Saturday night in the sticks usually means three things: movie night (usually, but not always, watching Svengoolie), friends coming over, and my cooking something fun and interesting for dinner. And this past Saturday proved to be in that category. Instead of watchig what Svengoolie was running, though, we watched a movie a friend of mine at work recommended – A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. If you are not familiar with this film, you aren’t alone. My friend who recommended it originally from Iran, and this Persian language Vampire film was made by a group of Iranians who live in the States now, most of whom cannot return to the land of their birth. Although shot in the Persian language, it is subtitled in English, and I am guessing the translation is very close to spot on as the creative talent producing it are, I am sure, fluent in both languages. I’m lucky to be fluent in one language (but knowledgeable in two others).
Our evening started off with my making Chicago Deep Dish pizzas for dinner, which my kitchen duty cued our dog that it was Saturday and company was coming. After dinner, and cleanup (our daughter, Little Miss, made scones and watched the musical Newsies while we watched our movie; and yes, she danced and sang along with her movie), we started the movie.
The main focus of the story revolves around a young man, Arash, and his attempts to improving his lot, being poor and living in a town that is borderline impoverished, dealing with his father who is a junkie, and his father’s dealer; and the Vampire, a young woman who is never named and only referred to as “the Girl”, who stalks the night looking for a good meal, usually comprised have take out bad guys. A vampire feeding on predatory people makes her an Apex predator. And then there is the cat, a very important character in the film. Watch that cat closely as it is nefarious.
Some of the themes in this film are, for me, a bit disturbing; drug abuse, prostitution being among them, and the drug usage is rather graphic, which means the create team did their homework. Hopefully only as book research as opposed to field research. There is one scene of violence that I found disturbing, and I will refrain from saying more about that. Y’all kind find out for yourselves what I mean.
I found the film to be well made, the story interesting, albeit disturbing in someways, as noted above. The music, which is a mix of American/English rock and Iranian (?) music worked well, and we all agreed at our place that was one of the best things about the film. Maybe that’s a bit about our film tastes. We all thought it was a bit of a weird film. There are a couple of scenes in the film that have me questioning why they were included as they added nothing to the film, had nothing to do with the characters in the story (example – guy dancing with a balloon). Weird, yes, entertaining, yes, disturbing, yes, and interesting; all components of a good movie, and it challenges the viewer to see things outside of their comfort zone. Well, being weird is optional in film making.
According to notes on IMDB, the film was shot somewhere around Bakersfield, California, and this makes sense as you can see palm trees that are common throughout the Central Valley region in the background. The above image has some in the distance, and the palm trees are prominent in other scenes. There are also other telltale signs indicating the film was shot in the Bakersfield area, which if you are familiar with that region you will recognize.
After watching A Girl Walks Home Alone in the Night, I have to ask my friend who recommended it if he has actually watched this film. Based on the content, I kind of think his answer will be, “Um, no?” Still, if you like Vampire movies, and can handle some of the parts that we found disturbing or up to being challenged to leave your comfort zone, this is a good movie to watch. I am not sure I would watch it again; that being said, I can recommend seeing it. The film is rated for 18+ years of age, so keep that in mind if you have teenagers in the house.
As for the pizza, it was a lot of fun to make, and turned out perfectly, with Italian sausage, pepperoni and salami. And my daughter’s scones – yum! Better than popcorn for a mid-movie snack. Although I can’t share the pizza with you, I can share a couple of pictures of it.
Recipe links for the pizzas, for those who are interested
For the dough https://www.emerils.com/126067/chicago-style-deep-dish-pizza-dough
and the rest of the pizza https://www.emerils.com/126066/chicago-style-deep-dish-pizzas
Thanks for stopping by.
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