The Bad Batch (2016)

Director: Ana Lily Amirpour
Writer: Ana Lily Amirpour
DOP: Lyle Vincent
Cast: Suki Waterhouse, Jason Momoa, Keanu Reeves, Jim Carrey

Arlen (Suki Waterhouse) is abandoned in Texas wasteland and is fenced off from civilization. While trying to navigate the unforgiving landscape, she is captured by a savage band of cannibals led by the mysterious Miami Man (Jason Momoa). She manages to escape from their, minus a leg and an arm, and reaches The Comfort which is kind of owned by a cult drug dealer played by Keanu Reeves.
As she adjusts to the Bad Batch, she realises that good or bad depends on who is standing next to you.

There is a line in the film delivered by Miami Man to Arlen, "You don't see the way things are but the way you are". That is also kind of applicable to how you perceive a film. It seems the film has not been received that well by the critics World over but I totally enjoyed it. Don't know whether it is because of me living through the Modi shit-storm in India where people are lynched for their food habits, I quite literally interpreted it as take on Veganism/Vegetarianism Vs Normal people's food habits. As they impose their shitty Paneer Vegetarianism on rest of the people, it is quite normal to see people claiming that if you eat meat what really stops you from eating humans down the line as if it is a natural progression.

So the film did make a lot of sense to me as I viewed Arlen's character as representation of the Vegetarian brigade who is totally appalled by the cannibalistic Miami Man gang. To be fair she is well within her rights as she was their food. After her escape from there and recovery at Keanu Reeves' place, she is quite bored and ventures out with a gun and inadvertently kidnaps Miami Man's daughter who is then kind of adopted by Keanu who has a bunch of gun trotting pregnant bodyguards. Out on the desert again after a psychedelic drug experience, she meets the Miami Man and gradually warms up to him and his cannibalistic ways. It ends up as a love story with them feeding his Spaghetti demanding daughter her pet rabbit. That was like a middle finger to the Vegans.

There was also Jim Carrey playing a hermit without any lines who guides the characters at various points. The film is much larger in scope compared to Amirpour's previous film, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, which was dubbed as first Iranian vampire film. The first 20 minutes of Bad Batch can totally gross you out but there is not much gore after that. Film is very stylish in its Western kind of setting and Jason Momoa is just cool riding his scooters. The soundtrack is just rad. One can accuse that it is style over substance but what is wrong with that anyway as long as it is done well.

Rating: 4.5/5

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)

Director: Ana Lily Amirpour
Writer:    Ana Lily Amirpour
Cast:       Sheila Vand, Arash Marandi, Marshall Manesh
Language: Persian

In the Iranian ghost-town Bad City, a place that reeks of death and loneliness, the townspeople are unaware that they are being stalked by a lonesome Burqa clad vampire. It is an adaptation of Ana Lily Amirpour's graphic novel with the same name. 

The main characters apart from the vampire are: Arash who does petty crimes to get by and has a junkie father who acts as a parasite, Saeed who is the local gangster/bully/pimp and Atti the prostitute. The vampire girl is essentially a vigilante with leftist liberal agenda. Arash models himself on James Dean, which might be a reference to Terence Malick's Badlands in which Michael Sheen 's character does the same. Apart from that one it will also remind you of another graphic novel based film, Sin City, not just because it is shot in black and white. There is also a Western feel to the whole thing with a neo-noir tinge. It is exquisitely shot in a self-indulgent manner and is a very enjoyable watch. People are predisposed to look for political subtext in films from countries where the population is repressed and since this one was shot in California with backing from Sundance film festival, Amirpour didn't have to really make it ambiguous in any sort of way. She was born in England and is settled now in US and the target audience of the film seems to be those from the West. It is better to see the film as a mish-mash genre bender than as a political one. Highlight of the film would of course be the burqa wearing vampire on a skateboard. 

So we've had three really good films involving vampires from last year. The other two are 'Only Lovers Left Alive' and 'What We Do In The Shadows'. It looks like we got all the shitty studio-backed vampire films out of the way and now it is the time for independent filmmakers to have fun with the genre. It is not uncommon for Hollywood to latch on to an idea and you get waves of big-budget films with same theme. Zombie films were followed by Vampire ones which were again followed by Zombie films and maybe the next trend will be witches or something like that. 

Ana Lily Amripour's next film is supposed to be an English one titled 'The Bad Bitch', a post apocalyptic cannibal love story set in Texas wasteland. Sounds promising. The plot is very thin when you talk about 'A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night' but the atmosphere more than makes up for it. The director also makes a cameo as the the other girl from the party scene.

Rating: 4.5/5