A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)

This independent, lyrical vampire film debuted one of Hollywood's most exciting new voices.

Cinematography by: Lyle Vincent

Ana Lily Amirpour’s Persian-language black-and-white feminist vampire Western Indie Romance Horror Drama, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, was an attention-grabbing hybrid of a debut, to say the least. It’s a moody, broody, classic tale of boy falls for girl - girl is actually a skateboarding vampire who stalks and murders men and intimidates children with threats of death. Also, boy has heroin-addicted father.

This is a film that stays with you after the credits roll, and for a filmmaking debut, that’s as good a way to start a career as any. The scene with The Girl and Arash (the two leads) in The Girl’s room after they first meet, disco ball spinning, lights reflecting, as an indie synth-pop ballad blares from The Girl’s record player, is a strikingly memorable romance scene, and one of my favorite scenes of the decade.

Amirpour unravels what could have been very compact, and stretches it out like a fine thread, slowing the characters’ movements down so much it all begins to take on a dreamlike quality. Not even a word passes between the two characters. Their interaction is reduced to micro-expressions and subtle shifts in body language; there’s no rush, just the slow, steady ebb and flow of desire. Amirpour’s patient, self-assured, minimalist filmmaking becomes breathtakingly lyrical. It’s one of those scenes that seems to slip through the cracks of time. It’s cinema at its most magical and free.