Within the first 2 min of this film, anyone with any level of knowledge on cinema can admit to the film's "uniqueness" in style, looks and the neo-genre it is trying to create from the ashes of genres such as western and vampire. That much is evident right off the bat. and it summarizes the overwhelming high praises it is receiving in the festival world. This powerful revelation leaves you in anxious excitement to want to see and know where this journey is taking you and how it will leave you.
The story happens in an imaginary city in Iran called "bad city". A very 'sin city' like atmosphere where basic human values have vanished and what is ruling this land is money, corruption, extreme misogyny and LOTS OF OIL. As a matter of fact, oil refineries seem to be the only legit functioning industry within this very bad city. One can only guess where the oil money is going to and how it is being spent judging from the state the city is in.
The glorious black and white cinematography paints a very dark atmosphere that quite effectively suits the characters, storyline and the location. Almost every shot was carefully composed to the point that you'd want to pause the film to appreciate them to the fullest.
The most important and powerful aspect of the film, besides its brilliant cinematography, is the vampire character: both in substance and style. Taking in the fact that chador, a tool of female oppression, is used as the vampire's cape took a while to sink in. the juxtaposition of both of those concepts, oppression and domination, made the character mysterious, powerful and quite fascinating to watch. Sheila Vand is very effective as the vampire as well. She wears a cold, inhuman and aloof face yet there is so much sympathy and curiosity within her. She hit both spectrum quite well. There is an iconic tracking scene of the vampire skateboarding on the road which cinematically is one that will always stay with me. It was purely magical.
The vampire is out to get justice for all the women that are being harmed by the patriarchal system they find themselves in. in a creepy scene, she stalks an old man on the empty streets of bad city. The reversal of roles here hits the right note and it acts as very competent punch line that sets the tone for the whole film. In the end, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is in the simplest of terms "Style over substance". The film sets up a brilliant and for lack of a better word "unique" platform to explore the unexplored and to say the unsaid. However, It sadly leaves a lot more to be desired. Most of the scenes drag on for too long. If done right, silences within scenes could be a powerful tool to assert things that no word can. But this was not the case here. Such silences made the scenes drag for too long offering nothing in return. It seemed that Amirpour wanted us to take in the atmosphere and the inner-character tensions that was supposedly going on, but sadly nothing of substance could be found there, no matter how hard one tried.
The story happens in an imaginary city in Iran called "bad city". A very 'sin city' like atmosphere where basic human values have vanished and what is ruling this land is money, corruption, extreme misogyny and LOTS OF OIL. As a matter of fact, oil refineries seem to be the only legit functioning industry within this very bad city. One can only guess where the oil money is going to and how it is being spent judging from the state the city is in.
The glorious black and white cinematography paints a very dark atmosphere that quite effectively suits the characters, storyline and the location. Almost every shot was carefully composed to the point that you'd want to pause the film to appreciate them to the fullest.
The most important and powerful aspect of the film, besides its brilliant cinematography, is the vampire character: both in substance and style. Taking in the fact that chador, a tool of female oppression, is used as the vampire's cape took a while to sink in. the juxtaposition of both of those concepts, oppression and domination, made the character mysterious, powerful and quite fascinating to watch. Sheila Vand is very effective as the vampire as well. She wears a cold, inhuman and aloof face yet there is so much sympathy and curiosity within her. She hit both spectrum quite well. There is an iconic tracking scene of the vampire skateboarding on the road which cinematically is one that will always stay with me. It was purely magical.
The vampire is out to get justice for all the women that are being harmed by the patriarchal system they find themselves in. in a creepy scene, she stalks an old man on the empty streets of bad city. The reversal of roles here hits the right note and it acts as very competent punch line that sets the tone for the whole film. In the end, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is in the simplest of terms "Style over substance". The film sets up a brilliant and for lack of a better word "unique" platform to explore the unexplored and to say the unsaid. However, It sadly leaves a lot more to be desired. Most of the scenes drag on for too long. If done right, silences within scenes could be a powerful tool to assert things that no word can. But this was not the case here. Such silences made the scenes drag for too long offering nothing in return. It seemed that Amirpour wanted us to take in the atmosphere and the inner-character tensions that was supposedly going on, but sadly nothing of substance could be found there, no matter how hard one tried.