Stranded at a remote beach, friends Delphine and Chantal lay their feelings bare to each other.
Over the last few years, we’ve been seeing more coming of age films but presented to us in a more artsy and beautiful way. Whether we see them as a comfort film, a warm hug, or how we would like our lives to look, we can’t deny how they have taken over and the aesthetics for them are talked about a lot. Girls Shouldn’t Walk Alone At Night is no different from these films, apart from the fact that it’s a short. We still have the gorgeous visuals, the characters that we can whole heartedly relate to, and a situation we dream to be in, where we can tell the person we like that we like them.
Written and directed by Katerine Martineau, we easily slip into this dark yet bright world of life and what it has to offer. We dream of having our coming-of-age movie moment, and the simplicity of this evening is something to match that. The title suggests something dark and evil lurking, and we have flickers of that to start and end the story, but fear is something not thought about by the girls but also us as an audience. Instead, we focus on the love and the excitement that brings, instead of staying anxious by what might be hiding in the dark. I think this film did really well in creating a safe atmosphere for us to join, letting us know that our thoughts and feelings are valid.
There was one thing in this film which annoyed me slightly. At no point did they check their phones. Now, I understand if it’s not meant to be set in present day, or they didn’t want us to leave this beautiful evening to look at screens, but they could’ve added them. Whether where they were had no signal, or they dropped it when climbing and it broke, or they’d simply run out of battery. For me personally, just the adding of one or two lines with this explanation would’ve made it more realistic. But none of that takes away from how beautiful this film is overall.
Starring Amaryllis Tremblay and Nahéma Ricci, they came to life in each other’s company, letting fear and confusion slip away as they grew through the night. I loved their onscreen chemistry, proving that a story can be good, but it’s the actors who really do make it like that. They showed real feelings, from hurt and fear, to knowing they had found a soul like theirs that they could connect to. It truly is stunning to watch and one that I can see being the start of a feature length story.