Pynchon

Yesterday, for about 20 seconds, I met up with the blogger previously known as Graham. I was on the number 1 bus, getting up to get off and Graham had just got on. He looked and sounded good. Not blogging anymore, and that is a crying shame, but I suppose you have to do what you have to do.

Just thought I would mention that.

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I have seen another two movies over the weekend. This makes it four movies I have not written about at all. The situation is unacceptable and will lead to a schism in the fabric of space/time, and a dangerous alternative future, unless I do something about it.

How about one review tonight and the rest over the week?

I will take your silence as meaning that this is acceptable.

"All The Boys Love Mandy Lane".



I approached seeing "All The Boys Love Mandy Lane" with caution. I had heard a rumour that the Protection Of Punters From Horror Movie Cliche's fast response squad (a subdivision of the Committee For Protection Against All Hollywood Movie Cliches) were sweeping UK cinemas and arresting anybody caught watching bad movies about good looking teens being slaughtered by evil forces unknown in remote and eerie locations. The punishment, I heard, was 30 years hard labour watching Martin Lawrence comedies.

I was OK. The squad didn't catch me. Anyway, despite being based on well worn movie cliches, "All The Boys Love Mandy Lane" was really rather good, not a bad movie at all, so the squad would have been forced to let me go.

My interest in a film like this lives and dies on outside of what is going regarding the horror content. Horror is boring in and of itself. Luckily there is plenty of other stuff going on in "All The Boys Love Mandy Lane".

"All The Boys Love Mandy Lane" boasts really great, stunning cinematography. Just beautiful work, dreamy and atmospheric, utilising all sorts of time lapse effects and film stock. I think the work is as as good as anything you might see in a serious art house film. "All The Boys Love Mandy Lane" also has a really good soundtrack of melancholy pop music, culminating in a song that everybody knows: One of the creepiest pop songs of all time. (You will know what it is. It is in the trailer.) There are good performances and an inventive script, touching on interesting issues such as sexual attraction, jealousy, the school hierarchy, peer pressure and rivalry and the problems of the modern body image.

Hey! Don't worry! The filmmakers do not forget that "All The Boys Love Mandy Lane" is supposed to be a horror movie. Add to all of the above some particularly bloody, hands-over-your-eyes, murders.

The eventual identity of the killer was no surprise to me, but that is just the way it goes. I have seen a lot of movies. Suffice to say that "All The Boys Love Mandy Lane" is a superior horror film. One of the best I have seen in years.

Labels: Bloggers, Movies