Viva

VIVA is a cult freak-out retro 1970's spectacle, about a bored housewife who gets sucked into the sexual revolution. Abandoned by her perfect Ken-doll husband, Barbi is dragged into trouble by her girlfriend, who spouts women's lib as she gets Barbi to discard her bra and go out on the town. Barbi becomes a Red Riding Hood in a sea of wolves, and quickly learns a lot more than she wanted to about the different kinds of scenes going on in the wild '70's, including nudist camps, the hippie scene, orgies, bisexuality, sadism, drugs, and bohemia.

“It takes skill -- a certain sly, even perverse nimbleness of craft -- to make an homage to schlock movies that treats them as works of art. VIVA, written and directed by its star, Anna Biller, could just about be the third featurette in Grindhouse.” (Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly)

“A startlingly pitch-perfect reproduction of the kind of gauzy sex movies from the 1960s and early 1970s that preceded the hard-core revolution.” (Manohla Dargis, New York Times)

“The movie pops with parodic joy--in the hoary double-entendres and presentational acting styles--and hotly lighted 35-millimeter cinematography that evokes lounge music album covers and Playboy ads.” (Robert Abele, L.A. Times)

“VIVA the film is as sly and knowing as Viva the character is endearingly oblivious.” (Adam Nayman, eye Weekly)

“Its triumph is that of style -- gloriously and revoltingly tacky style -- over substance.” (Toronto Globe and Mail)