The Wexner Center for the Arts brings two underseen modern genre classics to the screen this weekend: Karen Kusama’s Jennifer’s Body and Ana Lily Amirpour’s A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night.
Boys are stupid, throw rocks at them. Better still, lure them to an isolated area and eat them, leaving their carcasses for the crows. This is the surprisingly catchy idea behind the coal-black horror comedy Jennifer’s Body.
The film shadows best friends – the smokin’ hot cheerleader (actually, oddly, she’s on flag squad), and the best friend whose non-glam look soothes the popular girl’s insecurity. Diablo Cody’s script shines bright and the young talent handling her acerbic prose does her proud.
Megan Fox’s performance is spot-on as the high school hottie turned demon. Kusama’s film showcases the actress’ most famous assets, but also mines for comic timing other directors apparently overlooked. Amanda Seyfried’s performance as the best friend, replete with homely girl glasses and Jan Brady hairstyle, balances Fox’s smolder.
Adam Brody’s smarmy, contemptuous indie rocker steals several scenes. Other welcome faces in small but memorable roles include Amy Sedaris and J.K. Simmons, both showing off and having fun in a film that was overlooked when released but has gained a welcome and wise following since.
Jennifer’s Body screens Friday, August 26 at 7 p.m.
In the mood for something more plaintive? Set in Bad Town, a city nearly depleted of life, Ana Lily Amirpour’s A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night haunts the shadowy, lonesome fringes of civilization. The image is highly stylized, with a hip quirkiness and stationary camera framings that noticeably mine Jim Jarmusch’s early work. Indeed, Amirpour seems an avid fan of American indies of the ’80s and ’90s, as well as the films of endlessly imitated French New Wave filmmakers and Sergio Leone. And though she borrows liberally and lovingly from a wide array of inspirations, the film she’s crafted is undeniably, peculiarly her own.
Amirpour is blessed with a cinematographer in Lyle Vincent capable of translating her theme of loneliness in a dead-end town, as well as the cultural influences and ’80s pop references, into a seamless, hypnotic, mesmerizingly lovely vision. The film is simply, hauntingly gorgeous.
Sheila Vand’s Girl is a constant question mark, and that – along with the eerie, sometimes playful beauty of Vincent’s camerawork – is what makes the film unshakably memorable. I promise the image of a vampire on a skateboard will stay with you.
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night screens Saturday, August 27 at 7 pm.
Tickets are free for students, $7 for members and seniors, and $9 for the general public. For tickets and information, visit wexarts.org.