The Love Witch

Writer/director Anna Biller conjures up a potent Technicolor brew with this dazzling melodrama about a lovelorn sorceress who moves to modern-day California to find her ideal man. It's a visual feast shot in glorious 35mm and infused with Biller's obvious love of cinema - Hitchcockian back projection, a Morricone-style score, Douglas Sirk-like soap operatics, even a tearoom scene straight out of The Stepford Wives. However, the gem in this treasure trove of movie influences and retro-style is Samantha Robinson, whose wilful Wiccan Elaine is literally to die for, as her unsuspecting objects of affection discover with heart-stopping effect. Whether being sweetly sympathetic or seductively sociopathic, Robinson remains an entrancing presence, as she weaves her spell over various hapless hunks. The multi-tasking Biller, who wrote the music, designed the lavish sets, made the costumes and edited the film, walks a fine line between pastiche and pulp homage here, but pulls it off in spectacular fashion. Her sophomore feature (after 2007's Viva) may be a tad long, but it's truly a case of never mind the quantity, love the quality.