I absolutely love 'Faster, pussycat! Kill! Kill!'; 'Beyond the valley of the dolls' is the wild ride to end all wild rides. On the basis of these two films I've been curious to explore more of Russ Meyer's works - and it's safe to say once again that I simply was not prepared for what this one is. 'Vixen!' is stunningly, flagrantly, unapologetically direct, over the top, contrived, ham-handed, raucous, raunchy, and downright outrageous. It sardonically dabbles with incest, racism, and misogyny even within a matter of minutes (and also, less sardonically, ableism); it zips along in Meyer's direction, cinematography, and editing at such a steady clip that to blink risks missing something. The latter elements, as well as the writing and acting, leaving nothing to the imagination in a production that's as pointedly overcooked as it is bare-faced, including dialogue and scene writing that's not so much "suggestive" or "cheeky" as it is, in turn, "pornographic" or "jocular." Why, speaking of - the line blurs between genuine softcore and utmost wacky satire thereof, with characterizations that are supercharged and a cast that unremittingly embraces the tomfoolery. Igo Cantor's music, the sound editing, the costume design, the hair and makeup work: from top to bottom and in every way, this is fabulously mind-blowing in its upfront, unadulterated. Oversexed kitsch. And it's so much fun!
Bless the cast for just going with it, whatever Meyer and his movie required; of course it goes without saying that star Erica Gavin, above all, just goes All Out. This is especially important since the nature of 'Vixen!' is so completely irreverent - zigzagging between domestic drama; unfettered and abundant foreplay, nudity, and sex scenes; the more subtle humor of clever innuendo and quips; and the bombastic comedy of abject, nonsensical parody. The choppy, stilted, zealous editing, cinematography, direction, and acting all feed directly into each of these facets, sometimes swerving between one and another within a matter of moments in the same scene. And still, despite the clear intention otherwise, it's all played straight with a sincerity that means the feature is sexy and titillating at the exact same time that it's riotously funny. It is not, in actuality, either a sex comedy or a porn, for it has too much intelligence and tongue-in-cheek heart and too little outright skin to be either, yet it exceeds both in the qualities they hope to possess.
Does all this sound like a bewildering, self-indulgent, excessive, overdone, dubious, dishonest panoply of nonsense? It is! Even before we take into account the political discussion! It's also wonderfully smart and funny, whipping together ideas and flavors so far-flung, brazen, and shameless that the result might actually exceed even the depravity and debauchery that John Waters would become known for in short order, having himself been inspired in no small part by Meyer. One can't overstate how bold and outlandish this is, yet it's also all but unyielding in its entertainment, impenitent in its impertinence. There does come a point, perhaps, in the last minutes, when the bluster dies down, earnest plot takes over, and in the process the movie loses a fragment of its sparkling brilliance. Yet this is the only major criticism to come to mind for a title that otherwise goes overboard to be as ridiculous as it can within a particular slant. Needless to say, content warnings abound for the indelicacies in the dialogue and scene writing, and significant sex and nudity, yet provided these are no obstacle, then this is an easy recommendation for anyone who appreciates the weird and wacky side of cinema. 'Vixen!' is an astonishingly untamed exploration of insincerity through the lens of a specific type of film - and if nothing I've remarked on has turned you off the idea, then it's kind of a must-see.
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