Cult Epics | Buy at Amazon | Review by Doug Waltz
Barbi is a typical suburban girl in a typical suburban setting. But, it's not enough for her. Her sexuality oozes from every pore and it isn't long before she is consumed into the swinging lifestyle of this bedroom community.
Sound familiar?
It should because back in the sixties and seventies, this was sexploitation at its finest. Cheap little films that were ground out at a moments notice showing acres of plump, nubile female flesh and, unfortunately, way too many hairy ass men. Blech!
Director Anna Biller has lifted the look and style of the sexploitation film to create VIVA and it's like looking in a time machine. The clothes are right, the women's figures are right, the incredible amount of booze consumed is also right. VIVA manages to look like it was filmed forty years ago.
Almost.
Sure, there are a few little things that pull you back to the here and now, but they are few and far between. It's impossible to recreate every facet of a bygone era, especially with the budget that Anna Biller had. Don't get me wrong, it looks good, real good.
Then there's the one killing stroke. VIVA runs one hundred and twenty minutes!!!
Most sexploitation films ran on the average about seventy minutes and that was a little long. I think that Ms. Biller got carried away with her concept and forgot that no one in their right mind would want to sit through two hours of the same sexploitation film. We get bored too easy. The basic sexploitation film is a pretty dull concept to begin with. To stretch it to this length is unforgivable.
Overall, this was a really good attempt. Cut about forty minutes, lose some of the film and it will play a lot better to a much wider audience.
