Orignally published at ScottFeinberg.com
A stylish and soulful film, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is a film of bad men, dangerous women, love and beautiful images. More than just a vampire film, Ana Lily Amirpour crafts an eerie, moody tone poem that’s a fantastic film to watch.
Bad City an industrial town, filled by all matter of folks from the scrupulous to the shady. Arash (Arash Marandi), one such citizen, longs to just get in his nice car and go. Working as a landscaper and living with his junkie father is proving more difficult, when his father runs afoul of a local drug dealer. A local prostitute (Mozhan Marnò) has just turned 30 and wants to escape as well. They all long for better lives, but are unable to move from their station. This relatively tranquil, yet unfulfilling existence, is slowly shattered as a vampire (Sheila Vand) begins stalking the streets, waiting for the next unsuspecting victim. However, after a chance meeting between Arash and the girl, A Girl Walks Home at Night begins to morph into something more.
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is a rare film in which nothing seems to be out-of-place or overdone. For an incredibly stylistic film, that tough to accomplish, but in the capable hands of Amirpour, the film is incredibly sound. The script is extremely well written, none of the characters feel like stereotypes and every one of the actors gets a big moment to shine. Leading the way in that charge are Sheila Vand and Arash Marandi, as the vampire and boy who falls for her respectively. They have such an insane connection in the film, that it’s easy to see why these characters would be drawn to each other. I was especially taken by Marandi’s sensitive leading man performance and Vand’s slinky, confident physicality.
The visuals are what really make this movie great. While watching this film, I couldn’t help but recall Michaelangelo Antonioni’s Red Desert with the industrial setting and existential angst sort of hovering over the film. The black and white cinematography is breathtakingly beautiful, making each image leap off of the screen. Amirpour also has a great concept of spatial blocking that allows her to play around with the characters in the frame and make the scary bits that much more terrifying. There are so many memorable scenes in this film and that’s directly attributed to Amirpour’s amazing skills behind the camera.