Picture this: a child walks up to a soda fountain. She has a large cup and now must decide which soda to choose; does she pick the lemony Spite? The complex Dr. Pepper? The classic Coke? The far-too-sweet-and-unnaturally-colored Hawaiian Punch? Unable to decide and wanting the best characteristics of each, she squirts all of them into her cup. The resulting concoction is either the best combination she's every tasted or the most disguising barely-drinkable mess of flavors, depending on the ratio and choice of the combination.
It is easy to imagine a film working very similarly; when you mix concepts and genres, what results can be be either fascinating and brilliant or a confusing and barely-watchable mess. This weekend I got the chance to see one such film: the Iranian, 1950s and Spaghetti Western inspired, black-and-white, independent, vampire film
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night from writer and director Ana Lily Amirpour.
