Review: The Love Witch (2016)

Directed by: Anna Biller
Starring: Samantha Robinson, Gian Keys, Laura Waddell
Written by: Anna Biller
Music by: Anna Biller
Country: United States
Available on: Blu-ray/DVD (Oscilloscope)
IMDb

The Love Witch writer, director, set designer, costumer, composer, etc. Anna Biller spent over half a decade in pre-production on her tribute to ‘60s and ‘70s European horror, about a woman who, after having presumably murdered her husband, is seeking a new mate that she hopes to obtain through witchery. Her magic of course backfires and she finds men are literally dying to be with her. Biller’s meticulousness on the film pays off, because it feels right at home in her target era. The mock technicolor palette, music, costuming, script, presentational acting style, and 35 mm film all come together in a faithful recreation of a specific aesthetic. I think the film has been unfairly written off by people who feel like it’s nothing but an exercise in fastidious homage, similar to movies that purposely but hollowly recreate a grindhouse feel. But I think Biller slyly modernizes the story in its humor and its pointed discussion of second-wave feminism in a post-feminist era. Samantha Robinson is the titular love witch, and she’s a fascinating potion of sensual drive, calculation, idealism, and delusion. She believes she’s creating her own fate through her witchcraft, but yet believes her fate is sealed by cosmic forces. She kills her husband because she loathed always giving him everything, but her sex magic dictates that she will get all that she wants by giving a man all that he needs. She wants longing without desperation, and deep love without obsession. It’s the complexity of its characters that allows the film to thrive. Everyone is initially presented as a caricaturized stand-in that is later upended through a dark or funny turn. All of this takes place in a world that’s beautifully rendered and feels surreal and intentionally fabricated, with characters that are highly stylized. There’s a fine balance of artifice and authenticity here that Biller mostly nails. The movie is a bit too long, but I also can’t decide what could be cut. An out-of-place scene at a roving renaissance fair feels like natural trim, but even that scene conveys some sentiments important to the overall story. It’s a minor quibble against a very good movie, one of the few retro tributes that transcends its aesthetics.

Overall rating: 8.5 out of 10