Michael Almereyda's Nadja presents a clever, engaging, and innovative take on vampire mythology in a well-wrought contemporary tale set in New York City.
Elina Lowensohn's Nadja is a compelling and seductive vampire animated by emotional storms. Following the death of her Dracula dad, she wants to leave the life but is waylaid by her twin brother (Jared Harris), his nurse (Suzy Amis), a mysterious woman (Galaxy Craze) and her husband (Martin Donovan), and a vampire stalker (Peter Fonda) who wants to put a stake through her heart.
Almereyda's creative use of black-and-white imagery vividly captures the twilight world where Nadja lives. The film challenges us to ponder the mysteries of love and death, marriage, spirituality, "psychic faxes," and what Nadja calls "the pain of fleeting joy."