A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
Kino Lorber | Release Date: November 21, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
81
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
26
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Portland OregonianMarc MohanFeb 20, 2015
As an artist who can craft an ebullient postmodern pastiche but maintains links to an idiosyncratic heritage, Amirpour has instantly become one of the most exciting, globally relevant filmmakers working today. Her film is a testament both to her own creativity and the infinite elasticity of the vampire mythos. Read full review
100
SalonAndrew O'HehirNov 21, 2014
A strange and gorgeous and haunting film that brings the indie aesthetic of the mid-1980s into a context that feels both timeless and highly contemporary. Read full review
100
IndieWireEric KohnMar 22, 2014
Shot in gorgeously expressionistic black-and-white and fusing multiple genres into a thoroughly original whole, Amirpour has crafted a beguiling, cryptic and often surprisingly funny look at personal desire that creeps up on you with the nimble powers of its supernatural focus. Read full review
91
The PlaylistDrew TaylorMar 22, 2014
It's a new vampire classic, one to treasure endlessly. Read full review
90
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJan 22, 2015
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is a terrific film, if you give yourself to it. You should, because, with Amirpour's blending of influences and pop culture, she has created a true original. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyNov 20, 2014
It is the way in which the writer-director uses the specter of vampires and vices to take an off-center cut at Iranian gender politics and U.S.-Eurocentric pop culture that sets the film apart. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijMar 22, 2014
Beguiling in its strangeness, yet also effortlessly evoking recognizable emotions such as loneliness and the feeling of being stuck in a dead-end town and life, this moody and gorgeous film is finally more about atmosphere and emotions than narrative -- and none the worse for it. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovApr 8, 2015
It’s a spooky, moody doozy of a debut, lensed by Director of Photography Lyle Vincent in a radiant monochrome that somehow makes even the darkness sparkle. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaFeb 27, 2015
Amirpour clearly studied their films and listened to some Sergio Leone spaghetti Western scores while she was at it. The music in A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night pulses with a late-night Persian vibe, reverby and twanging, soulful, hypnotic. Read full review
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kiva ReardonJan 22, 2015
A refreshing take on vampire lore. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyNov 21, 2014
Along with Jarmusch, A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night is steeped in other influences: Spaghetti Westerns, 1950s juvenile delinquent movies, gearhead movies, teenage rom-coms, the Iranian new wave. Read full review
80
EmpireKim NewmanMay 19, 2015
By turns funny, vaguely creepy and too cool for school, A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night is certainly unusual — but also seductive and strange enough to stick in the memory like a fever dream. Read full review
80
Total FilmSimon KinnearMay 19, 2015
Equally cool and cruel, stuffed with subtext, this ‘Iranian fairytale’ weaves its spell to a flip, hip ending. Amirpour is one to watch. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriNov 24, 2014
It’s wonderfully inventive filmmaking: Amirpour’s striking compositions borrow from the iconography of both the Western and the horror film — wide, evocative vistas are intercut with dark, tense city streets where shadowy figures follow one another. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternNov 20, 2014
Ana Lily Amirpour’s A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night. (What a terrific title!) This precocious, faux-primitive first feature, in Persian with English subtitles, and a sensationally eclectic score, was shot in wide-screen black-and-white, and frequently mimics the dreamlike rhythms of silent films. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfNov 20, 2014
The plot’s tired blood is jumped up considerably by style; all in all, it's an intoxicating blend of eerie horror and ’80s pop, made by an artist to keep an eye on. Read full review
80
Village VoiceMichael AtkinsonNov 18, 2014
In the end, this morphing of ideas and styles is more deadpan romantic than sociocritical, and sweeter for it. Read full review
80
VarietyGuy LodgeMar 22, 2014
It etches a sweet, sad and solemnly fatalistic love story between feeding times. Read full review
75
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanJan 8, 2015
It’s a haunting story of love between two misfits who shouldn’t be together. In its doomed yet somehow hopeful spirit, it’s closer to the noir sensibility of “Let the Right One In” than the pop-horror of “Twilight.” Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrJan 3, 2015
Comparisons have been made to the films of Jim Jarmusch and early David Lynch, both warranted. Amirpour wears her influences like a badge of honor but she also has a nascent sensibility of her own, arguably more feminine and certainly more sensual. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesBruce IngramJan 1, 2015
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is gorgeous to behold and up to its jugular vein in quirky/spooky atmosphere. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleDavid LewisDec 4, 2014
It’s entertaining and provides the tired vampire genre with a welcome infusion of fresh blood. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineEd GonzalezNov 16, 2014
To dismiss it as simply an act of hipster appropriation is to cop out, because appropriation is the film's thematic meat. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla DargisNov 20, 2014
Even as Ms. Amirpour draws heavily from various bodies of work with vampirelike hunger, she gives her influences new life by channeling them through other cultural forms, including her chador-cloaked vampire. Read full review
70
The DissolveTasha RobinsonNov 20, 2014
The film sometimes seems to get lost in self-admiration and its own melancholy mood. Still, Amirpour maintains that mood exquisitely well. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyNov 24, 2014
Shot in inky black and white, Ana Lily Amirpour's fractured Farsi fright flick has a spooky, otherworldly quality. It's like an early Jim Jarmusch indie set in Little Tehran at 4 a.m. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJordan HoffmanNov 19, 2014
While the plot is too light to sink your teeth into, the dreamlike, David Lynch-style imagery is engrossing. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyNov 19, 2014
For much of the movie, nothing happens, and it’s not the rigorous, locked-in nothing of the long-take art film, but the slow-motion, music-montage nothing of the artsy American indie. Read full review
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