A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night with Anna Hossnieh

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
On the Bedel Cast, the questions asked if movies have
women and um are all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands?
Or do they have individualism? The patriarchy ze invest start
changing it with the Bedel Cast. Hey, Caitlin, Yes, Jamie,
If a girl walks home alone at night and no

(00:23):
one is there to see her do it? Did she
walk home alone at night at all? Wow? Just an
incredible thought. Let me answer your question with another question.
If a girl walks home alone at night and there's
no one there to talk to her because she's alone,

(00:43):
does it pass the Bechdel test? Well? I guess it
depends on whether you consider the girl to be a
name or not. I guess we'll have to talk about it. Oh,
yes we will. Well, theme to the beck Del Cast.
My name is Jamie Loftus, my name is Caitlin Toronte,
and this is our podcasts that in in which we
look at popular movies using an intersectional feminist lanes, and

(01:08):
we use the aforementioned Bechtel tests, sometimes called the Bechtel
Wallace test, which was originated by queer cartoonist Alison Bechtel,
which asks due to named people of any marginalized gender
speak to each other about something other than a man uh,

(01:29):
and that has to be at least a two line exchange.
So we use that test, just use it as a
jumping off point for a discussion, and then we go wild.
We bite off the heads of everyone around us using
the test various perps um. I'm really excited to talk

(01:52):
about the movie. I think that we've gotten a fair
amount of request for this movie over the years. Yes,
and uh, it was my first time watching it, and
but it's not my first time talking to our incredible guest.
Oh my goodness, perfect transition. Amazing Jamie. Our guest today
is an I heeart producer. She's a co host of

(02:14):
Ethnically Ambiguous and Deckheads podcasts, and you know her from
our episodes on She's All That and A Star Is Born.
So she is joining the elite tier of three time
Bectel Cast guests. It's on a Hostie A, Hi, Hi,
I forgot we did Stars Born? Wow, I can't it

(02:39):
every day? That was beautiful? Actually, could you thank you?
I can't tell the difference go on for the rest
of the on A. The reason that we're having you
back on the cast is that I just wanted to
take another character. Oh, okay, do you think my nose

(03:01):
is not um marketable? I felt like that was the
thesis of the movie. Is is my nose marketable? Oh?
A white rich Man said it was okay, then it is.
That's all I remember for that movie. Wow. And also
remember feminist icon Gale, which we made merch about. Andy

(03:22):
ever referred to that one time. It never came up again.
I have that merch. I wear that shirt around good.
I love it. I still have mine too, And I'm like,
if I wear this outside, will anyone know what I'm
talking about? It's so I was thinking about this the
other day, like all of Lady Gaga's new music sounds
exactly like the music in A Star is Born that

(03:44):
was supposed to be bad, And so I think that
A Star is Born ultimately anti pop because the music
is not bad. And I think one of the songs
besides Shallow I listened to in the soundtrack the most
is well, which dude, I do that? Do that? Do that?
Do that to me? It's good? Yeah, wow, But that's

(04:06):
not what we're talking about. We're talking about A Girl
Walks home Alone at night film written and directed by
Ana Lily Amir Poor. So, Anna, what's your relationship with
this film? Do you want to do? You want me
to do what my dad would do if someone if
I pronounced an Iranian name not good enough, he goes

(04:30):
a Lily Amirpoor And You're like, Okay, chill, bro, it's fine,
you're yelling. He does that with every Persian word or
name I say that he does not feel is I said,
it's like, like, like Iranian enough screaming is at just
a legend in everywhere. That's the person thing is to

(04:52):
correct your like dumb American Irani an American kid like
you are not saying it correctly, Anna, And I'm like, okay,
well you didn't even watch the movie. Dad, This is
all hypothetical. That's how deep the terror of his brain
is into my blood. But I'm sorry you asked what
did I think of the movie or what is my

(05:13):
just what's your relationship with it? Well? I actually I
know I don't personally know the director, but I know
of the director, and she's an Iranian American director and
I've always kind of followed her work. But for some reason,
I never watched this movie. And that's because I am
scared of anything that says horror in the description. I

(05:33):
just don't. I don't know how to take it in.
I'm not a very good like, I'm just not a
very good horror movie watcher. I'm too scared, I'm too jumpy.
I cover my eyes for most of it, and I
always feel like that's not a good way to watch
a movie. So I just tend to stay away from them.
Um So, I never watched this, but like, I've watched
the director's other work, Like I've seen her other movie,

(05:53):
The Bad Badge. I've seen all the like TV shows
she's directed. You're saying she's Twilight sing, Yeah, she's a
Twilight light zone. She did like Castle Rock. What's the
other one? There's another like Legion. That's right, Legion. She
directed an episode Legion. So like I've watched um those,
but this was the one I never got to watch,

(06:14):
even though it's interesting because it's like the actual one.
I would connect the most too, because it's all in
FARSI uh, and it's supposed to be about like these
like Iranian characters. I'm glad I I actually like after
watching it, I really liked it, like a lot, a lot,
and I'm glad. I finally got to well, you're welcome.
Thank you, yes, thank you for like putting putting it

(06:37):
on me and being like it's time and me being like,
you'll write. I don't know what that was supposed to be.
But you're like my master. And I was like, you're
my movie master and you told me to watch it.
I'm not comfortable with that. You are my movie master.
And when you tell me to watch a movie, I
watch it. I mean, if you mean that I have
a master's degree in screenwriting from Boston University, the fact

(07:01):
that I would never bring up, then yes, you're correct.
I am a master in that way. That's exactly right.
And that's why I think of Caitlin as my movie
master and Jamie as my friend. Incredible. Oh gosh, okay,
so Jamie, what's your relationship with the movie? I hadn't

(07:21):
seen it. I also, I get um. I like watching
horror movies, but I don't watch them in theaters usually
because I just worry about reacting too hard, and I
don't like to react too hard in public. It makes
me nervous. So I remember missing a screening of this

(07:42):
movie while I was in college. I think because I'm
a coward, and then I watched it for this episode,
and I also I really really really enjoyed it, and
I it's weird. I mean, this movie is and we'll
talk about me. It's so many cross genres. But it
is not a gory movie. Really, I mean it's and

(08:04):
and and it's not like super scary either. I don't
know like where to classify it, but I think that's
part of the point. Um. I really I really liked it. Yeah,
I mean, it is many genres, and I would say
horror is present, but it's also like of all the
genres that it is, like it is horror the least.
It's more like I mean, this movie has been described

(08:26):
as like a Iranian spaghetti western horror, vampire love story
is like all the things that it is. Um, but yeah,
there's not that. There's very little gore. There might be
like one jump scare and it's pretty mild. So but
it's interesting. It seems like like a lot of the

(08:48):
genre labels associated with this movie are not put there
by the director. And so while this movie was like
labeled a horror movie, that's not necessarily true. And it's
a label of the western movie. But that's not necessarily true.
I don't know. There's there's so much. There's also I
forgot to mention, um noir, there's some noir elements to it.

(09:09):
So life for crying out loud, good grief. So my
history with it, my relationship is that I didn't see
it when it first came out, but I did watch
it a few years ago because it had been it
was pitched to me, and I forget exactly who all
recommended that I watch it, but I remember people pitching

(09:29):
it as like it's like a feminist horror movie about
a vampire who rides around on a skateboard. And I
was like, what, that sounds awesome. I have to watch
that immediately. And I watched it and I did like it.
I'll say that it is a little slow and meandery
for my taste. It definitely goes like art art at

(09:52):
some like there's some long ARTI for sure. And a
part of that is also like the vampire vibe, like
vampires are kind of like weird, scary, quiet types and
you're like, okay, move it along, vampire, we get it.
You're brooding, right, Um. But overall I think it's it's

(10:12):
a really cool film. Um I love the soundtrack. It
has a really awesome like score and soundtrack, lots of
fun themes for us to talk about. Yeah, I'm excited
to discuss. Yeah, I think it's interesting. I mean this
movie I saw and again it's like, this is a
I mean a pretty fairly recent movie six years ago

(10:34):
I came out, and even so it's it's I don't know.
Like most and most of the reviews I was reading,
they're kind of drawing you too, They're like, oh, she
I always found this frustrating with especially like new and
particularly female filmmakers. Where in the like lead for the review,

(10:56):
it references it gives you three reference points of male
filmmakers to be like, no, no, now before you say
you're not going to watch it, David Lynch, Jim Jar, Moosh,
Jim any anything. It could be any Jarmish, I don't
know Jim Jar, Jim j but there. But I mean,

(11:17):
I do see where this. I don't know about Jim
Jar because truly I don't know what. I've never watched
his work. I understand I understand that David Lynch comparison,
and I feel like that is like maybe where the
long brooding moments comparison is, but it's still I just
always find that frustrating. Anyways, Yeah, those were a few

(11:38):
of the comparisons I saw. I also saw Tarantino and
Robert Rodriguez comparisons as well, so yeah, I definitely took
note of that too. Like everything I read it was like, well, um,
because you don't know who this woman is, let's compare
her work to forty seven men who you are familiar with.
And it's like, all right, well that's annoying. Yeah, well

(12:03):
should I do the recap and then we'll go from there. Sure, Sure,
So we open We're in a ghost town called bad
City in Iran. Bad. It's really funny to me. It's
actually I didn't even think about it till now. But
how like in Farsi we just say bad. We don't
actually have a word for like, we don't have a

(12:24):
direct translation for the word bad. So we go bad,
just bad. He's like, add a little, I shot a
bad It's like, okay, so yeah, we're in bad City.
We meet a young man or ash. He has a cat,
which you don't think necessarily is going to be that important,

(12:45):
but then it ends up the cat is actually the
star of the film. The cat is a metaphor. The
cat is probably one of the greatest actors of the movie.
So that cat took direction. So the motive cat. Yeah,
so many opportunities for that cat to um leave the
scene because it's a cat, not once. I really enjoyed

(13:09):
the cat and the cat, the fact that the cat's
significance just continues to escalate. And then the twist at
the end is the cat. It's good. It's like it's
Tchekhov's cat. It's incredible. Okay, so we've met Arish. His
father is a heroin addict who owes money to this

(13:30):
pimp drug dealer guy. He's wearing a sweatsuit, which is
cinematic language for not nice for bad, bad city, and
the pimp steals Arish's car. Then we see Arish at work.
He works for this rich family. He steals some earrings

(13:51):
from the daughter. Then we cut back to the pimp
who picks up a sex worker named At and he
treats her poorly. He refuses to give her her earnings.
He coerces her to perform a sex act on him,
and then while this is happening, we see someone looming
in the background who is watching the pimp mistreat this woman.

(14:15):
Then we start to follow this person who had been lurking,
and it turns out to be a young woman, and
that young woman turns out to be a vampire. She
stalks the pimp and then she goes home with him,
and then she bites off his finger and kills him.
I do want to point out that the pimp had
the phrase josh on his head and that just means pimp,

(14:38):
so he literally had pimp tattooed on his head. Yeah,
I thought that was an interesting choice, very funny. He
also has just the word sex written across his like
tattooed across his neck. There's an interesting thing about like Iranians,
and I'm speaking just out of experience of knowing my
own cousins were like very simple like things like a

(15:01):
marijuana plant or the words sex is like the edgiest
thing in the world. So like if you saw a guy,
like in America, if we saw a guy who had
sex tattooed on him, we'd be like, I don't know,
I don't take this guy very seriously. But like if
you see a guy like that in Iran, you're like Iran,
It's like, oh my God, like, who is this terrifying man?

(15:22):
Like to a point where like in Iran, based on
my understanding of what my cousin has told me, if
you have tattoos, you need a like a psychologists note
like claiming that you are mentally fit to get things
like a driver's license, because they like in that culture,
like why would you inc up your skin? That's a

(15:43):
person who's unwell if they did something like that. So
the guy who got the sex face tattoo had to
get a doctor's note for that, well, he might have
had to get a doctor's note. I don't know obviously
in the context of what goes on in bad city.
But if you lived in like a city like Hran
and he looked like that, like yes, there are chances
unless he went through like other routes that if he

(16:05):
went to like a d m V of Iran, they'd
be like, sir, you are clearly mentally unwell because you
have pimp tattooed on your head, so which you know
that's that makes I would understand that, but like my
favorite but like, yeah, you would have to prove that
you are like a stable human being who can like

(16:26):
handle having a driver's license because clearly you've made this
really weird, mentally unstable choice of having a tattoo. But
like that's that's like the level, Like the culture is
very strict like that, so like that's what it's like.
I don't know. So the vampire who is known only
really known in the movie and on IMDb as the Girl.

(16:50):
She leaves the pimp's house after killing him, and she
crosses paths with Arish, who is there trying to get
his car back, and Orish discovers the dead pimp when
he goes instide, he steals his briefcase full of drugs,
which he then starts selling. Caitlin, I'm gonna stop you there.

(17:11):
It's all Rash. I'm so sorry. Please apologize to your father.
It's I have I have the name our Ash tattooed
on my thumb because it's my cousin's name. It's a
pretty common name in Iran. But yes, it's all Ash. Sorry.
I sorry to bring my dad for you. Do you
want me to just do that for everything? Yeah? Yeah,
I'll say it my way and then I'll pause so

(17:33):
that you can correct me, and I'll scold you in
a yelling way like my dad always does. And I'm like,
I will say that I was often I found myself
very distracted while watching this movie because our ash is
one of the most handsome people I've ever seen. I
was like, oh my god, he's so hot. He's pretty attractive.
So I just you know, I had to I had

(17:54):
to not pass the Bechtel test in that moment. Just
I do think they did kind of or you know,
the nailed the casting of like this kind of quintessential
young Iranian man, because that's like what a lot of
like my young like cousins are just like the young
men I've known in Iran kind of look like got it,
like kind of like cool guys in a way, not

(18:14):
all of them, but like there's James Dean kind of
aesthetic going. Well, a lot of their influences are European
in that sense, so a lot of things I don't know.
I do think like there's kind of like they enjoy
this kind of like older style, but it's like very classy.
But like what I've seen, they did kind of nail
the casting aesthetically, and they're like, let's get the hottest

(18:38):
guy we can find, and then they did so Caitlan
getting corny on the pot. I can't. I'm so horny
for him, I just can't stop thinking about it. And
he he has a cat, a really cute cat. I mean,
he's the perfect man for me. And he does reste
a cat in the opening shot, and so you're like, okay,

(18:58):
I was confused by the I'm like, is this you
are you just like taking home a stray cat or
is that your cat that you were just sort of
like letting roam around outside. It is an interesting thing
to to find such a well behaved stray cat, right
very rarely is that the case. That's why I'm like,
I think he just like takes his cat outside and

(19:19):
like kind of lets it roam around and then he
puts it back in his car and then drives home.
I don't know anyway, So our vampire friend there's this
kind of little kid who's like in the neighborhood that
we've seen in different scenes, and she kind of stalks
him a little bit and then confronts him and she's like,
are you a good boy? You better be a good boy.

(19:42):
I'm gonna be watching you for your whole life to
make sure you're good and you're well behaved. And it
scares the ship out of him and he runs off,
and then she steals his skateboard and starts riding it around. Meanwhile,
Irish is at a costume party dressed as a vampire,
and then he does a drug that I think is ecstasy,

(20:04):
but again I'm a square and I don't understand drugs.
I think it was good, good. And then later that
night he crosses paths with the vampire again, not knowing
that she's a vampire. She invites him over to her
house and then we're like, oh, no, is she going

(20:25):
to kill him with her vampire teeth? But she doesn't,
and instead they like kind of just nuzzle against each
other a little bit, and we're like, oh, they're they're vibing.
She does a good job at resisting, yeah, because she
she also thinks he's really hot. Okay, So then later

(20:48):
she starts to follow Auti, the sex worker from earlier,
but it's not because she's preying on her, it's because
she's actually looking out for her. Then Irish and the
vampire meet up again outside of a power plant, very
romantic spot, and you were like, yeah, okay, they like

(21:09):
each other. He gives her the earrings that he had
stolen previously, but she doesn't have her ears pierced, so
she's like, pierced my ears and he's like, if you
want me to, okay? And then also we're like what
is this To Lindsay Lohans in The Parent Trap, I
think I was like, in terms of ear piercing in
popular media, I think this one is more fun to watch,

(21:33):
and I love the I love the two Lindsay Lohans,
but I'm like, this is but this is cool. This
one is cool. Is the sexy ear pierce Yeah, Lindsay
Lohan air piercing decidedly were like is this amount of
a metaphor? You know, the penetrative act of getting your
ears pierced? DKA anyway, and then they're about to kiss,

(21:56):
but she's like, no, I've done bad things. I'm bad
and he's like we've all done bad things. No. In
Bad City was like, and you're all bad people. Anyway,
she runs off, and then later Arash and his father,
who is now going through Heroin withdrawal, get into an

(22:18):
argument and then Arish kicks him out of the house
and he's like, take your cat with you. So then
the father, whose name is Hossain, by the way, played
by Sane you got it, you got it right, Um
played by notable actor Marshall menesh Yes character actor for

(22:39):
the Ages. So he leaves, he takes the cat with him.
He picks up Atti, who he also mistreats like forces
her to take heroin so you'll never guess who shows
up our friend the vampire. She kills Hossain. Then the
cat comes into her possession, and then the little boy

(23:01):
from earlier sees the vampire and Auntie dumped the body
than ours was like, who killed my father? And then
the little boys like I d ka because the little
boy is afraid of the vampire. The girl who was like,
I am watching you every moment for the rest of
your life. So he's like, I'm not about to like
to to this whistles this train on. That moment was

(23:25):
a bummer, say batch batasty that j Batasty. I was like, bitch,
get out of here. You're traumatizing this child for life.
I know. I felt there there were like a few
moments in the movie where I'm like, the girl needs
to really choose her targets a little more, a little better, um,

(23:47):
And one of those moments was but that said good
child actor terrified I would be scary. Um So anyway,
So Irish, with nowhere else to go and no one
else to turn to, goes to the girl, who he
still does not know that she is a vampire who
killed his father, and he's like, let's get out of here,

(24:11):
let's leave this place together. But then he notices that
she has his dad's cat, and he's like, oh shit,
my new girlfriend. Did she kill my dad and steal
his cat? But then he's like, shrug, let's go anyway,
and then they do, and that is the end of

(24:32):
the film. So let's take a quick break and then
we'll come right back to discuss. And we're back. Where
is a good place to start with this movie? You
never know where to start? Where does hegin? And is

(24:54):
there anything that like what what jumped out to you
the most about this movie? What I think? I don't know.
There was something interesting to me, like this this place
called Bad City, where like everyone's kind of like just
drifting through life, and there was like weird like metaphors
to like what it's like to be in Iran when
I mean, I shouldn't say too much because I do

(25:16):
want to go back to Iran. One day, but just
like this this kind of life where you find your
thrills where you can. And I'm speaking of my experience
having gone to Iran and hanging out with family members
and being like it's a very strict country to live in,
but you just you take what you can get when
it comes to like true like adventure and so like

(25:37):
to me, it's like this young man at ash who
like finds this drug dealer having been murdered, is like,
I'm just gonna start selling drugs, like I do what
I gotta do, And it like made sense to me,
Like and at no point was like why would you
do that. You're ruining your life, Like I was like, yeah,
I mean, like this guy's dead. This this drug dealer
who's been like haunting your family, now he's not a

(26:00):
ound to like sell it to your dad, so you
could possibly help your dad get off heroin. But at
the same time, like make money on the side to
like survive this. I don't know that that stuck out
to me as like a theme of like doing what
you can to survive because like no one else is
going to help you, like you're on your own, and

(26:22):
like I saw that within the Vampire like she's completely
on her own. And then there's also this kind of
amazing thing where like I thought it was cool that
like a girl walks home alone at night, which you
know usually is not the most comfortable, safe choice for
a woman, but then it's kind of like flipped on
its head where this woman is like, she's the one

(26:42):
you should be fearing because she will literally kill you
and take your blood. So that was like a really
cool thing to be like, yeah, for once, it's not
like this sad story of like I walked home alone
at night. Oh no, I'm so scared. It's like our
forever narrative as women. It was nice to not see
that for once of like a woman holding her keys

(27:04):
between her hand, to be like maybe this will do something,
you know, like that fear you have in you and
like every time I walk my dog at night, at
the back of my mind, I'm like, just any shadows,
you know, like be careful. And yeah, it was like
a relief to see that. Yeah, I did not know.
I knew the vague descriptors that are kind of like

(27:24):
stuck on this movie going in where they're like feminist
Western horror, like seventeen words in a row. But even
based on I mean, I felt I felt for the
title entirely. I thought, I mean just because of like
the you know presumptions you were just talking about Anna, like,
oh yeah, something bad is going to happen to a
woman on her way home, but she is the danger.

(27:47):
And of all the many subversions of this movie makes
that's one of my faces, I'm like, damn, I got
tricked in the title. I gotta pull it together. The
It's one thing I really like about this movie because
in general horror movies, thriller movies, they are often showing

(28:09):
women being the prey, being the victims, like being the
targets of violence, and scary people usually scary men or
like coded male figures. And while that is a reflection
of many real life circumstances, unfortunately, I just I really

(28:31):
appreciate any story that kind of flips that narrative fantasy,
though it may be that it shows the woman as
a predator, because usually a woman doesn't get to be
like a predatory character in any kind of horror movie.
And when I say, like a woman is a predator,
they're not predators the way that male men are predators.

(28:54):
The animal style exactly like predator prey like rite, because
when men are predators in real life and often in movies,
they are predators because they're like exploiting their power over people,
Whereas when women are predators in stories, it's almost always
either like a revenge narrative or like a vigilante justice story. Well,

(29:18):
I would argue that this is in some ways a
vigilante justice story. Um that yeah, like there and and
but again, it's like this movie is so tricky and
complicated because it isn't. We've seen, you know, stories where
women are enacting vigilante justice before on this show with
teeth and with Jennifer's body, hard candy, hard candy. But

(29:42):
this movie is like, it's not super straightforward because sometimes
the prey is very logical and then sometimes the prey
is not. I don't know. I I just this movie
like keeps you on your toes in so many ways,
and I really like it where it's like the moral
code isn't complete Lee clear right, that's bad city, baby,

(30:04):
that's bad That is bad city. That is something that
I wish had been handled a little differently because I
think she has three victims total, and then she and
then she scares the ship out of the Little Kid.
Two of her three victims are men who we see
mistreating a woman, and it's the same woman both times.

(30:27):
It's Autie. She has the smurfet of Bad City, right, right,
the only human woman that appears besides the girl. Well, yeah,
but she's a vampire, right, But she's a vampire, right.
But then the third victim is a person experiencing homelessness,
which I don't know if like that was the director

(30:48):
kind of saying like this person's life is expendable, or
it was more saying like her moral code. Sure, maybe
she's like a vigilante justice fighter most of the time,
but also sometimes she gets hungry, and like, I didn't
like that choice just because of I mean, how it

(31:09):
just kind of reinforces popular stereotypes about unhoused people. My
my interpretation of that scene was a breaking of moral
code for the girl, which is like, fine, I mean,
I understand that that plot point makes sense at at
that point in the same way that I mean other

(31:30):
characters break, Like it's really just her and Rush who
are breaking their moral codes because they're kind of the
only people in Bad City that have moral codes to break.
So I get why that choice had to be made.
I just wish that it was not at the expense
of an unhoused person. There's I don't know, there there
were other ways to make that same plot point. Yeah,

(31:52):
but but it's I don't know, it's it's it's definitely
supposed to make the viewer uncomfortable in ways that felt least.
I don't know. I still don't like the choice because
it just dehumanizes and has people. Scenes that I could
think of that I've encountered before that have a similar
crime taking place were slightly different at least where it's

(32:15):
like that scene in American Psycho or Yeah, that's the
first one I thought of too, I believe in House
of Cards, which is a show I watched one season
of when it came out, but but basically like a
showing of like a very privileged, rich white guy exerting
his power on someone with significantly less privileged than him. So,

(32:36):
but it's the same crime and it's never I don't know,
it's there was a different way to make that choice. Yeah,
I would have much preferred. Honestly, not that much happens
in the movie because it is paced quite slowly. I
wish that had we had maybe seen more targets of
hers that were like men being awful and then like

(32:58):
just really emphasizing that kind of theme. But yeah, but
it's like that does kind of push against the morally
gray stuff. And then it was like, I mean, I'm
kind of devil's advocating here, but like, wouldn't it just
then be teeth of like a character that is strictly
doing this to enact revenge on men who are mistreating women,

(33:23):
which is sometimes the case for the girl, but other
times it isn't. And I don't know, Yeah, let morally
gray women exist on screen, that's true. I mean, it's
it makes it more nuanced than you're more like neat
and tidy like Hollywood film that probably would have more
of like a well let's just make her batman kind

(33:46):
of right. Um but um so, yeah, I appreciate like
the nuances of that, But but are we do think
that maybe she only And again I a part of
me was like, well, I shouldn't like, yes, she goes
back for she kills this homeless man, because maybe she
just assumes that like this person, you know, because they're
a housed that they don't matter to society or whatever,

(34:08):
in her own what I assume is like a skewed mindset.
Part of me was like, maybe it's because it's bad city,
and that's what bad cities like, Like they truly don't
bad city, baby, I don't know. The murder of an
unhoused person was just very strange to me that a
part of me is like, but does she actually have
morals or or is she just doesn't kill you if

(34:30):
she finds some sort of kinship with you, Because like
a part of was like, maybe she would have killed Ati,
but like somehow like felt like maybe she related to
her in somewhere, or maybe she just felt this like
feeling with her, because I feel like she she comes
to you, because like if she didn't want to hurt
our Ash, why would she kill his dad? You know,

(34:51):
like if you know it's like you would either. Did
she know that was his dad? I was kind of
it seems like she knows everything in Bad City, Like
she just kind of this omniscient character because she knows
what people are feeling and thinking, and so it wasn't
totally I mean, I guess it wasn't stayed in text,
but she had to have known that with his dad, right,
I wasn't sure. I don't know, because she she stalked

(35:15):
him before. She stalks at one point when he's bothering
at asking for like I guess for her to like
pleasure him in some way, and she's like, come back
when you have money. The girl was there like watching him.
I don't know, So I have kind of a feeling
on that. I think you're kind of right on it,
where it's like, I okay, so this movie was labeled

(35:40):
like this is like an overtly feminist movie and then
and we'll talk about this in a bit, but the
director kind of pushes back on and like resists that
and all labels that are associated with this movie. So
it's not a specific, you know, like indictment of feminism,
but it's it's kind of she just like, don't label
it as anything, just watch it, which fair enough, right,

(36:02):
But I think that a lot of the reason that
people interpret this as a feminist film, and I think
that this is kind of taking the female predator out
of the conversation. But it's because she like pretty, it
looks valiantly defends a woman, but it's the only woman
in town. So is it feminist to do that? I

(36:25):
mean it she and and other choices she makes are
kind of great where I kind of thought that the
people that she will defend are people who are also
experiencing a lot of like loneliness and like, which is
everybody in the movie. But it's like lonely people who
are not murdering other you know, and not like we're

(36:47):
not harming others. It seems like and and and lonely
people who are willing to almost like for her own purposes,
like lonely people who are trying to connect with other
people ball, which kind of to me explains the two
people that she spares are people who talk to her
um and people who don't push her away, and people

(37:10):
who are kind of open with like, I don't know
what you do. I don't like it here. I feel
very isolated and she it seems like that is the
connecting factor of who she spares versus a gender based
moral code. But I don't know, because if there was
another woman in town, I guess we would have more
of a control group. But yeah, because I mean, she

(37:31):
doesn't kill based solely on gender. It's not like she's
just like I'm going to kill every male. Yeah, it's not.
And I love Tea, but it's not right because she's like, well,
I see this boy here, and I this vampire clearly
has a deep mistrust of or distrust what's the difference,
doesn't matter of men. So she's like, you're a you're

(37:55):
a young child. You haven't done anything wrong yet, but
you have the potential too, so don't become bad and
I'll be watching you. So she like doesn't attack the boy,
she doesn't attack Autie. She kind of helps her and
looks after her and protects her, and then she doesn't
attack our Ash because he's hot and she falls in love.

(38:20):
I personally really like they're like romantic subplat I think
it's awesome and it's complicated and hot, and I liked it,
so do I And I'm normally not a big fan
of most like romantic storylines in movies, but I'm like,
let's see more. This is what like Twilight should have been.

(38:43):
Hell yeah, team are Ash. Also, I feel like she
feels the sort of kinship with people who like try
and feed her but like she can't eat technically, but
like Rash tries to give her food, AUTI tries to
make her take up what I think is a plum,
which is a very like Iranian culture, Like everyone's trying
to feed you at all times, and they want you

(39:03):
to eat, especially fruit that they put out for you.
That really took me back to home my mom being
like I put this fruit out. Don't you want fruit?
Do you not want a fruit? Do you want to banana?
Do you want this fruit? Oh? It's that for not
good enough for you? Well what about this fruit which
like this fruo And you're like, oh my god, I
just got here. So it's like maybe this like she
finds comfort in someone who's like trying to like take

(39:24):
care of her in a way, like not even just
take care of her, but like reach out. Like it's
like this like kind of a peace offering of like, hey,
I brought you this. Obviously Autie at the time didn't
realize she was a vampire, and I don't think our
should realized until the way end, or if he ever
does realize that she can't eat, but like they're really
they're giving her something, and I feel like she because
remember she she goes and sees Auti because she's following

(39:47):
her around. And this is way before hossein AS's father
comes through to try and like hurt her, and she
doesn't do anything. She just talks to AUTI. She's just like,
you know, I don't think you're happy, and Auntie is like,
I honestly don't know anything anymore because of what I've
seen and done and that I feel like in that
moment when she offered her the plum, there was kind

(40:10):
of like a change in her, like she was like
looking at the plum like, oh, this is almost like
this offering to me. And then all of a sudden,
like she became like a like someone who was watching
over Autie to make sure she was safe. Like it
was as if I don't even know, like somehow the
cat informed her, like she was able through the cat
to see that Autie was in trouble, and she like

(40:30):
showed up to help her. I'm telling you, the cat
is the most important character. There was like there are
some themes in this movie where I'm like, I don't
know if I'm smart enough there where when she can
see through the cat, it seems I'm like there is
this And again I'm like I wasn't sure what what

(40:52):
the ultimate point of what they were trying to say was,
but it was like some through line of like surveillance
and like being why touched and an omniscient all seeing
element to this story that I don't know, that kind
of for me, it didn't fall here nor there because
it's like, we we like the girl and to an extent,
we're kind of rooting for her to get pulled out

(41:15):
of this loneliness, but she is this kind of like
omniscient surveillance character that it knows everything about everyone too,
so and she can see through cats. I don't know,
I'm like, maybe that's just something fun in the movie.
I don't know. Well, I looked it up and it
said vampires are traditionally either cats or wolves, like in
like lore whatever, Wait, what about bats? I thought vampires

(41:38):
were bats? Yeah, I guess bats. I mean I only
looked at I literally googled vampires and cats, so it
could go either or Yeah. What is it the movie
Ghost where like there's a cat that like senses the
presence of Patrick Swayzy's ghost. Am I remembering that correctly?
Cats that are are just supernatural little creatures? I also,

(42:02):
I felt, so I'm if I'm assuming how a vampire
exists based on my own kind of basic knowledge of
vampires and in popular culture and movies and all that
they are old souls because we don't know how long
the girl has been a vampire, Like, we don't know
how long she's just existed in this form, And a
part of me was like, maybe she's a lot older

(42:23):
than we realized, because she wears a chow door, which is,
you know, the black cloak she puts on herself, which
is traditionally in Iran only kind of worned by older
women because it's kind of like a it's from a
different era, if you will, of Iranian culture, like now
the women all kind of wear like more like stylish,
kind of like head wrapped scarf situations he jobs, if

(42:45):
you will. But like her aesthetic was very like almost
like older Iranian woman, Like she's very like her simple.
She always had one shirt, striped shirts, jeans, whatever, shoes
and then the chad door didn't even have her years
Pierce do you have? Everything about her was very like
dated in a way, so which makes me think like

(43:05):
she like even the music she listened to. Of course,
I don't know what era this is supposed to be
taking place, because our ash did kind of have like
this James Dean style with but like all the tech was,
you know, like the tech, and like uh said, the
Pimps House was also very current, so it's like this
kind of a mash up of eras. But she listened

(43:26):
to like what felt like kind of like new wave
American music. So like I was trying to get, like,
maybe she's a lot older than we realize, so she
just kind of has her sensibilities about it, Like she
has her her way of doing things, which is I
guess an housed people whatever, kill them, who cares or whatever.

(43:47):
So she could also have that kind of dated view
on that of like you know versus us who are
like okay, you know, those are also people and you
need to respect them just because they don't live in
a home, like a classical situation of what you a
person should live like in order to be respected. Like
she just might not have that because she's from a
different era or generations, like a boomer vampire. Yeah, exactly,

(44:10):
Like she could be a boomer in that sense of
like she just doesn't respect life unless you're, like I
don't know, living with a roof under your head or
over your head or something like. That's what I was thinking,
possibly that she might just be not that it's an excuse,
but yeah, I was curious about your thoughts on that,
because there there were like, as I was reading through,

(44:32):
just kind of I mean, it's interesting because because this
movie is like classified as horror, people write about it
every October. Uh, and we're releasing this episode in October,
and several pieces by Iranian writers as well, and a
lot of different writers have a lot of different takes
on what the symbolism of her wearing the trade or

(44:54):
seems I mean, And from what I could find, the
director never really stated it because that she doesn't really
want to influence people's opinions. But I found a read
of it that was suggesting that it might be a
sign of protest because I and I didn't know this,
but I guess that in like the late sixties early seventies,

(45:17):
the shador could be worn as a sign of protest.
I saw the read you're talking about where it's like
she is representing uh, prior generation, and yeah, I don't
know if everyone has a different take on what her
wearing it means. I read that it could be seen
as political, but Apartment was like, I would understand that

(45:38):
because maybe in the sixties, because the revolution happened in
seventy nine, so in the sixties and seventies it was
a very westernized country under the shaw Uh Patavi, who
he was in the pocket of the American CIA, like
he if you paid him enough money, he would do
as he would do what you wanted. So, um, I
could see that like maybe the more religious people who

(46:00):
like Iran has lost its way, we're Muslim and we're
out here people are just doing whatever they want, would
potentially still continue to cover up because they felt it
was to be more modest. But later on, after the
revolution happened and it became an Islamic republic, you have
to cover up. So that's kind of this interesting thing

(46:20):
of like I don't fully understand the political statement necessarily
in this movie, And of course it could be because
I am not smart enough. I am fully willing to
give that over. I don't know fully because it's like,
is your statement that we as a people went too
far and we were corrected or are we still trying

(46:42):
to correct I don't know. See, I don't know. I'm
not smart enough. Sorry, would be like laughing maniacally at
this discussion because she just scared out because I have
a quote here from a Wired article that kind of
profiles the director. They're discussing the film setting, which is

(47:04):
this again fictional ghost town, bad City, sakers Field as well.
I read that right. It was shot in California, but
she grew up in California. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyway, so
quote from this article talking about Bad City as being
quote a place full of loners, gangsters, junkies, and the

(47:26):
love lorn and a vampire known only is the Girl.
The thing tying them all together is that they're on
the margins of their respective societies. This is particularly true
of the character Rockabilly, who never speaks but serves as
a silent watcher in Drag and Then here is a
quote from the director herself saying, if there's one political

(47:50):
thing in the movie, it's not the edd or it's Rockabilly,
because it's not okay to be gay in Iran and
quote and we can talk about this Rockabilly character are
kind of on a separate discussion. But she the point
here is that it was not intentional for the use
of the child or to be like a political statement
like that was not her intention. I was watching an

(48:12):
interview where she just like got her hands on one,
and she's like, oh, this would just be a really
cool thing to put a vampire character in, especially if
she's like riding around on a skateboard. So it was
more like almost like an aesthetic choice than a any
sort of like symbolic or political statement that she was
trying to make. I was wondering because I was like,

(48:32):
the chold Door has a very cape like aesthetic to it. Yeah,
and it's somewhat mimicked or ashes like Dracula cape earlier
in the movie of like Oh, it's it's just he's
like trying to create the style of like the vampire,
and she just has her own cultural version of it,
which is the chold Door. It's almost like she's just
like a caped crusader, you know, Like I guess certain, yeah,

(48:59):
I really, I don't know. I like respect this ship
out of how you know, she like kind of like
rolls her eyes at some of the because it is
I mean, it's like and we are not spared from
this of like the way that people interpret movies in
ways they're like that was just a choice of necessity
or like I liked how that looked, um like how

(49:19):
um Alonso Kuran was like, I just like the color green.
It has no symbolic purpose and a little princess. I
just like green. And everyone's like, but there's forty essays
on like the use of green, and and like this
is movies, it's literature, it's everything. We're just I don't know.
I like when directors are like, shut up, Like no,

(49:41):
I just like the way it looked. It looked the
way I wanted it to look. Um, but there are
there are limitless takes on a lot of things that
the director is very firm on. Like that was not
in my head, that was not my intention, But go on,
I guess like, so um, I like that. Let's take

(50:02):
a quick break and then we'll come right back for
more discussion, and we're back. I wanted to kind of
just speak briefly because I've only I would need to
do a deeper dive about vampire lore and like the

(50:23):
the history of the representation of vampires in media and
then the kind of specifically for our purposes of like
representation of vampires in popular movies, but like, but in general,
just like with my peripheral knowledge about it, vampire lore
is generally like about vampires who are coded as men

(50:46):
who generally prey upon and or brutalize women, and even
like updated contemporary like pop culture versions of vampire lore
like Twilight, for example, it's still like a male vampire
preying upon and emotionally abusing a human woman, and that

(51:08):
just seems to be the trend or way vampires and
more insidious that there are female vampires present in all
of these stories, but they're always in the way, way
way way back of the story. Like it's I feel
like it's like a sub sub sub bcdel test kind
of thing where it seems pretty common that it's like,

(51:31):
oh and here's his female vampire assistant sister mother. Like
you see female vampires around, I mean even in Twilight,
like you're like, there there are a ton of women,
but like did they get to do anything? No, not much,
or like in an interview with a vampire where like
tiny Kirsten Dunst is like a child vampire but she

(51:53):
means you love to see her. But same. But my
one of my other favorite vampire flicks, The Little Vampire. Uh,
not familiar with that. Oh my god, I really want
to cover it on the Matreon. I am remembering um
but an iconic kids vampire movie where there is another

(52:14):
little sister vampire who's there to be like he, but
like you know, there there's not a larger story, so
you know, justice for female vampires. This is the end
this movie. This just that's the point I would eventually
arrive at, which is that this movie is a very
nice subversion of what we have come to know just

(52:37):
sort of culturally as what vampires tend to be. Because
this movie completely turns out all on its head. And
I really appreciate that about this film. Women as Predators.
We love to see it. We've been talking about the
girl quite a bit and I wanted to, I guess

(53:00):
discuss there's a lot of overlap her relationship and and
the other female character in the movie, so Ati, So
there is I would say of the relationships, I feel
like there's I guess three relationships in this movie that
we see in more depth, which is the girl and

(53:22):
at the girl and Rash and Rash and his father
and Rash and his cat and and the can the
cat and the girl and the cat, and the cat
has an important relationship with everybody. The cat gets around
is the fast effect of as of a cat with
no name stars meaningfully at a vampire woman. Yes, yes

(53:46):
it does, and they don't mention a man. Interesting, but
Ati is the Smurfette of Bad City. She's the only
human woman we see besides actually besides rash and where, Yes,
we got a nose job. Coincidentally enough, I was like,
is that the most Persian thing ever to just show
up and have like a post nose job. I was like,

(54:08):
what the she got a nose job? Are you kidding me?
That was the one thing I was kind of offended by.
I was like, come on, we don't need a Persian
woman with a nose job. We all have our cousins
who tell you when they see you, you're so lucky
you don't have to get a post a nose job.
Like so just my cousins will say that to me,
like you are so lucky, you don't need a nose job,

(54:29):
And I'm like, you don't either, Like you actually don't either.
You're just being like you're being mind fucked into believing
that you need to meet a certain standard, but in reality,
you don't need a nose job. So I don't know
that was I didn't. I mean, it's very Persian, but
I didn't think they needed to include maybe other than
to show that Shada was like a very like she
very into her looks. What does that work. Yes, they're

(54:50):
trying to show hers like a vain person. But like
to me, I was like, god, damn it. I was
curious about that too, because it's for I guess. I mean,
let's talk about Shadea for a second, because she's in
the movie briefly. But I feel I was What I'm
like is was the fact that she had gotten a
nose job for these restrictive kind of cultural reasons. Like

(55:10):
I felt like I was supposed to make you not
like her, which sucks, Like I I that choice was
strange to me. There's a lot of interesting things that
go on an Iran that are totally like okay, Like
having facial work done like a nose job is actually
like no one even remotely like we'll look down on you,
not like here where you're like no, no. It was

(55:32):
a deviated symptom. I had to and everyone's like, oh
my god, sure you know. Like there it's like it's
like a rite of passage. You're like offered a nose job.
Like I remember when I was young, my dad said,
we'll just let me know if you ever need a
nose if you ever want a nose job, And I
was like, what the fuck, Like that's a very common
thing to have done, and I have multiple cousins who

(55:54):
have had nose jobs done, and um, it's just not
looked down upon. It's culture really completely okay. A lot
of women tattooed their eyeliner on, a lot of women
tattooed their eyebrows on. That's there's nothing. I don't know why,
but it's just completely culturally acceptable to do such things.
So while it is like a very strict culture like

(56:15):
these things, within like the more affluent communities, it's it's
almost normal to get such things done. Like I remember
I was in Iran recently and my cousin every morning
had eyeliner on, and I just like it wasn't computing
to me that it was tattooed on. And I was like,
how do you do your makeup every morning? Like you
have kids? Like you just look so like ready to
go every morning, and she's like, no, these are this

(56:37):
like wingtip is tattooed on my face, like I don't
do anything. And I was like, oh, to me, that
was like shocking. But to her, she's like, what a
weird question. No, I would not do my makeup. I
just had it permanently put on, and like you could
do like you could tattoo your lips and get like
forever lipstick on if you want it, and it's okay,

(57:00):
it lonks like it saves a lot of time. But yeah,
I felt like, and I don't let me know if
you agree, but I felt like the way she does
nose job was presented was in a way to be like, oh,
she's so vain and we don't like her, which didn't
feel very fair, right. I didn't like that. I didn't
like that they were trying to be like this girl

(57:20):
so into herself and she sucks, and I was like, oh, okay,
well all right, yeah okay. I interpreted her character as
almost like the function of her was to characterize Rash
a little bit more, because we see her twice in
the movie. The first time is when he is in

(57:41):
her bedroom because her like TV is on the fritz,
and he's like, it's gonna take me a while to
fix this, so let me stay here and fix your TV.
You should go because it's inappropriate, like your parents are
going to think it's inappropriate if, like me, a man
is alone in your bedroom with you here. So I
and GE's like showing that he kind of has this

(58:02):
moral compass at least when it comes to like respectability
of women. But then he steals her earrings. That is
very common for men and women to not be alone
together an Iran unless there's like family, So that was
while it was used as a tool to like steal
from her. That it's like he took this like cultural

(58:25):
thing that goes on and used it for his own
like dark reasoning. But it's very real. But I also
just want to point out that I think they were
trying to make Shadea look shitty or like vain and
just like annoying to almost give our ash the okay
to steal from her, right, like they're used to justify,

(58:47):
justify or like make you feel because yeah, I guess
that that is kind of like because we like him
and we're not supposed to like when people steal, So
how do you get around that make the person he's
stealing from like of all? But then he also used
a cultural stereotyped for his own dark knees. I don't know,
there's there's so many like what is it, Like, God,

(59:09):
I'm so I'm like losing all my words stays because
I haven't enough coffee. But like he's an antagonist in
a way because it's like I I didn't trust him
from the beginning of when he like the second he
took the drugs to start selling them, I was like,
this is just not a good person. He Well, that's
the thing is that, like he like the girl the Vampire,
his like moral code is like pretty murky. It's pretty

(59:32):
gray area because like so in that at the end
of that scene when he's in Shadow's room, he's like,
you know, you better leave, it's inappropriate, and then she
kind of like flirts with him, like makes this almost
like mini pass at him, and then leaves. And then
later the second time we see here in the movie
is at that costume party where he's dressed as Dracula.

(59:54):
He has taken the ecstasy at her suggestion, but she
only also has ecstasy because he gave it to her.
But then also like he's like tripping on e or
whatever you do when you're on ecstasy. Again, I don't
understand drugs, but he then tries to surprise kiss her
and she's like no, no, no, no, like what are

(01:00:15):
you doing? And I think a lot of the at
least for part of the movie, the tension comes from
the audience being like wondering whether or not the vampire
is going to like deem him worthy as a victim
of hers because he has engaged in some kind of
sketchy behavior. So it's like, is that enough for her

(01:00:38):
to want to eat him and kill him? Because you know,
he almost he tries to surprise kiss a woman. He
like kind of springs a random hug on the vampire
because he's like, you're so cold, not knowing that she's
a vampire, and he's like, let me hug you to
warm me with the reason by being like he th
high or like that right right right. So it's like

(01:01:01):
it almost seems like he's he's crossed the line or
he's going to cross the line several times and that
and it's like, oh, no, is she gonna is she
gonna kill him? But instead they fall in love. So like,
to me, like Shadah's function in the story was mostly
too like give him opportunities to kind of display some

(01:01:22):
of this like moral gray area behavior. I guess, yeah,
my read of her was more of like saying something
about class, but doing it in a way that was
kind of cruel to Iranian woman like women, because she
is the only I mean, unless you you count Mr.

(01:01:42):
Track Suit, she is the only character of means that
we see in this movie. And so I I felt
a little bit of like, I don't know, just like
kind of a stockish, rich girl character um being shown
through her, and you know, we're not on the side
of that character for the most part. And I think

(01:02:04):
it kind of sucks at the way that that statement
that people generally agree with is made through saying things
that are like disparaging about women making choices about their bodies,
whether it's a nose job or a no nose job,
or like wanting to kiss someone or not wanting to
kiss someone. Right, So yeah, I don't know that that

(01:02:25):
just was for me, like just not incredible writing choices. UM.
I think she was going for a statement on class there.
I don't know, she wouldn't tell us probably, but yeah,
I just felt like saying one thing that I agree
with at the expense of I don't know, I just
felt like bizarre, bizarre, right, because like when asked if

(01:02:48):
like she intentionally made a feminist film, or like asked, like,
do you find your film to be feminist? The director
was like, uh no, these full blosophies are a disease
for which they claim to be the cure, and like
some basically, I mean, I think, like you said, Jamie,
she's not necessarily coming down against feminism as a concept.

(01:03:12):
It's more that, like, my intention to make this movie
was to just show characters doing their things and living
their lives. She says, quote, I would have become a
teacher or activist or something if I was trying to
tell you stuff. I get more excited when people are
asking their own questions and seeing their own stuff and quote.

(01:03:35):
So she's just encouraging more like active participation as a
movie going audience, and just encouraging people to kind of
think for themselves and interpret things how they want. And
because many people have interpreted this as a feminist text,
which like, I very much see that, I would I
would classify that this movie as such. But it's less

(01:03:58):
that like the director made this movie with that intention,
and more that she's just like, these are the things
that I wanted to happen in my movie. This is
the character's story that I wanted to tell interpreted however
you want. So that was interesting to me. Um, yeah,
I really, I I really, I don't know. At first
I was kind of like, whoa, But the more I
read of what she was saying, I think I agree

(01:04:21):
with her more than I don't. Where Yeah, I think
a lot of the poll quotes that are taken from
her kind of frame her in an unflattering light where
if you read the full quote, there's actually quite a
bit there where like that quote continues to say, like
I just am resistant to categorization in general. She she says,
a film is like a mirror what I connect with

(01:04:42):
when a movie is my own stuff. You know, everybody
in the world in the film, in my mind, is
much more than what you see on the surface. All
people underneath have strange, weird secrets inside, and when you
get to those things, that makes you re evaluate the
outside and reevaluate your assumptions. That's what I'm interested in.
It's not is um All of those things can fine
your thinking because they tell you this is what it is,

(01:05:02):
and then it's done. I think everything just has to
be considered in its own individual space and time, which
I think is fair, and I think that that speaks
to pressures that marginalized filmmakers undergo in general, of like,
you know, like these are not questions that you would
here asked of Christopher Nolan, And I think resistance to

(01:05:25):
being put in a box because you are who you are,
even if it's well intentioned, and even if it's like
being presented as like, no, I'm trying to say something
positive about your movie. I can see why that would
be frustrating of like, well, funck, you evaluate my movie
the way you would evaluate anyone's movie, right, So yeah,
I I there were some pull quotes that I'm like,

(01:05:46):
I don't I wonder what she would say about this now,
But in general, her reaction to those questions made me
think a little bit about my approach to stuff too,
and like my approach to movies in general, where I
want I mean, it's I like the quote about like
whatever the movie is a mirror, which is very like
you know, freshman year film school. But we are coming

(01:06:09):
into this wanting to see feminism in horror, and so
we see that, you know, if if certain elements are there.
So I don't know, I thought, I've just been in
a real thought bubble about this director, about this movie.
Also the irony she I mean, she mentions a mirror,
but the irony of vampires not being able to look

(01:06:31):
in the mirror because they don't have a reflection, which
is why she puts that scene where she's putting on
um eyeliner and lipstick. She's not doing it in front
of a mirror because there's no point because she doesn't
have a reflection. She's just having to Like I don't know,
she's freeball it or whatever. I didn't even notice that. Yeah,
I didn't notice it until they watched an interview where

(01:06:53):
they pointed it out. But it's still pretty cool. Oh
there's I wish I didn't have time to do it,
but I want to see like a map of like
what her I guess it's her apartment, but I'm like vampire,
so it's her layer. Um, but I liked her layer
a lot. The one thing I was able to find

(01:07:14):
of like because I was watching I was watching it
on the computers. I'm like, I can't really see what
this is. But um, there was like a picture of
Margaret Atwood style to look like a Madonna album cover.
Like there's a lot of fun, weird touches in there
that I'm sure to tell you more about who she is,
what time she said in where I guess that that

(01:07:36):
the Madonna aesthetic feeds into the new wave like eighties era.
I don't know, is she in eighties Vampire? Well, speaking
of just watching a bunch of interviews and finding out
information on a Lily, A mere Port says in an
interview that the girl is I think she said a
hundred and eighties seven years old. Um, we don't learn

(01:08:00):
this in the movie at all, like Edward Cullen specificity. Yeah, right,
so she's basically as old as I Frankenstein. Um, but incredible, incredible,
Um so yeah, I mean maybe I don't know. Like
there's the girl. The character of the girl is just

(01:08:24):
fascinating to me. She's hard to discuss. I like it,
you like it because it's not I think that sometimes
we come into stuff and in general like we're like, Okay,
a feminist film has this, this and this, if this
is the villain, this is what should happen, and when
these things happen, I'm smiling. But which in some ways
is great and for some movies that works perfectly, But

(01:08:46):
I also get how that's like limiting in a lot
of ways, like they're I like that. She's hard to
talk about, like it because she makes good choices and
bad choices like people like a person and she's not
even a person because like in vampire mythology, vampires like
don't have a soul, which you know, interpret what a

(01:09:08):
soul is how you will. But you know, most people
would interpret that as some kind of like moral compass
or I mean, I guess that's how I would interpret
a soul. But yeah, I mean she she has what
seems like an agenda most of the time. She's like
out there protecting women from or protecting a woman woman

(01:09:34):
from a couple bad guys. But do you think that
she would hesitate to kill a woman if it came
down to it, Because I don't think she would. I
don't know, Yeah, I don't think she would. Yeah, it's hard.
It's hard to say, I think, right, because she does
just sort of seemingly at random because she's hungry kill

(01:09:56):
that unhoused man like so and she apropos of nothing,
terrifies an adorable skateboard child. Ye, like she does sucked
up stuff. I feel like she would kill our ash
if she ever witnessed him do something truly tragic right
In fact, like the movie fades out when they they're

(01:10:18):
driving off, like with the cat in the car. The
cat is present a great actor, but like, I don't know,
maybe ten minutes later she like says something fucked up
or like tries to kiss her and she's like, you
know what, I've had enough of you, and then kills him.
We don't know, Well, we don't know what he's going
to do with her, because he's clearly figured out that

(01:10:39):
she killed his father, and it's like whether or not
he has come to terms with it and decided it's
actually a good thing is unclear. Like he gets out
of the car at one point looks very stressed out,
but then gets in like funk it, let's just go.
But we don't know if his mind's going to change
within a few minutes of like wait, no, fuck you,
you killed my dad because he loves because he does love,

(01:11:02):
he loves his dad, And there I don't know. It's
like we don't in movies in general, you don't often
see like a kid with an addict parent and all
of the complications and like horrible moments that come with
that and this is like escalated because we're in bad city.

(01:11:23):
But I thought, like, I think he like loves his dad.
He was protecting him even when his his dad's addiction
was really hurting him. And there's that small like another
cool moral moment is like I had the smallest bit
of like, I don't know, you see Josan do something,
commit a crime, something completely unconsfortable where he forces Ati

(01:11:48):
to take heroin. He you know, sedates her. It seems
like he's going to fully assault her sexually. But the
movie has established him as someone that our protagonist loves,
and so there's like the smallest part of me that
when he was killed, you're like, okay, like that makes
sense that like the girl that's that is someone that

(01:12:10):
the girl would kill and it makes sense why she's
doing it. But you're like, oh, but it's a Rash's
dad and he loves his dad, and like, I don't know,
there was another like complicated brain. Yeah, wait, here's something
that just occurred to me. I feel like Rash figured
out right away that she was a vampire because she

(01:12:31):
like comes down the stairs after killing the pimp and
she I think she still has blood all over her,
like all over her mouth. But even if that's not
the case, he like goes up into his house and
then the pimp is dead, so like all he has
to do is just like connect to dots and be like,
I think she's a vampire. Because then later, I mean,
why do you think he dresses as Dracula to the

(01:12:54):
to the party because he knows. And then he when
he writes that note on her door and he's like,
meet made by the power plant at ten pm because
he knows that she can only come out after dark.
And then I that just reminded me of Titanic. When
I saw it, I was like, oh, someone past meet
him somewhere at a time. Culture make it count. Meet

(01:13:15):
me by the clock should make account. I'm document, it
shouldn't made account. Meet me by the clock at the
power plant. Um. Anyway, I think it just occurred to
me that I think maybe he's either maybe not consciously knew,
but I think he subconsciously knew that she was a
vampire this whole time. And then and then when he's like, oh, wait,
my cat is here. That was my dad's cat, who's dead. Now,

(01:13:37):
why do you have my dead dad's cat? Then that
really solidified his thinking. But I think he knew the
whole time. It's interesting that no one ever acknowledges like,
like there's never athing, Like there's people dying and they're
always puncture wounds on their neck, right, no one ever
really acknowledges the c s I of it. Well, yeah,
where's the crime scene investigation? Have a bad city? A

(01:14:02):
lot of people are dying with Well, must be a dog, right,
she whiz. There's also a whole ditch full of dead
body that you're right, Oh my god, I forgot all
about that. No one are ash in the first scene,
walks right by it, like, hey, yeah, you know that ditch?
You know how that is? That's that's bad city baby. Anyway,

(01:14:25):
I feel like the movie kind of demonizes addiction in
a way that I don't think is really fair. I
think a lot of people misunderstand drug addiction and like
don't treat it as like the mental illness that it
often is, and you know, and it kind of goes
with the stigma of mental illness anyway, So I feel

(01:14:45):
like the movie kind of miss hunt handles that a
little bit. But I see that. But I also think
that we get good moments with Jossin where he's not
universally characterized as a villain necessarily, like there you see
the manipulative forces in his life. You understand, you know,
I don't know. The movie certainly doesn't say explicitly that

(01:15:08):
it's a disease, and it's not perfect, but I don't know.
I thought it was better than a lot of portrayals
of addiction that you see it because you see his
family life, you get background, you see that he's you know,
he he doesn't have the resources to escape this. He's
not being given the resources to escape which is the

(01:15:28):
problem with addiction so much of the time is that
you know, it's not insurmountable in all cases, but but
it's just a lack of access and there's you know,
it's a bad city. I thought it's a very interesting
portrayal of like an older family man who becomes addicted
to heroin because it's like you hear a lot about it.

(01:15:49):
People start doing opiates because that they're paying whatever, they
become addicted and then you know, because it's cheaper to
just do heroin straight, that's what happens, and that's kind
of what leads to a lot of death and whatever.
Outside of like the cutting of fentanyl into these drugs.
But like, I thought that was an interesting portrayal because
I wasn't expecting the dad to be just a full

(01:16:10):
blown heroin attic Like that actually took me by surprise,
because you don't you if you would see a man
like that on the street, you'd be like, Okay, in
my case, that's an older Iranian man. He's a family man.
I would never guess that he was on heroin. Like
there was kind of this kind of like stereotype breaking

(01:16:30):
aspect of that, Like I wasn't expecting it. It It could
be like it was almost like it could be your father,
and and that was kind of like, I mean, it
hit home because I've had like family members who have
gotten caught up in things like this, and it's like
you never you never know what someone's going through. And
that was very interesting to me. You don't know, you
don't know what this man is doing, what he's shooting

(01:16:52):
in between his toes at night, like you just genuinely
don't know. And he could just look like any other
old Persian man and he would just be like, oh
what I didn't what I didn't I guess the plot
point that I didn't like was conflating his addiction with
being a sex person like that. That's what I'm That's
what I'm what I'm saying. It's mishandling it going from

(01:17:14):
I mean and it it's yeah, like including those two
plot points and the same character, like it wasn't necessary.
I thought the father's son aspect of like seeing a
parent who is struggling with addiction in a very immediate
way and the tension and the complications that come with
your own child like that didn't bother me as much, um,

(01:17:38):
but but it was. It was the second he is,
you know, kicked out by his son and you understand,
at least plot wise, why Irash is doing that. I
don't know, it made sense to me in the story.
But but the fact that he immediately goes and assaults
the only woman that he's been harassing for the entire movie. Yeah,

(01:17:59):
those plot points I I don't think it needed to
be connected. And that's what I mean. That is like
a difficult scene to watch because we getting back to
a t in that scene. I mean, she she is
repeatedly mistreated by men in Bad City. We first see
her with said who just is really giving her a

(01:18:21):
laundry list of like sexist things to say. It's like,
how old are you? I'm thirty. Oh, you're getting pretty
old that you want kids. Just every like lazy sexist
thing you can think of to say. He, you know,
kind of demands sex from her, then refuses to pay her.
When she gets upset about this, he assaulted. He pushes

(01:18:42):
her to the ground. Then later on the other person
that you see her with, who is I mean, it
seems like because Josean has been given some money by
a raj, he's paying her as well. But then he
crosses a line and she says, no, I don't want
to have sex with you, over and over and over,

(01:19:04):
and he responds by grabbing her, pulling her down and
sedating her. So it's just like a direct assault. And
I thought it was that she didn't want to do
Heroin with him, Like he was trying to be like,
let's do Heroin together, and she kept like, no, I
don't want to do he because he said he kept
saying like, let's have a good time. Let's have a
good time, like yeah, and I thought that was him

(01:19:26):
being like, let's do Heroin together. I think it's open
to interpretation. Yeah, I feel like Ati just is brutally
put through the ringer in this movie, And yeah, I
thought it was. I. I guess I don't really know

(01:19:47):
where I land on how she's treated. I mean, I
think that it's like saying one thing that it's it's
sex workers are certainly frequently mistreated and their boundaries are
crossed and they're not respected. And seeing that reflected, it
was like, okay, that is, you know, certainly something that exists.
I don't know. And then and then the girl comes

(01:20:07):
into her life, and I don't know. This is another
thing where I'm just like I don't know how to
feel or I kind of know how I feel. Where
the girl and Auntie meet formally right, and they hang
out because the girl is following her around because that's
that's her thing that she loves to follow. She is

(01:20:28):
a camera, she's a dolly following at but but at
like Rash doesn't react with like terror. She just says like,
what are you doing? Do you want to talk like

(01:20:49):
and appeals to her need for company. So they hang out.
And then and this was the point where I wasn't
totally sure if the girl like truly knew healthy people
felt or if she was just because there's a scene
that's the first scene with them. She basically tells at
how she feels about her life and about her profession,

(01:21:11):
and in some ways that I think are perpetuating negative
stereotypes about how sex workers view themselves in their profession,
where it's I don't know, I guess portraying it as
the norm of like you couldn't possibly enjoy this job,
you couldn't possibly feel pleasure if you have this job,
and all these kind of common stereotypes that the girl

(01:21:33):
is presenting to a t as fact and at is like, wow,
I feel seen right which apartment was? Like is that
the like boomer Iranian culture that the girl is coming from?
Like that's because in any other case, if you're interacting
with Iranians who are kind of deeply embedded in their culture,

(01:21:54):
they're just not like if you will woke in that manner,
Like I have friends who are my same h who
would probably be like, you would never want to be
a sex worker, Like they would talk down about something
like that versus someone like me who's more involved in
like social justice work. If you will. I hate to
say such words like weke and social justice right now.
But like I, I have maybe more of an open

(01:22:17):
view of such things. But if I were to today
today call my dad and be like, what do you
think of sex work? He's a culturally boomer Iranian man,
he'd be like, why would you even ask me about this?
That's not a good thing, Like they I think, I
feel like she comes from that era, and and so
does kind of utty, and it's like all viewed from
this like Iranian cultured lens of like kind of less

(01:22:40):
open mindedness. That's like how I was kind of seeing it,
because I think as soon as I watch a film
that's in FARSI I immediately assume that things might not
be as open minded and as progressive as I would
hope they be. But I don't know that the director
is like Iranian American woman, so I don't know exactly.
Of course, she's just waiting for us to like dig

(01:23:01):
too deep. I'm so yeah that that was another that
I wasn't. I just wasn't because plot wise, what we
know of autis experience in sex work. It stands to
reason that she doesn't enjoy what she's doing, and it's
because we've only seen her get abused. But again, it's like,

(01:23:23):
you know, you didn't need to make that plot choice,
but it would also feel, I guess, kind of off
center for a sex worker to feel very safe and
respected in bad city. So it's just kind of another
thing where I just like, I just I don't love
how that scene plays out, especially because it's like one
of the only scenes where women are talking to each

(01:23:44):
other and it does pass the back deal test, but
it's like, don't you just hate your life? And the
woman's like, yes, I do, which now when I say
it out loud, I have that conversation every day. Um,
but you know what I mean that that was an
that was like a loaded scene in a lot of ways,
and I can see a lot of different interpretations. And again,

(01:24:07):
if any listeners that are sex workers, I'd love to
know your take. Yeah. Indeed, another thing I wanted to
talk about a little bit that we already referenced from
a quote that I read earlier, but the Rockabilly character,
and that is the character who who we see in

(01:24:29):
a few different scenes that we don't know exactly how
they identified because this character does not speak words. They
don't speak. They're seen dancing around at some point, I
thought it was interesting to include that character because there's
no real function they serve as far as I can

(01:24:53):
tell on the kind of a surface level in the narrative.
Maybe it's some sort of like allegorical thing or symbolic
thing that I just wasn't super picking up on me
like a an art movie. Yeah, I just I And
and like with the quote that we read earlier, I mean, well,
she she basically said explicitly that, um, where so many

(01:25:17):
reviewers and viewers were saying that, um, this movie was
an outright political movie, that the only thing she viewed
as a political statement was Rockabilly because of how queerness
is dealt with by Iranian culture, which is something where
we want to know more about from you on a UM,

(01:25:39):
it's I mean, I kind of only know the basics.
I wish that we got to know this character better
and had like a fully developed queer character. But I
am happy for Rockabilly's presence. Yeah, same, I agree. I
kind of wish we saw more of Rockabilly because like
the first shot, I believe they were just standing around

(01:26:00):
when our ash was walking by or maybe a site
I'm blanking now, and we see them pretty it's a
quick shot, and I think like in the moment, I
didn't really register who that was. And then later when
we we kind of see them pop up around the movie,
but we don't get like a full interaction until they're

(01:26:20):
dancing for us, I kind of wanted more, Like I
was like, maybe this character will interact with the girl,
or maybe this character will interact with Ash, but like
or even like Hossein the Father or even Ati, but
like it was almost as if it was this this
character that was placed. There's like all knowing, they see
everything as well, they know what's going on, and they're

(01:26:41):
just kind of like they're just like almost like reveling
in like all the madness around them of like Bad City.
But I was kind of hoping for more because I
was like, Okay, oh, all right, now this character is
dancing for us, but then they just don't really know why.
I was hoping that something was going to like pay
off there, you know, whereas like they're seeing this character

(01:27:02):
kind of in almost seems like being used as a
transitional tool to get you from sequence to sequence, And
I was hoping because I was, I mean, I did
really enjoy this movie. I was like, oh, maybe that
is just like a very long con of a plant
and then there's going to be a payoff and that
this character will get to do something at some point,
but that just doesn't happen. Yeah, that's what I was

(01:27:24):
hoping as well, right, especially because like we see the girl,
the vampire interact with most other characters we meet, or
every character we meet interacts with someone else that we meet,
except for Rockabilly, who doesn't seem to interact with anyone one.
So because of that, we don't really get any context

(01:27:47):
for who they are, why they're they're, what they're doing.
Are they also a vampire who knows that will be fun?
I mean Rockabilly seems I mean it just based on
how they're framed. We only see them alone really, so
it's like you would think this would be a prime
candidate to be friends with the girl. There's another isolated

(01:28:08):
person that needs someone to talk to hang out with.
That's the girl's bread and butter. She loves lonely people,
it's her addiction. Well, I found an abstract on the internet.
I did too, and then I'm like, I don't have
Yeah I didn't, so I requested it for for for free. Oops. Um,

(01:28:29):
and I have not heard back from them recording. But
what what is this that you requested? So it's it's
a academic piece of writing entitled Queer Utopias and a
Feminist Iranian Vampire A critical analysis of resistive monstrosity and
a Girl Walks Home Alone at Night And the abstract Sorry,

(01:28:54):
I don't know what an abstract is, as it turns out,
but the abstract of this academic piece of writing says this, Yeah, uh,
just the black and white vampire spaghetti western. A Girl
Walks Home Alone at Night follows the narrative of the girl,
a forlorn, trador wearing feminist vampire vigilante in the fictional
world of Bad City. In this queer utopia, the girl

(01:29:16):
prais on immoral men so that she can protect the
female residence of Bad City from the violence of patriarchy.
We explore themes of monstrous feminisms and queer doublings to
consider how the film uses the trope of the vampire
to manifest queer utopias and reflect Iranian and Iranian American
feminist themes. So that's what this academic paper is about.

(01:29:37):
We do not have access to it, can credit if
there if, if, if, and when it comes Caitlin's way
and it changes our whole perspective and read, we will
do a follow up. But I wish I was glad
that there was at least something out there to address that,
because I mean, I understand that, like, not every movie

(01:29:59):
can address you know, every every societal issue, right, and
this movie tackles a lot, But it would not have
been difficult to include Rockabilly in a meaningful way and
in a way that would have elevated the movie, I think,
and like could have fleshed out the characters we already know,
but yeah, they're from what I could tell, no one

(01:30:20):
has really asked that question of the director, and so
we don't really know if that if it was a
decision made very deliberately to have the only character that
she has specifically stated as queer being non speaking, and
we don't even know. You don't know what Rockabilly's name
is unless you like look at the IMDb page, like

(01:30:41):
it's the character is not referenced at all, So it's
like almost, yeah, I have a question. So it sounds
like that like articles saying that she protects the women
from the men, which means that she was just assuming
that unhoused man would be a danger at some point.
That is not okay, So that actually kind of like

(01:31:01):
trying that that's something there is. There are so many
reads of this movie that it makes my head to explode.
A different read I read on this movie and several
different places, was that, okay, get ready for symbolism, that
the girl and the vampire is a stand in for society,

(01:31:25):
because we live in a society. So what it sounds
really corny. The reasoning against it is fairly sound, but
based on what I've read of what the director says,
I doubt it's true. But the read goes as such
that the girl is always killing. You can perceive the
girl killing someone in a way that could be perceived

(01:31:47):
as them kind of like succumbing to a societal ill
or a societal disadvantage. So the moment she kills Hossein
is when he is at the absolute bottom of his addiction,
so her killing him could be seen as him succumbing
to untreated addiction. And the same goes to the read
of her murdering an unhoused person, where there is a

(01:32:11):
read of this that is, well, this is a person
who is succumbing to being completely neglected by society. I
don't agree with it, but I did at least think
it was worth mentioning because it's brought up quite a
bit in reviews and the initial um wave of think

(01:32:31):
pieces about this back in Because I also don't really
see how that plays into the death of the pimp,
because he seems to be toxic masculinity killed. I don't
succumb to full just shitty behavior. Yeah, I mean, but
like men get away with that all the time, and

(01:32:53):
society allows them to do that. So yeah, I don't know.
I think how much I agree with that read. I
don't agree with it. I didn't think it was like
an interesting I don't know. This movie is so fascinating
and the way that the filmmaker treats her own film
is so fascinating that I feel like you get all
these reads that kind of go on challenge because the
filmmakers like whatever you think, what you think, and that

(01:33:16):
like this is like my movie is a mirror to
how you think, and so you kind of have a
wide array of reads on what happens because there's just
not there's no you know, no training wheels. Baby. Yeah,
but yeah, vampire. More like, we live in a society.

(01:33:38):
Society is always biting my neck and trying to kill me.
Ain't that the truth? And yet society refuses to look
at mirror and see itself for what it is. Either way,
I am never going to be like, yeah, totally, I
understand violence against unhoused people. That's the one part it

(01:34:00):
that really throws me because I could get behind like
any sort of like, yes, she's a protector of women,
until she's like yeah, but you know, vampire got a
feed and then you're like, oh okay. I was like,
I'm not like really rooting for you any more. Is
there a single character you guys find yourself rooting for?

(01:34:20):
In my case, I found it to be Auti. Yes, yeah,
I was rooting for Auti, and then um, I was
mostly rooting for Rash, even though there were things he
did that were not good and that he should be
held accountable for, um such as you know, surprised get
saying women while he's high and just kind of I mean,

(01:34:42):
he does make a series of missteps, but considering the
amount of ship he's up against, I was generally rooting
for him and anti just whole I'm all in I
want the best for her, and the fact that she
basically still protects the girl after this murder, which she
didn't have to do, Like, yeah, I just love it

(01:35:03):
because they like she helps Autie helps the girl, like
dom po Sin's body and like she's like, we gotta
get you out of here. We gotta deal with this.
So like you know, they're they're they're helping each other out.
I mean, I am rooting for the girl most of
the time. It's just that one moment where it's it's
a scene that is maybe twenty seconds where she kills

(01:35:26):
a person experiencing homelessness. Get it out of the movie.
Like that little moment just like really makes me lose
a lot of like empathy for her. And and again
it's like we don't know if that was intended, and
like did the director want us to lose empathy for
her in that moment or was it that she just

(01:35:47):
genuinely made a bad or choice I really don't like
in the movie when she could have made that plot
point of like the girl loses her moral code in
a number of different ways, right, she could have smashed
a skateboard, which she would never do, or if we

(01:36:10):
just see another scene where we see a different man.
I mean not that I'm advocating that we see men
harassing women or anything like that, but if there was
something that a man did to behave badly that justified
him getting killed, I would have much rather. But then
that wouldn't have broken her that that wouldn't have broken
her code though really because she would she was going

(01:36:33):
to do that anyway. I don't know, there's there was
definitely maybe I'm a simple maybe I'm simple minded for something,
but I'm just like, I just want her to be
a good following her moral compass the whole time. And
that ain't bad city. I know, you're right. Is there

(01:36:53):
anything anyone else wants to talk about? Jamie brought something
up which was about like queerness in like the Iranian culture,
and I never really say anything about that, but to
expand on that, it is definitely looked down upon. It
is not considered normal in their eyes. That's how Iranian

(01:37:14):
culture like. Yes, there are queer people. There is an
lgbt Q, I A you know, plus community in Iran.
Do they live out like are they able to be comfortable? No?
Obviously not, um I think they kind of there's certain
ways they have to live their lives in order to
um stay hidden and out of you know, the government's eyes.

(01:37:35):
And you know it's not ideal, but the Iranian culture
is not. I mean, it's a Muslim republic, it's a
republic of Islam. And while I don't personally think, and
this is always up to interpretation that the Koran specifically
says that you cannot be gay, a lot of people
have different interpretations of it. I personally certain parts that

(01:37:57):
I've read in research that I've done for like ethnically,
Ambigi is like, I don't think there's any clear wording
that says you can't do it anything, Like I don't know.
Of course, you know, there will always be debates about
this um because like this movie, the corona is up
and for interpretation, you know, like the Bible or whatever.
Like you take it how you want it, and certain
people take it in a more negative, evil sort of

(01:38:19):
route and how they treat people, and other people are like,
I don't see it that way. I don't think it's
explicit that you can't be gay, but because it's such
a strict culture and society, they just they don't under
the big I think the big thing is they don't
understand why, and they don't they will never go out
of their way to understand why because to them, it's
like in a lot of Iranian culture and you'll see

(01:38:42):
this kind of in other Middle Eastern cultures or South
Asian cultures, is it's all about giving the outward expression
of everything is great, and you want to keep everything great,
and everything's about your reputation. So like my family, like whatever,
I mean, my brother were in trouble, like my parents
wouldn't you know, one would ever know. My parents always

(01:39:02):
be like they're doing great, everything's great, everything's lovely, like
to point where you're you know, you're like white knuckled,
like gripped on something like everything guys great. And so
that culturally is what they do. It's very accepted to
hide negative aspects of your life and for them to
be like, okay, well why would you be gay? It
would just make your life harder. And it's not about well,

(01:39:26):
it's not my choice. This is who I am and
this is what makes me happy. They're like, well, why
would you choose something that makes you happy that would
make your life harder? And it's like always this constant
roadblock that I've seen with, you know, like speaking with
family members and even my own parents who now live
in America, but have come a long way in regards
to like cultural things in this country and like leaving

(01:39:48):
behind those like that mindset they had for so long.
Like my mom is a Muslim woman, devout practicing, you know,
praise five times a day, but took her a very
long time and now she's fine. She's like, you do
whatever you want with your own life. But I would say,
like up until like ten years ago, like I was
still having the discussions with her, like, you know, you

(01:40:09):
really can't be judging people like that, Like you yourself
always constantly preached never judging and always having compassion. Because
my mom is actually surprisingly very chill Muslim. Uh. She
doesn't care what you do with your life. She's come
a long way. And I think that's also because she
lives in the Bay Area, and it's like that whole
Berkeley like hippie Muslim. It's a very you know, interesting

(01:40:30):
type of Muslim where they're like, you know, we sing
our own meditation songs and you're like, what, you'll find
those CDs around my parents house. It's very funny to
hear my mom being well, we'll get into another episode,
but so like but she had to come a long way,
and my dad even further, Like with racism, just like
how things work. They're like, it's so deeply built in

(01:40:52):
them to to basically want to go towards like the
white supremacist agenda because that's what they're told for, like
movies and culture and like westernize anything that that to
be the whitest is the best. So when they come
to America, they're like, well, we have to work to
prove ourselves to be white. And it's like everything is

(01:41:13):
like ingrained in them from like systems that were built
by old white rich men. So like they're constantly trying
to understand and be like, but this is what I know,
and you have to be like, no, that's what you
thought you knew. And actually you can have different feelings
towards this once you like meet a person who could
be gay, and then you're like, oh, you're right, their

(01:41:33):
life is like I shouldn't be worried about how hard
their life is going to be or whatever, like what
choices they're making. And I and and I think the
unfortunate thing is the culture has to see outside of themselves,
and in a lot of these experiences, they don't. They
don't have the experience to do so, because it's very
hard to leave Iran, Like it's very hard to get visas,

(01:41:54):
like getting a visity Europe. Like my cousin will be like,
We're going to Italy in three months, and I'm like,
what three months? Okay, Like when we get our visa,
if our visa comes through and you're like okay, and
then you know, then they're able to go see another culture.
Like I have a cousin who was born and raised
in Iran and he recently went to college in Australia,
and like, looking at his Instagram, I'm like, oh, you
just discovered the world. Like you your Instagram is you're

(01:42:18):
just being like guys, I'm at the club and you're
like yeah, okay, Like and it's just like this like
intensity of like look at this whole other place that
I never experienced because I just never got to like
see outside myself. And it's like that's kind of a
weird metaphor. I've been seeing his instagram along being like, dude,
he's always at the club. What have you never been
to a club before? And then it's like, no, he

(01:42:40):
never went to a club before, Like alcohol is illegal
in Iran. Like you don't see these sorts of things,
you know. So like I mean, even I'm curious about him.
I actually want to talk to him, like how he's
seeing maybe more um marginalized communities now that he actually
has the ability to interact and interact with them in

(01:43:00):
open and like talk to them and hear their experiences.
And it's I don't know, it's a tough culture. And
while I do think the Iranian culture is beautiful, there's
a lot of walls built up because they just aren't
able to see outside themselves or outside the culture, and
they just will never have the opportunity to understand or

(01:43:22):
experience why someone is the way they are because again,
you know, queer communities can't live out loud in Iran.
Does that help break things down? I don't know. I
feel like it just went like a thirty minute. Definitely does.
I mean and even just like in contextualizing bad city
of just like that the thought patterns that people are
trapped in there too, that's yeah, yeah, that's that's incredibly helpful.

(01:43:46):
I mean, So then for to look back at the
rockabilly character who seems to be openly like expressing themselves
and expressing their queerness and to like have that be
in the open sound like something that wouldn't necessarily fly
in Iran. But maybe Bad City is, or maybe and

(01:44:07):
then maybe this is what this academic paper is talking about.
It is basically like the girl is just like killing
anyone who might have a problem with queer expression or
queer identities to like create this queer utopia for for
people like the rockabilly to live in. So I'm guessing

(01:44:28):
that's what or you can see it as this is
a character we only ever see on the outskirts of
town alone. Like there's that's true, There's so many And
then the last thing I wanted to bring up was
even this movie is shot in California, it's also made
explicit that Bad City is uh somehow associated with oil
um where we see like a number of shots that

(01:44:50):
are like this is an oil town, which also feels
I mean again, I couldn't find, uh pull quote from
the director addressing this directly, but certainly, you know this
is an Iranian American director who is you know that
is a huge component of the of how those cultures
intersect at least um economically, so M and again, I mean,

(01:45:15):
I just want to acknowledge what a huge fucking thing
it is that not just this movie did so well
and it's kind of already regarded pretty early into its
life as a film as a as a cult classic,
but also that it was released at all. I mean,
it's so. I mean, making this movie, um and getting

(01:45:37):
it funded was a long and difficult process for Anna
Lily Am the Airport. You can read there's a ton
of interviews where she kind of detailed how long it
took to get this movie made it all. And so
the fact that it is out there and incredible and
already kind of has this life of its own is incredible.
She also won the Bingham Ray break Through Director Award

(01:46:01):
at the Gotham Film Festival. Um. So she's got like
a little bit of what what do you call when
you have an award on the shelf? You call it
an award on the shelf some clout, some crediblity, some
institutional ship behind you. And it's also worth mentioning that
this is one of the very few movies written and

(01:46:24):
directed by a woman of color that we've covered on
this show, which is certainly partially on us, and we
need to be continuing to to cover these movies because
they're good fucking movies. But on top of that, I mean,
I think it also is kind of symptomatic of who
is given money and confidence and the ability to get

(01:46:45):
a wide release in Hollywood. Yeah, and let's uh make
it a point to cover more movies on this podcast
that are made by women of color. Yes, And speaking
of women amazing transition. Do they talk to each other
in this movie? Does the movie past the Bechtel test?

(01:47:07):
I think it does between the girl and Atti. And
you could argue with the girl doesn't have a name, um,
which I would counter argue, I think she does. She
is the girl um and in the same way that
Mom is sometimes Mom. Well. Also, like that kind of
caveat of the test, I think applies specifically to characters

(01:47:30):
who we would only see for a few seconds and
they are not important enough to be given a name to. Obviously,
the girl is the protagonist and the one of two
the most important characters in the movie. Uh, So, like
that caveat I think doesn't apply in this scenario. So
I really care about it's the main character yeah. Yeah,

(01:47:53):
she also has like so much agency, like just my
reader that she this is of like a feminist character.
And then and and it would pass affective us, right, yeah,
because she and Auntie talk in a few different scenes
and they are not talking about men. They're talking about
their feelings and what like. She's like, you don't like

(01:48:15):
what you do and you don't even remember what it's
like to want something. Yeah. So, Um, as far as
our nipple scale goes zero to five nipples based on
an intersectional feminist analysis, I would give this a pretty
high rating. I'm inclined to give it like a four

(01:48:36):
or maybe even a four and a half. Um, where
I think it falls short is the couple of things
that we've already discussed in that it almost feels to
me like the girl killing the unhoused person. I don't
know what the intention is there. I'm not convinced there

(01:48:58):
even is a specific meaningful intention. Whatever it is, it's
not clear enough, and I don't like that it happens.
Um And I would have liked to see a more
meaningful inclusion of rockabilly and understand why who they are
and what their circumstances are, how they feel about things,

(01:49:23):
et cetera. So I'll give it a four point to
five generally. You know, I like, I think this movie
is doing a lot of really cool things. I think
it is a feminist text just in it being a
movie about a woman who is a vampire, because also
women don't get to be vampires that much in like lore.

(01:49:45):
It's usually you know, your your draculas and your nose
s ferratos and all of that guy to turn you like,
come on me, Belliswan. The yeah, I mean the fact
that it and this might be an oversimplification of the movie,

(01:50:06):
but it's about a vampire woman who goes around and
for the most part protects women and or protects a
woman and who um fuckx up toxic men. So I
like that about it. I will give it four point
to five nipples. Um, I'll give one to the girl.

(01:50:28):
I'll give one to Autie, I'll give one to the
director on a Lily, Amir Poor, I'll give one to
Elijah Wood, who produced this movie. And then I'll give
my point to five nips to the cat. And I
guess now would be a good time to bring up

(01:50:49):
cat facts with Caitlin, which I really want to dissociate
myself from. So I'm not even gonna say what the
cat fact is. I'm going to just leave it at that.
Anyway I'll go, I'll go four five as well. I'm
docking it for um, the treatment of and housed people
and also conflating uh addiction with sex crimes. Yes, yes,

(01:51:12):
so that is when I'm talking for However, I really
liked this movie. I think it was like really challenging
and cool in a lot of ways. The more I
researched about it, the more I kind of like question
myself and um, what the assumptions I made? And I
don't know, I just on top of everything you've been
talking about kitly and I just like I really felt

(01:51:33):
like challenge in a positive way by this movie. Also,
this is the first Iranian American movie we've ever covered.
You know, she's a first time director. If you look
into the production behind this movie, she had to crowd
fund a good part of it. This was not an
easy movie to make, which you know, goes into a
number of things of why is it so hard for

(01:51:53):
filmmakers that are not white men? And will you know
I'll reference that Wes and or send anecdote again about
how he submitted and you know, sixty pages in Longhand
and was like is this a movie? And then they're
like it's bottle Rocket where honestly I'm important. You know,
she been at it making shorts for years and years

(01:52:15):
and years before she got the opportunity to half crowdfund
her own movie. And it's still fucking amazing, Like that
is so cool, and so I really admire all the
work that went behind this. I want to shout out
the actress who plays the girl, Sheila Vand I did
more look into her body of work as an actress

(01:52:37):
and as just like an artist. She's done a ton
of like really cool um work in the arts space.
So I recommend checking that out. She's really really cool.
And yeah, I just, um, I really loved this movie.
I thought, I thought it addresses so much, but in
a way that doesn't feel like it's you know, bashing
you over the head with it. It's fun. The ending

(01:53:00):
scene really fucked with me. And yeah, I I really
liked it. So I'll give you four point to five,
give two to the girl to to a t and
then point five to the cats or point to five whatever.
Who cares? All Right, Um, well before I gave him
my nips. I didn't want to say, you guys should

(01:53:21):
watch Not Without my Daughter out from Molina film where
her Man. Someone brought this up to us recently. I
like the movie because I saw it when I was young,
so it's like whatever this is. It's like one of
those nostalgic things. But um, I haven't seen it recently,
and I am curious if it holds up. But like
thinking to like they cast Alfred Molina to play an
Iranian man, You're like, what what a time there? Early nineties?

(01:53:45):
Bring him back on the cast. He also he plays
an Armenian character in that movie called Magnolia. Magnolia. Yeah, oh,
I would never watch Magnolia friendly. It's it's simply too long.
It's very long. I do have it on DVD. Embarrassing anyway.
Um so, yes, Anna, what's your nipple? I'm gonna go

(01:54:08):
four point five nips? And that is because I had
You know, I struggle when a movie is like filled
with symbolism and then the directors like figure it out,
because that always just annoys me in away because I'm like,
I'm not smart enough to figure it out. I don't
know what's going on in this movie. It feels like

(01:54:29):
they're symbolism. That cat felt like symbolism. Everything feels like symbolism.
Yet you want me to figure it out myself. Just
give me a hint. What were you thinking? Just tell
me what you were thinking. Um. It takes me back
to like Inception when like whatever his name is, Christopher
Nolan's like it's a movie set, and I'm like, you're

(01:54:49):
wrong about your own the dreams are actually me making
a movie. Like it's like, at least give us something
so I can figure out if I see that or not.
Give me even a little bit of a taste of
what you were thinking so I can decide myself if
I was able to see that. And then when when

(01:55:09):
they don't, and you know, and look, I like on
a lily import like I love her work. I think
she's a great director. I think she has such an
interesting I like this movie was wonderful, but like, don't
be too cool. You know that always bugs me when
they get too cool, when you know, the Vice News
logo or whatever comes up and I'm like or Vice Entertainment.
I'm like, man, she's too cool for us. Um, But again, yes,

(01:55:34):
I didn't care for the kind of lack of explanation
as to why the girl attacked on housed man. That
really threw me because I really thought I had figured
out what the girl's thing was, and that threw me
for a loop. Yeah, I wish there was more on
Rockabilly incorporating that character into the plot a little more,

(01:55:56):
versus is like this side character as like this kind
in a political statement, but at the same time not
really giving that character any ground to make more of
a political statement, versus just kind of being this like
a little haunting figure around the just around, you know.
But yeah, that's kind of other than that. Like, I
love the film, I love the direction. Um, I would

(01:56:18):
give one nip to the whites of our Ash's eyes.
Oh my god, he's so so milky in those eyes
that scene where he's like realizing that she might be
involved in his father's death and his eyes are just
like moving back and forth, like I felt like I
was swimming in some lactose. But yes, I would give

(01:56:41):
two nips, specifically to that goddamn actor of a cat
like ship. Can we get that cat nominated? Get this
cat franchise for crying out loud? And then I would
give one to Sheilavan the girl. She's great, her like her.
Just the quiet she brought I thought was very well done.

(01:57:04):
What I learned from this movie is that I want
to be friends in Sheila Man. Yeah, yes, Sheila call
us baby, that's like and then um my half nip. Actually,
like this was a very interesting thing to me, of
like portraying an Iranian sex worker. Rarely do you ever

(01:57:25):
see an Iranian sex worker because again, in most Iranian films,
they'd rather not ever like be like, this woman is
a sex worker, because they don't even like to acknowledge
that that would be a thing in their culture, in
their society. And I think seeing that, I don't know,
there was something so like refreshing about it for me

(01:57:46):
to be like, yes, Iranian sex workers exist. They're people,
they do what they have to do to get by,
They make their own choices, they have their own agency,
And that was I don't know, it was really cool,
like I don't I don't even know how to explain
it other than like, I don't think I've ever seen
an Iranian sex worker in any movie I've ever seen
from Iran, Out of Iran by any sort of Iranian

(01:58:07):
related filmmaker. So yeah, that's that's how I distribute my
four point five nippy tipps, my tippy and my nippies.
Hell Y, well, Anna, thank you so much for being here.
Where can people follow you online and check out your stuff?
I'm at Anna host n A A N N A
H O S S N I e H what a

(01:58:29):
Persian last name? On Twitter? And I have a podcast
all about like kind of Middle Eastern culture and news,
and we interview a lot of people of color to
kind of give them, like spotlight them a little and
be like, hey man, it ain't all just the white.
But I host that with Sharne Eunice, who's this amazing

(01:58:50):
Syrian American filmmaker, artists, very funny person on Twitter. Follow
her as well, Yes, front of the cast she's been
on here go check out her episodes. It's called our
shows called ethnicly Ambiguous. I don't know for the title,
you can tell we are ethnically ambiguous, uh. And I
also host on the complete opposite spectrum of any sort
of knowledge, uh is the show called Deckheads, which is

(01:59:13):
all about Bravos below deck and I host that with
comedian Nick Turner and we cover every episode of the
TV show, and we just rip apart rich people limb
by limb and their behavior and how terrible they can be.
And there's something really interesting about it because it's made me.
A reality TV about rich people really hits the right

(01:59:34):
sort of mark right now for me, because I just
think it proves how much we need to like work
towards income and quality and like just like equality across
all boards. Because boy, or do you not look good
when you go on a yacht and lose your mind
and say a bunch of terrible things and treat people poorly.
I was like, and then you will let this be

(01:59:56):
on a reality show, because that's the other thing. It's like,
you're so okay, would that be haveavior? You're fine with
it being aired on TV. That's the problem. We shouldn't
be allowing that. That shouldn't be okay. We should all
be very empathetic towards other people and self aware that
how our behavior hurts or destroys other communities and other
like income levels and other you know, just everything. And uh,

(02:00:21):
we must have fund the police, okay. And that's uh,
that's kind of what I've learned from watching Below Deck.
I know you're all thinking how, but I'm like, I
watch it with a very critically so yeah, check that
out if you're into that, Yes, please do, and thanks
again for being here. You can follow us on Twitter
and Instagram at Bechtel Cast. You can subscribe to our

(02:00:43):
Patreon aka Matreon at patreon dot com slash packtel Cast.
It's five dollars a month and it gets you two
bonus episodes every month, plus access to the entire back
catalog of all of our Patreon episodes. You can also
check out our merch store at t public dot com
slash the Bechtel Cast for all of our merchandising needs

(02:01:04):
and thanks for listening, and watch out for vampires.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night with Anna Hossnieh