Jithin K Mohan A feminist persian vampire western with mesmerising black and white cinematography. The atmosphere itself makes it a great experience. Then there is the performances that are perfectly captured and even the cat does a fantastic job.

Stevieboy666 Set in Iran, but filmed in California, this is a simple tale of a hip, young guy called Arash who falls in love with a mysterious girl that happens to be a vampire. Beautifully filmed in black & white with a fantastic soundtrack this touches on issues such as addiction, greed, sex and love. Well acted, including Masuka the cat who gets a well deserved credit. Some people may be put off by it being Persian language, which would be a shame. I certainly look forward to watching it again.

peter-stead-740-486963 This seemed to be the kind of pretentious, heavily referencing, derivative, black and white rubbish that critics crave here in the U.K., within the first 30 mins. Particularly the drug dealer, who seemed largely played for laughs in this otherwise sombre film. His demise was ridiculous, yet predictable and put it at the Tarantino end of the spectrum. Aware of the title, I thought it would simply be the 'girl' murdering various - entirely male - miscreants, with little story as context, just the offscreen politics, which would largely dictate whether you would enjoy this type of thing.Things started to change, however, when Sheila Vand came on screen. She has an undeniable magnetic presence. Some people just have it. She reminded me of Mia Wasikowksa in Stoker, though was less well served by the writer. The trajectory then takes a refreshing turn towards the intimate connection between her and Arash, an unexpected love interest. It then reminded me of Let The Right One In and even had much of the same powerful sense of innocence - as a thing that is never entirely 'lost'.Amirpour then deftly adds in a crucial complication for this new relationship, though she leaves it open whether this complication will be...fatal. She knows dramatic irony, especially by making Arash a peddler of the very thing that indirectly ends his Father's life.Much of it is overlong, languid and too clearly resembles Jarmusch or French or Italian art-house. I wish she had gone the Lynchian route, really invested in the subconscious angle.It's a memorable film though, if not a completely satisfying one, with a very strong central performance.

thelastblogontheleft Ohh, this movie. Easily one of my favorites in a long, long time."The Girl", as she is solely named (played by Sheila Vand), spends her time wandering the streets alone, listening to music in her tiny apartment, and, sometimes, killing people with her sharp fangs. She comes into contact with Arash (played by Arash Marandi), an independent and hard-working young man who has a desperately drug- addicted father at home, and they strike up this quiet intimacy that is mesmerizing to behold, though it becomes very complicated when she finds herself entangled with his father in a very different way.Honestly, that is a bulk of the plot. The complexity of this movie lies deep below the surface, and it is striking in so many ways. Despite being shot in Taft, California, the Farsi-speaking cast and fictional idea of this Iranian "Bad City" makes you feel as though you're a million miles away. As far as a genre goes, it is the quirky vampire- western I never knew I needed in my life. It weaves together this incredible combination of horror, loneliness, eroticism, desperation, isolation, humor, romance, and feminism and on top of that it is both gorgeously shot and scored. There's some laugh out loud moments — like when Arash is still under the influence of ecstasy in his Dracula costume and mesmerized by a lamppost as he is sized up by a living, breathing vampire — and one of the most truly scary moments I've seen in a movie (when The Girl urges a curious child to "be a good boy").Ultimately, while technically a horror film, this movie doesn't rely on hardly any tired clichés or overdone effects — the word "vampire" is never even used. It is masterfully filmed, written, and composed, with scenes so good they could be poetry, especially considering this is Amirpour's directorial debut AND it was shot in just over 3 weeks' time. Images of The Girl coasting down the street on a skateboard with her chador flowing in her wake will be imprinted on my brain forever, and I'm pretty psyched about that.