Viva

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02/15/2022 Brilliant! I fell asleep almost twice, I wanted to gouge my eyeballs out ONLY once, and the acting was so amazing that I even ended up quitting the movie just 20 minutes in, stretching it across 4 days! Isn't it wonderful to be alive See more 08/26/2021 If the films of the 70s — well, let's say the excesses of Russ Meyer and the drug and biker movies that I love so much — prove to me that there's no way I would have survived the excesses of the decade. There's another truism — the movies of that era have people and imagery that look like no one and nothing else. Yet Anna Biller — who created this and The Love Witch — is the rare filmmaker that is able to recapture that past without merely creating a pastiche that has no heart and soul of its own. VIVA may take its look and feel from the classic exploitation cinema and vintage Playboy magazines of the early 70s, with the gaudiest apartments outside of a Sergio Martino movie and colors that practically bathe your eyes in a soft and lush bath of joy. Yet on the inside of this taffeta-wrapped box lies hints that 1972 wasn't always what was seen on drive-in screens. There aren't many films that are inspired by both the works of Hugh Hefner and Luis Buñuel — I would say that this is the only one — and for that, the world is a much worse place. Biller wrote, directed, edited, designed the costume and stars in this film, which is the most self-aware movie I've seen that features unself-aware characters, which is some kind of meta backflip trickery when you get right down to it. Barbi (Biller) starts the film happily married to the workaholic Rick, all while dealing with harassment at every turn, from her boss to her friends Mark and Sheila. Yet when her husband continually chooses work over her, she decides that she's a single woman. And with Sheila also now single, the two ladies decide to go into the oldest of all professions, like something out of a Barry Mahon film. Can a movie based on films and magazines that pretty much defined the male gaze break through and become a strong piece of feminist art? When it's as well made as this film, the answer is yes. That said, this is a film that definitely feels like it will work better for an audience who understands camp and has a beyond working knowledge of the material that inspired it. As I watched a scene where Barbi got ready for her man to come home, I was struck by one of the first women I ever dated that cared about make up. I felt horrible that she was spending so much time putting on a frustrating pair of false eyelashes and said, "You don't have to do that. I think you look just fine without them." And she replied, "Maybe I'm not wearing them for you." I'm glad that I learned that lesson. And glad that I watched this film. See more 11/09/2014 Satire? Homage? Recreation? VIVA does a remarkable job recreating the look and much of the style of 70s sexploitation movies. At an hour it might have been a fun little homage to the genre. Going on and on for two hours, it creates a rather dystopian story of free love. See more 05/03/2014 This movie was a major disappointment. Anna Biller tries very hard to live in the world of the 70s. She succeeds tremendously at creating and crafting (literally, I mean most of the sets she made herself) every little detail that is 70s. She does a great job and should be commended for that alone. However, the stilted dialogue, the overlong running time and the tremendously crappy way it's captured makes me want to ACTUALLY pull out a REAL movie from the 70s. This was dull to it's core. See more 01/14/2013 The production design is unparalleled, but it's the two-hour film that feels longer, and one whose tangential scenes you can identify immediately. Worst of all, the feelings Biller wishes us to have for her characters are nonentities, particularly after her dismissal of a rape scene. See more 07/19/2011 This has a great look, sound and feel of the era it is depicting, and the sets and styles hits it just right. It was fun, very visual, but too long. See more Read all reviews

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