A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2015) Kino Lorber/Horror-Thriller RT: 99 minutes No MPAA Rating (violence, horror, drug abuse, adult themes) Director: Ana Lily Amirpour Screenplay: Ana Lily Amirpour Music: Federale, Radio Tehran, Bei Ru, Farah, White Lies, Kiosk, Free Electric Band and Dariush Cinematography: Lyle Vincent Release date: February 27, 2015 (Philadelphia, PA) Cast: Sheila Vand, Arash Marandi, Marshall Manesh, Mozhan Marno, Dominic Rains, Rome Shadanloo, Milad Eghbali, Reza Sixo Safai. Spoken in Persian w/English subtitles
Rating: ****
I can honestly say that A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is the best vampire movie I’ve seen since Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive last year. Interesting since the eccentric filmmaker appears to be one of debut filmmaker Ana Lily Amirpour’s primary influences.
Filmed in stark, gorgeous black and white, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night creeps up on you and gets under your skin without you realizing it. The chilling tale of a solitary female vampire (Vand) is set in a (fictional) desolate Iranian ghost town called “Bad City”, a sprawling hellhole punctuated by pumping oil drills and a ditch filled with corpses. The movie was actually shot in the California desert, a brilliant decision on the part of the first-time writer-director because of how strongly it evokes the feeling of isolation. The common thread among the characters is the heavy feeling of loneliness they carry with them. The physical landscape perfectly reflects the emotional landscapes of the characters. It’s a very static film, many times the images and characters don’t move for long periods of time. It’s this very stasis that creates the underlying tension prevalent in A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. It’s important not to confuse this with slow-moving and boring because this film is anything but. On the contrary, it plays like a nightmare in which the events appear to have neither rhyme nor reason, only making sense on an abstract level.
The main character in A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night appears to Arash (Marandi), a young James Dean-type rebel who drives a vintage car and takes care of his heroin-addicted father (Manesh). Dad is in debt up to his eyeballs to local pusher/pimp Saeed (Rains) who ultimately takes Arash’s car as payment. One night, Saeed encounters “The Girl”, a beautiful young woman who quietly wanders the nighttime streets of Bad City clad in a French striped sailor T-shirt and black chador. He takes her back to his place where she makes quick work of the unsuspecting dude.
Although Arash encounters her briefly as she leaves the building, the two don’t get together until later. After an unsuccessful attempt to hook up with a rich girl (Shadanloo) at a club, a stoned Arash leaves the party and wanders the empty streets dressed as Dracula. It’s the costume that attracts the vampire’s attention. She does a double-take when she spots him staring at a street light. It’s as close to a meet-cute as the film gets. They get together a couple of times, never wasting much time on needless conversation, their mutual attraction already understood. They share a longing as deep as any ocean.
In addition to early Jarmusch, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night also shows influences of David Lynch (Eraserhead in particular), spaghetti westerns, the 90s grunge scene and teen rom-coms. Amirpour’s visual style is, at once, beautiful and hypnotic with the high contrast between black and white and the way light spills into various scenes, cutting through the blackness. It’s filled with unforgettable imagery too, like “The Girl” gliding down the dark streets on a skateboard, chador and veil flowing behind her. It’s meant to represent freedom, something women in Middle Eastern countries don’t have.
So it is that the underlying idea of A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is female empowerment through vampirism. In one scene, she confronts a young street kid in a ragged coat and ominously whispers a warning to “be a good boy” or else. It conveys its message in a manner more poetic than any monologue in one of your more politically or socially conscious serious films.
The acting is top-notch, especially where the two leads- Vand and Marandi- are concerned. Their scenes together positively shiver with a deep and acute romanticism. They don’t need to say anything at all. Vand radiates both sexuality and danger as she stands motionless across streets and vacant lots, staring at potential victims. Nobody understands what she truly is until it’s too late.
Like Jarmusch, Amirpour uses music to great effect. The soundtrack includes a few great Iranian pop songs. Note for note, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is total perfection. Twi-hards, take note! This is a vampire movie done right. Like Only Lovers Left Alive and 2008’s Let the Right One In, it infuses the anemic vampire genre with fresh blood. It’s a total rush!
SPECIAL NOTE: For all you animal lovers, the cat seen in the movie does not die or get killed. It lives to see the end.
