Movie Brief: 'Viva'

For those who were hoping that the more embarrassing elements of the sexual revolution were slowly fading into oblivion, Anna Biller is here to make sure that doesn't happen.

The director and star of "Viva," which opens Friday at Cinema Village, has spent the past three years culling all of the awkward moments, bad decisions, and schmaltz of the '70s-era skin flick into this nouveau twist on sexploitation.

"Viva" is the story of Barbi (Ms. Biller), a bored housewife in the 1970s who gets swept up in the sexual revolution when she loses her job and her husband's attention. Together with her friend Sheila (Bridget Brno), Barbi stumbles into the country's sexual awakening firsthand, sampling untold drugs, donning various negligees, and being accosted by numerous seedy males.

A tribute to Russ Meyer-era soft-core pornography, "Viva" tries to re-create the strange tension that exists in porn between intrigue and offense. While the film manages a certain uncomfortable aesthetic, it lacks most of the sex appeal it's striving for.

Ms. Biller sleepwalks through Los Angeles pools, bedrooms, and nudist colonies in various states of undress, supposedly turning the heads of every man she encounters. Replete with nudity, orgies, and bad wigs, "Viva" strains to mimic the films from a bygone era, but fails to capture their allure.

Perhaps in the hands of a more able satirist, "Viva" would sing with social commentary and not so subtle innuendo. But watching Ms. Biller take pride in the stilted acting and awkward pacing of her target milieu becomes an endurance test. The fact that it's all on purpose doesn't make it any less irritating to sit through.