“How far in advance do you see the movies you review?” is a question I get a lot. In general, the answer is a week or two in advance, although a month or two isn’t out of the question (I saw “Brokeback Mountain” at the Toronto Film Festival, three months before its opening, and I believe I saw the forgotten Woody Harrelson movie, “The Hi-Lo Country,” a year in advance). On rare occasions, it’s much longer than that. Like, six years.
The movie that holds the record for the longest time between seeing and reviewing is “All the Boys Love Mandy Lane,” a horror film that would have introduced the world to Amber Heard (who subsequently made “The Rum Diaries,” among many other films) if it had been released when it was supposed to. Even if I didn’t have a date on the notes I took at the “Mandy Lane” screening in the summer of 2007, I would know when I saw it because I vividly remember a detail from the screening: It’s the only time I have ever thrown up at a movie. It was not the movie’s fault, I hasten to add. I had been bitten by an unlocateable dog, so I was in the middle of taking several weeks’ worth of rabies shots when the screening occurred. The shots are strong stuff and I had a reaction to them one morning, which happened to be the morning I was seeing “Mandy Lane.” I ducked out to hurl and returned, having missed no more than a minute of the action.
For a variety of reasons, mostly having to do with marketing and dull business stuff, the movie missed its supposedly-imminent opening date in 2007 and has missed a lot more since then. But it is finally “opening” on-demand this week, starting September 6, so I better study those notes and write my review. Actually, it may open in theaters a couple weeks after that if you’d prefer to see it on the big screen — although, even six years later, I have no trouble remembering that I wouldn’t recommend that.