Film Reviewsa girl walks home alone at night: vampire crushApr 9, 2015 Anchorage Press
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Vampires have come a long way, baby. Some sources date the first appearance of vampires to Mesopotamia over 6,000 years ago. Others link vampires back to Cain (of the Cain and Abel brothers), and still others extrapolate their existence from epic poems like "Beowulf;" but perhaps the most enduring depiction of vampires comes from the 1897 novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. Regardless of the various cultures and time periods, when it comes to cinema and television, the evolution of vampires is fascinating; they transform from foreign monsters with evil and violent tendencies into multi-dimensional characters with very human emotions. Vampire types run the gamut from bloody, scary like those in Fright Night or Salem's Lot, to insipidly boring like those in the Twilight series, to innocent, funny ones like Count von Count on Sesame Street. Of course there are more complex vampires with back stories and justifications-fully sentient beings doing the best they can to straddle the human, animal, and supernatural worlds all at once. The vampire in A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night falls into the latter category, and the best thing about her is that she is unapologetic.
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is an American movie by British-born, Iranian-American director Ana Lily Amirpour. The movie is in Farsi and set in Bad City, a fictional ghost town. Southern California transforms beautifully into the desolate, depressed and semi-abandoned Iranian town. A Girl is about a Persian vampire living in Bad City. She lives alone and watches as misogynistic and unscrupulous elements oppress and exploit those around her. The Girl observes, learns from, mirrors and even mimics her victims as she hones in for the kill. The Girl has a moral compass, and while she kills to survive, she at least offs characters that viewers dislike. There are very few characters in the story line, but they all play critical roles. Just about every actor in the film is easy on the eyes; A Girl stars Sheila Vand as the vampire and German-Iranian actor Arash Marandi as the main human protagonist, also named Arash. The story features strong secondary characters like that of Saeed, the gangster played by Dominic Rains, the prostitute played by Mozhan Marnò, and the prolific Marshall Manesh who plays Arash's junkie father.
Viewers hoping to see A Girl for an action-packed and robust plot will be disappointed. The movie is slow-moving and about 20 minutes too long, the plot is as thin as water and totally predictable, but A Girl is not about the plot, it's about the experience; and it is a beautiful cinematic experience, sensual and engaging. Viewers should see it with an open mind, and maybe a little bit high, so they can take in the wide screen format and the long shots, the light that spills diagonally on the screen as the characters move through it, and the shallow depth of field that creates clarity as the characters interact. The film is saturated in blacks and whites that make the intimate scenes even more precious, and drive home the symbolism of the tired landscape being sucked dry by oil drills.
The soundtrack is captivating and defines both the scenes it accompanies, as well as each of the respective players. The movie opens with traditional Iranian accordion music and then changes to augment the character development. The tunes tell an underlying story about life in contemporary Iran with westernization throbbing just beneath the surface and slowly oozing from the interior spaces and personal experiences.
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night debuted at Sundance and its Amirpour's first feature length film. Amirpour's cinematic influences are clearly apparent in A Girl; it's no accident that the Girl and Arash resemble Judy and Jim from Rebel Without a Cause. Amirpour appears to be in love with her project and she fuses her formative genres in its development-a Hollywood romance mixed with a Western. To her credit, Amirpour put a lot of work into the character, so much so that she developed 200 years of the Girl's back story, which will be released as a comic series; she had fun with the movie and it's apparent in the details. Viewers will be delighted by the Girl skateboarding down an empty street at night with her chador flying, the knock-off music posters on her wall, the Peter Beard décor of the gangster's apartment and even the tattoo on his head that translates to "pussy stretcher," all which bear Amirpour's stamp. A Girl is not the first vampire movie in Farsi, but Amirpour made it into something unique. The Girl is a vampire everyone can relate to, and if given the chance, run away with.
A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night shows Monday, April 13 at Bear Tooth at 7:50 p.m.
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is an American movie by British-born, Iranian-American director Ana Lily Amirpour. The movie is in Farsi and set in Bad City, a fictional ghost town. Southern California transforms beautifully into the desolate, depressed and semi-abandoned Iranian town. A Girl is about a Persian vampire living in Bad City. She lives alone and watches as misogynistic and unscrupulous elements oppress and exploit those around her. The Girl observes, learns from, mirrors and even mimics her victims as she hones in for the kill. The Girl has a moral compass, and while she kills to survive, she at least offs characters that viewers dislike. There are very few characters in the story line, but they all play critical roles. Just about every actor in the film is easy on the eyes; A Girl stars Sheila Vand as the vampire and German-Iranian actor Arash Marandi as the main human protagonist, also named Arash. The story features strong secondary characters like that of Saeed, the gangster played by Dominic Rains, the prostitute played by Mozhan Marnò, and the prolific Marshall Manesh who plays Arash's junkie father.
Viewers hoping to see A Girl for an action-packed and robust plot will be disappointed. The movie is slow-moving and about 20 minutes too long, the plot is as thin as water and totally predictable, but A Girl is not about the plot, it's about the experience; and it is a beautiful cinematic experience, sensual and engaging. Viewers should see it with an open mind, and maybe a little bit high, so they can take in the wide screen format and the long shots, the light that spills diagonally on the screen as the characters move through it, and the shallow depth of field that creates clarity as the characters interact. The film is saturated in blacks and whites that make the intimate scenes even more precious, and drive home the symbolism of the tired landscape being sucked dry by oil drills.
The soundtrack is captivating and defines both the scenes it accompanies, as well as each of the respective players. The movie opens with traditional Iranian accordion music and then changes to augment the character development. The tunes tell an underlying story about life in contemporary Iran with westernization throbbing just beneath the surface and slowly oozing from the interior spaces and personal experiences.
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night debuted at Sundance and its Amirpour's first feature length film. Amirpour's cinematic influences are clearly apparent in A Girl; it's no accident that the Girl and Arash resemble Judy and Jim from Rebel Without a Cause. Amirpour appears to be in love with her project and she fuses her formative genres in its development-a Hollywood romance mixed with a Western. To her credit, Amirpour put a lot of work into the character, so much so that she developed 200 years of the Girl's back story, which will be released as a comic series; she had fun with the movie and it's apparent in the details. Viewers will be delighted by the Girl skateboarding down an empty street at night with her chador flying, the knock-off music posters on her wall, the Peter Beard décor of the gangster's apartment and even the tattoo on his head that translates to "pussy stretcher," all which bear Amirpour's stamp. A Girl is not the first vampire movie in Farsi, but Amirpour made it into something unique. The Girl is a vampire everyone can relate to, and if given the chance, run away with.
A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night shows Monday, April 13 at Bear Tooth at 7:50 p.m.