All the Boys Love Mandy Lane Plays Funny Poster Games

Posted by Neil Miller (neil@filmschoolrejects.com) on June 24, 2008

Had it not been for my affection for director Jonathan Levine’s second film The Wackness, which made its debut at Sundance in January, I probably wouldn’t have paid much mind to his first film, a genre thriller titled All The Boys Love Mandy Lane. Though, once I had personally witnessed Levine’s talent as a writer/director, I was intrigued by his previous work, a film that has garnered plenty of positive buzz.

The only problem with All The Boys Love Mandy Lane is that it has been sitting on a shelf somewhere within the iron-clad walls of The Weinstein Company, collecting dust alongside Kyle Newman’s original cut of Fanboys. Since it was purchased at the Toronto Film Festival in 2006, it was put into that gray area in which great indie films die and has since changed hands from The Weinstein Company to Senator Film, who intends to distribute the film sometime in August. The last time we talked with Jonathan Levine he seemed to be done with the whole situation, having told the distributor that he would be ready to do press if and when they pick a release date. It is sad to see such a situation where a director’s work is shelved for so long that his second film will hit theaters before his first film.

Yet, despite the fact that Mandy Lane has been in distribution hell for so long, it appears that they are finally making an effort, as Shock gave us all a first look at a brand new poster for the film. The poster, which can be seen above and in high-resolution by clicking the image, features a close-up of Mandy Lane herself, actress Amber Heard. In the film, she is a good girl who becomes quite hot over one summer and then is invited to a weekend party on a secluded ranch. When kids start poping up dead, people start to get a little suspicious of the newly hot Mandy.

And while the story has nothing to do with the atrociously bad Funny Games, which was released by Warner Independent Pictures in March, the poster is oddly familiar. As you can see from the comparison above, the close-up of Amber Heard is very similar to the close-up poster that features Naomi Watts. Beyond that, there is nothing to indicate that Mandy Lane is a supreme suckfest like Funny Games.

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