This Week on DVD: Viva, Tell No One and More
by Jim Ridley
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Boasting a color scheme that looks like a pipe-bombing at Sherwin-Williams, Anna Biller's amusing curio applies the Todd Haynes Far from Heaven treatment to an even more outre genre than '50s melodramas: the '60s suburban-roulette sexploitation opus, Radley Metzger/Joe Sarno/Doris Wishman division. Biller, who also wrote, edited and did the hyperactive costume and production design, stars as the pliant housewife whose inner tigress is awakened by swanky decor, some neighborhood swingers and a dose of hallucinogens. Don't be put off by the exasperating "ironic" tone of the first half-hour: as the movie gets more explicit, reflecting the era's increasing on-screen permissiveness, it takes on the fondly retro tone of a modern-day burlesque revival (and with musical numbers!). The Cult Epics release is joined this week in stores by several of 2008's best films: Jonathan Demme's Rachel Getting Married, Gus Van Sant's Milk, Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York, and the terrific Swedish vampire thriller Let the Right One In.
Mondays-Sundays. Starts: March 17. Continues through March 23, 2009
Mondays-Sundays. Starts: March 17. Continues through March 23, 2009
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