atmosphere compounded an almost aggressively deliberate pace that essentially highlights the various deficiencies on display. Levine attempts to liven things up by flooding the proceedings with ostentatious instances of stylish visuals, and yet it remains clear from beginning to end that even the most impressive of imagery isn’t enough to elevate a seriously run-of-the-mill, paint-by-numbers slasher screenplay. And while Heard delivers an appreciatively charismatic turn as the movie’s protagonist, All The Boys Love Mandy Lane is otherwise suffused with an assortment of hopelessly forgettable figures that exist only to be brutally murdered. The big twist that transpires during the movie’s final stretch is not bad, admittedly, but it arrives at a point wherein most viewers will have long-since checked out – which confirms All The Boys Love Mandy Lane‘s place as a less-than-auspicious debut for a filmmaker who has gone onto bigger and better things (ie there was nowhere but up for Levine, really).

* out of ****