A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night review: smouldering sensuality, achingly cool | JDiff2015

If you only see one Iranian vampire western this year, do make sure it’s Ana Lily Amirpour’s superb debut feature.

A hipper, younger cousin to Jim Jarmusch's Only Lovers Left Alive, A Girl Walks Home sees its hijab-clad, skateboarding vampire heroine (Vand) right social wrongs as she feeds on the streets of Bad City, a retro spot defined by 1980s Madonna posters, 1990s club drugs, early 2000s pimps and 1960s hotrods.

Enter charming goofball Arash (Marandi) whose old-fashioned ideas of romance clash with the bloodsucker’s loner sensibilities. Thus, the nocturnal feminist avenger must face a new challenge: puppy love.

The film's comic-book styling superficially recalls 300 but Lyle Vincent's stunning cinematography more often plays like Edward Hopper in monochrome. Every shot is as seductive as the charismatic central couple. A smouldering sensuality offsets the achingly cool aesthetic. An extraordinary achievement.