Viva

The ‘ironic’ bad acting gets old approximately three minutes into Viva, and there are still 117 minutes to go. Director, editor, writer, producer, costume designer and animator Anna Biller is also the lead actress, going some way to prove the maxim that multitasking means doing a number of tasks badly. A seventies housewife, Barbie looks like Winnie from The Wonder Years' slutty aunt. After getting dumped, she changes her name to Viva and goes on a journey of sexual self discovery, becoming a model, call girl, artist’s muse and lipstick lesbian along the way. The opportunities for farce, satire, and social commentary come thick and fast, but Biller picks up not a good goddam one of them, preferring to treat us to another flash of her crotch and a whine of her monotone. The only good things about Viva are the sets and costumes: a riot of kitsch that never lets up, and the sole reason for this review’s single star. Truly dire. [Cara McGuigan]