Loving Mandy

All the boys love Mandy Lane, though why, exactly, is something of a mystery. Sure, she’s a babe, if you’re into that doll-faced American cheerleader look, which peaked with Lillian Gish (if you don’t know who Lillian Gish is, get off my review) and bottomed out with, well, Amber Heard, A.K.A. Mandy Lane.

Mandy Lane is virginal, untouchable, independent, intelligent, and as vacuously forgettable as they come. She is the cause and effect of the whole plot, the impetus, the denouement, and the title all in one.

Having left for the summer break a caterpillar she returns the next year a butterfly, all cleavage and legs, and suddenly, the jock-cheerleader crowd are taking notice. She is invited, without her lovely little geek friend Emmet (Michael Welch), to a drugs-and-drink weekend up at Red’s (Aaron Himmelstein) ranch, with Bird (Edwin Hodge), Chloe (Whitney Able), Jake (Luke Grimes) and Marlin (Melissa Price).

Jake, Bird and Red have something of an informal wager going that basically amounts to “who can lay Mandy Lane first” while Chloe and Marlin are constantly hopping up on lines of Ritalin (likely a contributing factor to the film’s 18 rating). All characters are equally – if not more – vacuous than Mandy Lane and, observed by Mandy Lane with what is best described as a vague intrigue, their quest to get as out of their minds as possible isn't helped by the presence of Garth (Anson Mount), the stubbly and virile ranch-hand.

The occurences up at said ranch is where the film starts to work. Like a childish game of chess, director Jonathan Levine moves all his players into place for one reason only: to off them with gooey, ostentatious flair. Everyone starts dying. In fairly brilliant ways, despite their crashing predictability. Levine handles the genre with care, if not originality, and one can’t help but get the sense that he derived a kind of sick pleasure from scything through his principal characters.

I’d be tempted to wager that the post-production process was nothing if not cathartic for the man, having to watch the film again, and again, and again.