Anna Biller's The Love Witch is a sex positive feminist fable that wants to have its cake and eat it. I felt a distinct frisson of pleasure seeing Biller utilize rear projection technology straight out of Marnie in the film's opening sequence. While Biller produces some eye popping imagery, an interesting hybrid of Hitchcock, Demy, and exploitation films, the characterization and narrative are directed so broadly that this leisurely paced feature doesn't maintain momentum during its two hour length. A pity, because Biller's camera provides enough striking, candy colored images to enliven five features. Biller has some interesting ideas at play here, particularly the way people can don a sexual personae like a mask in order to feel empowered. She also takes pokes at the different guises of the patriarchy whether they be clad in the hip accoutrements of the counterculture or the Botany 500 suits of the establishment.
The overall amateurism of the players has led many to put down this film as a parody of late 60s and early70s horror. Biller has emphasized that this was not her intent and I half believe her. What she captures is how gender roles have pretty much stayed the same since the 60s despite the rise of feminism and the widespread availability of contraceptive devices. The rap against the atrocious supporting performances in this film is true, though lead Samantha Robinson is fine and Laura Waddell is quite good in the Suzanne Pleshette/Diane Baker role. Biller's serious intent must be noted amidst the intricate detail of her mise en scene. The Love Witch's heroine's beautiful visage masks real trauma. Whether Biller can build on the critical success of The Love Witch remains to be seen. If not, she may be a future cult figure like Curtis Harrington or Stuart Gordon, famed among the cognoscenti for visual flair in genre films. (4/18/17)
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