A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night [2014]

MPAA (R)  ChicagoTribune (3 1/2 Stars)  RogerEbert.com (3 1/2 Stars)  AVClub (C+)  Fr. Dennis (4 Stars)

IMDb listing
ChicagoTribune (B. Sharkey) review
RogerEbert.com (S. O'Malley) review
AVClub (I. Vishnevetsky) review  

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night [2014] (written and directed by Ana Lily Amirpour), an IRANIAN (exile) VAMPIRE MOVIE (filmed in Bakersfield, California) is probably the COOLEST "genre movie" released this year.  In Chicago, it's had a 2 week run at the Gene Siskel Film Center.

Filmed entirely in high contrast B&W in said Bakersfield, CA substituting for a random, troubled Iranian oil town named simply "Bad City" somewhere in the Desert, the cast of characters is quite small, but unforgettable:

There's the central protagonist Arash (played by Arash Marandi) a young Iranian potential James Dean type if only he didn't have to take care of his heroin addicted father Hossein (played by Marshall Manesh).

There's Saeed (played by Dominic Rains) a drug dealing pimp with the word SEX tattooed on his throat.  He's kept Arash's dad supplied with drugs even as he takes Arash's _really cool_ "50s era-car with tail fins" as collateral for Arash's dad's accumulating debts.   When not shaking down Arash's family for money, he's keeping his local aging street-walker (mom?) named Atti (played by Mozhan Marnò) "unbalanced" / "in line" (it's probably time for her to start looking for another kind of work, but how when she seems to always owe Saeed money?).

There's a little kid with a skateboard (played by Milad Eghbali) who, since his parents never seem to be around, seems to be always outside, even at night, watching everything play out.

And ... then there's ... a teenage to early-20 something girl who turns out to be a demure "Vampire in a really-cool striped shirt and a chador" (played magnificently by Shiela Vand), who ALSO seems to live alone -- honestly, where are ANY OF THESE PEOPLE'S PARENTS except on drugs or walking the streets as hookers...? -- who LIKE THE LITTLE KID is always outside at night obvserving everything, EXCEPT UNLIKE THE LITTLE KID she finally decides to do something about the way things are in the town: Basically deal-out blood-sucking vengeance "on the guilty."

Oh yes, and there's A REALLY CUTE CAT who seems to be somehow aligned with the Vampire ;-)

Much, often in very dead pan if quite predictable yet VERY, VERY COOL FASHION, plays-out ;-)

Honestly, this is probably the coolest SUBTITLED FILM (yes, the film plays-out ENTIRELY IN FARSI ;-) that an AMERICAN TEENAGER (or really, ANY TEENAGER) really ought to see!

It's basically "A Rebel Without A Cause [1955]" only IN HIGH CONTRAST BLACK AND WHITE, IN FARSI and WITH VAMPIRES.  Honestly, how cool is that? ;-) ;-)


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