Is this movie hip? Is it chic? Or is it just plain silly? Which ever you decide, Cult Epics latest release, Anna Biller's film VIVA is undeniably perfect smarm that is over the top cheez-wiz and revels in it. Neighbors Mark and Sheila invite Barbie over to their suburban Los Angeles circa 1972 pad. Mark and Sheila are sexually outted people who can find a sexual metaphor and word-play inuendo in just about every sentence. In fact their whole persona is like they were dipped in a bottle of Revlon's Charlie (and maybe cheap bourbon as after shave)! 

 Mark (perfectly over-acted by Jared Sanford) whose ridiculous laugh becomes more infectious the more he laughs, is the grabby, hands-on husband who has little worries about money and career life. Barbie (director/producer/writer Anna Biller) is a sexually naive woman in a culture that is becoming sexually alert. She looks to neighbors Mark and Sheila for tips and advice. Rick, Barbie’s husband, does not give her the sexual attention she desires. While Barbie wants him, she is afraid to ask Rick and starts looking elsewhere. Lastly, there is Sheila, Mark's wife, who loves to show off her body in a bikini by the pool, drink liquor and read Playboy - hahahahahaha!. 

The dialogue is intentionally stilted as each person takes their turn making sure there are full stops and pauses before the other begins. It is all part of the appearance that you are watching a bad sexploitation film. But what you are seeing is a well-disguised performance who pull off the whole show flawlessly. The pregnant pauses leaves the viewer listening intently with mundane lines as "That's really strong cologne you are wearing".

 

 Once Barby arrives at the nudist camp is when you get the most nudity in the film and some of the better and funnier moments of the movie. Story goes is her husband Rick is upset with Barby and leaves to find out what he wants. In that time, Barby decides to find herself with neighbor Sheila in tow, where they head down the life of the liberated sexual female. Sheila and Barby find themselves suddenly hired as prostitutes where they change their name. Here Barby dons herself Viva, which is “Italian, which means, ‘to live’”. Eventually she gets to the nudist camp where we get some “campy” songs that every sings along with, and some psuedo-intellectual talk about liberation from clothing. Kinda funny with silly songs and everyone naked with Viva in her groovy outfit standing as the outsider. The most questionable moment of the film is the gay hair-stylist whose face and head look like Pee-Wee Herman with a body of Charles Atlas.

 

The real question becomes of whether this works or not. It teeters on an all too-perfect self-conscious representation of the sexploitation genre or a film that enjoys how well it pulls it off without any problems knowing that it's paying tribute to the genre rather than mocking it. I think its more of the latter, and so what we are given is a great addition and homage to sexploitation in general, even if at times it runs long as the story loses its steam fairly quick. There is not enough nudity to maintain itself as a distraction from the low points in the story, which are filled by dull and obvious bad acting, if only because it does not add up to a laugh every time. As I mentioned above, its kitschy and smarmy, but this does not mean the interest level will not wane. If we compare this to some of the original films of the 60's and 70's, the runtime of many of them came around the 70-80 minute marker, while VIVA is at a full 120 minutes! Any movie, no matter how funny or well crafted must at some point consider the audience when reaching the 2-hour mark.

That said, none of the scenes are necessarily erotic, and in fact are pretty stale. With the exacting quality of this Biller's work and intention, I expect that it is intentionally. To comment more about director Anna Biller, she is well known on the indie circuit and has her own website which you can purchase her short films on DVD as well. She is one of the few females to work in the sexploitation genre, and this film. VIVA premiered at the Rodderdam Film Festival in 2007 and won the Best in Fest Award at the 2007 Boston Underground FIlm Festival. Biller's style tends towards a feminist approach to sexuality in her films while simultaneously blending high and low pop culture.

To round out the DVD are some behind the scenes footage with director Anna Biller and a slideshow in addition to the trailer. The DVD was released in 2 versions: the R-rated and the Unrated. The packaging is also very nice with an O'card in a clear keep case. No insert, although the cover insert is double sided which has some nice kink to the photos. Overall this is a great addition to the Cult Epics library and a worthy piece of low cinema and high art. Highly recommended for you sexploitation fans out there! This can be purchased through our affiliate links here with Amazon. For more information, check out Cult Epics.