A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night 2014

Bruce Ingram, Chicago Sun-Times: There's not much story to speak of, but the semi-Iranian hipster feminist vampire romance A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is gorgeous to behold and up to its jugular vein in quirky/spooky atmosphere. Read more

Wesley Morris, Grantland: The expressionist shadows, floating chador, and wilted patriarchy make the whole movie feel forbidden. There's something in the nothing. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Just when you think you've seen it all-I never really think so, but sometimes it can feel that way-along comes something completely new, or at least something so intriguingly bizarre as to seem completely new. Read more

Guy Lodge, Variety: Ana Lily Amirpour's auspicious debut feature is a sly, slinky vampire romance set in an imaginary Iranian underworld. Read more

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, AV Club: 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 more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Like no movie you've ever seen. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: For all the visual ambition, this doesn't add up to anything terribly substantial. Read more

Cary Darling, Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com: It's a smart, subversive tip of the hat to everything from American and Italian Westerns to horror movies, Jim Jarmusch, love stories, Iranian traditionalism and rock 'n' roll. Oh, and there's a vampire. Read more

Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly: Just when you thought you'd seen every possible variation on the vampire tale, along comes an Iranian bloodsucker romance set to spaghetti-Western music. Read more

Boyd van Hoeij, Hollywood Reporter: This moody and gorgeous film is finally more about atmosphere and emotions than narrative -- and none the worse for it. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: In almost every decision the director makes, there is a calculated risk, more heartening each time she takes it. Read more

David Thomson, The New Republic: This is a dream on your screen, absurd, languid (if not slow), and possessed by the calm of an inevitable beauty. This is what cinema was invented for. Read more

Richard Brody, New Yorker: Amirpour's wide-screen, high-contrast black-and-white images heighten the familiar mood of low-rent high style, but her greater gift is choreographic ... Read more

Tomas Hachard, NPR: Girl Walks Home manages to be a wholly original work while containing nary a unique thought or idea. Read more

Jordan Hoffman, New York Daily News: It's not every day you can use the phrase "Iranian vampire western," but that's the best way to describe this surreal black-and-white film. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: 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 more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Cool, supremely confident ... Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: The biggest honest-to-God discovery of 2014. Read more

David Lewis, San Francisco Chronicle: "A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night" is a wildly inventive Iranian vampire movie that grabs you by the throat with its dark, moody style, pulsating soundtrack and offbeat love story. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: The film, with references to New Wave revenge thrillers and stylized pop soundtracks, gradually takes its time but doesn't outlast its welcome. Read more

Kiva Reardon, Globe and Mail: Combing horror, film noir and westerns, Ana Lily Amirpour's debut feature, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, is a refreshing take on vampire lore. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: 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 more

Michael Atkinson, Village Voice: Ana Lily Amirpour's feature debut could become a totem for a hipster world mad for jukebox funkiness, vampires, and gender-politics righteousness. Read more

Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture: It may not be deep. But dear lord, is this movie gorgeous. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: It's a haunting story of love between two misfits who shouldn't be together. Read more