Review of A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) by Alasdair B — 07 Jun 2015

Last year, the best foreign film was Ida, a powerful drama about a young Jewish girl who was searching for the graves of her parents. It won an Oscar for best foreign film of the year. This new film may take home the award this year. Horror films-good ones-like this have a great deal of influence on me as an inspiring filmmaker. I hope it also influences anyone with the same ambitions. It's not often we get gems like this in this day and age. "A Girl Walks Home At Night" is directed by Persian director Ana Lily Amirpour.

The film takes place in a small Iranian ghost town called, Bad City. It's full of lots of ruffians and nasty people. Living in the city is a young man, with his druggy father and small cat. He is a relatively good kid. A young women leaves the scene of a viscous murder. One night after a party, the young man encounters the girl. Strangely, she becomes found of him, and the two begin to develop an odd romance. While the story isn't to interesting, it is very beautiful nevertheless.

First off, it seems like there aren't enough female directors. It's a shame that they don't get enough attention, because Ana Lily Amirpour directs this film fantastically. She is a really talented director. I remember last year's film Selma-the biopic of Martin Luther King Jr.-and it's director. It seems like Ava DuVernay didn't get enough credit for her masterful job, and I sincerely hope Amirpour does. Aside from this, everything about this film screamed, "masterpiece." The dialogue is really brief, but the imagery and artistic elements really bring this up to par with films like The Exorcist or The Omen. It has a great soundtrack and gorgeous black and white cinematography by Lyle Vincent.

Admittedly, this film is strange. It's almost like a silent film, and it works well that way. The score and imagery really take over and replace the need of allot of dialogue. I'll admit, it was hard to get into the film at first. However, I slept on it, and I can now say: I really loved it. There was a scene in the film where this women dances with a balloon. The score just takes over and envelopes the scene. I will have to view this multiple times. There are definitely hidden meanings and themes hiding in plain sight. Before I conclude, this film does have some great horror moments. It's definitely an echo of all the greatest vampire films of the past. It has the provocative imagery that every great vampire film has. It reminded me somewhat of the classic Dracula films. Sex has always played a part in vampire films.

"A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night" is a modern day masterpiece. It's an extraordinary art film with beautiful imagery and a brilliant soundtrack. The performances are nice, and the cinematography is fantastic. This is the best foreign film of the year so far. I sincerely hope it gets some recognition.