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VIVA
Edited, Written, Produced & Directed by Anna Biller
Released by Anna Biller Productions
USA. 120 min. Not Rated
With Anna Biller, Jared Sanford, Bridget Brno, Chad England & Marcus DeAnda

Another return to the grindhouse in this homage to the no-budget sexploitation films of the early ’70s. Besides producing, writer/director Anna Briller also designed the costumes and sets as well as starring as suburban housewife Barbi, who takes on the moniker of “Viva” upon her sexual liberation, becoming a call girl in 1972 Los Angeles (where else?). What’s more, Briller provides the only serious amount of skin shown. (Isn’t a perk of being the director supposed to be that the clothes stay on while others strip?)

Like Julianne Moore’s Boogie Nights porn star role, the cast carefully, almost hypnotically, recite their lines. Impressively, Briller’s little-girl voice is both monotonous and chipper. The film’s vibrancy derives from the garish color combos – bright yellow furniture set against neon blue walls – flatly lit in Technicolor, with extras just as colorfully dressed as the main characters and stealing the focus. And though at first a sneaky appearance of the boom mike is amusing, the recording device becomes a virtual co-star, losing its novelty quickly. (Warning: the Herb Albert-inspired score from the period may bring back nightmares of Love American Style).

Briller is not only intent on sending up the era but also indicting it. Hardly a sexual adventurer, Barbi/Viva is sexually harassed, drugged, and raped, all during which she remains expressionless. One stud proclaims, “There’s never been a better time to be a man,” but Barbi/Viva fruitlessly searches for true love, both in a nudist colony and with a trick. This undercurrent gives the film an edge. (Who would have assumed that Alice Munro would be more of a source of stimulation here than Erica Jong?) But the nastiest transgression committed by this anything-goes romp is its length. The film becomes flaccid way before the midway point of its two-hour what-you-see-is-what-you-get concept. Kent Turner
May 2, 2008