Imitation Girl (2017)
A mysterious young woman materializes in the middle of the southwestern desert, where each step teaches her about her new world and her new body. As she assumes her new life, she discovers she has a twin with whom she shares more than just an outward appearance.
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Very well executed
Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay
Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
This film seems to be a cross between Starman (1984) and The Double Life of Veronique (1991) with an emphasis on clashing cultures. An alien imitation, born with an assist from a magazine cover, takes human form and absorbs the Farsi language and gentle culture of two Iranian characters living in the rural southwestern United States: her human porn star counterpart (and look-alike) lives an urban lifestyle of sex, drugs and clubbing plus she misses an opportunity to leave her chosen work in the sex trade. The two meet and the open ended finale works for this short mysterious film---provided that no sequels or new episodes follow.
The other reviews here are praising the director since it is written by a woman and has a female lead. Ignoring this, I would say that it was an interesting movie. Slow-paced drama of what it would be like if an outside being tried to be human. The movie was building up to the ending but ended up being to abstract.
Natasha Kermani is of interest to me because there are very few women directing sci-fi flicks (Mimi Leder's DEEP IMPACT might be the only female-headed sci-fi household name, though many more women are producing successful horror films these days). Women are often expected to make projects about relationships, cutesy rom-coms, or intimate dramas - but Kermani clearly wants to craft bigger, more imaginative epics. IMITATION GIRL had elements of Tarkovsky, Kubrick, Ridley Scott, and Wong Kar Wai. Loved it.
Struggling artists and broken down characters ... it will not be easy to completely sympathize with the main character (one of them that is) and it has not so much to do with the profession she "chose" for herself, but rather the way she aims to reach her goals. But then again, if you don't have a flawed protagonist, where would the friction be? In this case, we get an added bonus of a different path ... The main actress has quite some baggage to carry.Strong female characters (with as mentioned before flaws, but nevertheless) are not that common in film, so it is refreshing to see this. And while the script may feel unfocused at points, the story is so weird and out there ... no pun intended. But it does make up for it for sure. If you like slow pacing drama, with small Science Fiction and social issues fragments woven into it ... this is for you