Images are always evocative. No one can see something without it affecting them. It doesn’t really matter how, or how much, seeing something influences you. But for all the beauty, horror, and wonderful weird in the world, dreamlike images are what most people seek. There’s a preference for the unreal, especially, almost paradoxically, when the unreal seems like a reality.
2014 saw the release of a movie entitled A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. Written and directed by Ana Lily Amirpour, the film has, since then, appeared on several top ten lists. Go to any website dedicated to horror, and you’ll find someone cataloguing it as a must see. I remember reading rave reviews, being intrigued by the trailer, and walking by the poster at my local cinema thinking, "I'll see it tomorrow...tomorrow..." However, it wasn’t until recently I finally got a chance to watch this movie.
On the one hand, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is beautifully shot. There are so few films that are simply a pleasure to look at. This is one of them. Several shots can be frozen, and stand alone, telling stories by themselves. And I enjoyed the surrealism, a distorted world not wholly warped, but not quite the reality we inhabit, though still unsettling familiar – the world we’re unaware we occupy. The aforementioned images and sense of real unreal is accomplished not only thanks to skillful direction, but an excellent cast, particularly the hauntingly beautiful eyes of Sheila Vand, who plays the titular character. Yet, the other hand, which held me back somewhat, is a lack of story. The plot is thin as a frame of toothpicks, and I held that against the movie, perhaps because I wanted to know more. It’s an odd criticism to make that what mysteries the movie aroused should be held against it.
Minimalist storytelling is nothing new, especially in film. Jim Jarmusch has been doing it masterfully for years. When handled skillfully, thin threads offer just enough to guide the audience without cementing anything about the events or the characters therein.
What I’m getting at is I wanted more, and being so desirous I failed to realize I hadn’t been told what to think. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night doesn’t restrict the interpretation of events or characters. Whatever a viewer chooses to believe, given the bare bones available, is true because there is no contradictory evidence, only contrary speculations. As Vladimir Bartlot might put it, “Nothing is an absolute reality, everything is permitted.” The thing I failed to keep in mind is that this movie is a dream much in the same way David Lynch films are. And dreams can have many meanings.
The movie is intriguing, to say the least, and whether you end up enjoying it or not, I recommend viewing it at least once. The imagery it presents is bound to stir the imagination.
It certainly stirred mine.
Lyrics for She Walks Alone:
She seems such a kind soul
That’s why nobody knows
Until her fangs show
How well her evil flows
In a city wicked to the bone
Bad’s the only name it’s known
She walks alone
Black cloak flutter
On a skateboard fly
She’s one with the night
A star in the sky
She treats the lonely like a mirror
One that reflects
But doesn’t tear
In a city wicked to the bone
Bad’s the only name it’s known
She walks alone
Whispers to the wicked
Tonight you die
Never worries
a reason why
Cuz the innocent know the terror
Of when she plays the nightmare
In a city wicked to the bone
Bad’s the only name it’s known
She walks alone
2014 saw the release of a movie entitled A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. Written and directed by Ana Lily Amirpour, the film has, since then, appeared on several top ten lists. Go to any website dedicated to horror, and you’ll find someone cataloguing it as a must see. I remember reading rave reviews, being intrigued by the trailer, and walking by the poster at my local cinema thinking, "I'll see it tomorrow...tomorrow..." However, it wasn’t until recently I finally got a chance to watch this movie.
On the one hand, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is beautifully shot. There are so few films that are simply a pleasure to look at. This is one of them. Several shots can be frozen, and stand alone, telling stories by themselves. And I enjoyed the surrealism, a distorted world not wholly warped, but not quite the reality we inhabit, though still unsettling familiar – the world we’re unaware we occupy. The aforementioned images and sense of real unreal is accomplished not only thanks to skillful direction, but an excellent cast, particularly the hauntingly beautiful eyes of Sheila Vand, who plays the titular character. Yet, the other hand, which held me back somewhat, is a lack of story. The plot is thin as a frame of toothpicks, and I held that against the movie, perhaps because I wanted to know more. It’s an odd criticism to make that what mysteries the movie aroused should be held against it.
Minimalist storytelling is nothing new, especially in film. Jim Jarmusch has been doing it masterfully for years. When handled skillfully, thin threads offer just enough to guide the audience without cementing anything about the events or the characters therein.
What I’m getting at is I wanted more, and being so desirous I failed to realize I hadn’t been told what to think. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night doesn’t restrict the interpretation of events or characters. Whatever a viewer chooses to believe, given the bare bones available, is true because there is no contradictory evidence, only contrary speculations. As Vladimir Bartlot might put it, “Nothing is an absolute reality, everything is permitted.” The thing I failed to keep in mind is that this movie is a dream much in the same way David Lynch films are. And dreams can have many meanings.
The movie is intriguing, to say the least, and whether you end up enjoying it or not, I recommend viewing it at least once. The imagery it presents is bound to stir the imagination.
It certainly stirred mine.
Lyrics for She Walks Alone:
She seems such a kind soul
That’s why nobody knows
Until her fangs show
How well her evil flows
In a city wicked to the bone
Bad’s the only name it’s known
She walks alone
Black cloak flutter
On a skateboard fly
She’s one with the night
A star in the sky
She treats the lonely like a mirror
One that reflects
But doesn’t tear
In a city wicked to the bone
Bad’s the only name it’s known
She walks alone
Whispers to the wicked
Tonight you die
Never worries
a reason why
Cuz the innocent know the terror
Of when she plays the nightmare
In a city wicked to the bone
Bad’s the only name it’s known
She walks alone
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