'The Love Witch' is a seductive homage in 'air quotes'

The Love Witch is a bizarre kind of comedy -- the type that is played so straight and earnestly that the casual viewer might take it too seriously.

A word of caution -- this is definitely not a movie for everyone.

The film, which came out last year, received widespread critical acclaim, ending up on a lot of top 10 lists, is a masterpiece of production design -- it looks and plays like a long-lost Russ Meyer film -- but the woman behind it, writer-director Anna Biller clearly has something more on her mind than just satire.

Sure, it has incredibly stilted acting, awkward staging and it appears to be a pastiche of modern times mixed with some heightened homages to 1960s psychedelic exploitation films -- but the movie, with its silly plot about a witch using and discarding men at will, has a feminist message and just enough oddity about it to make it feel more like a David Lynch film than an Austin Powers one.

It's a really precarious tightrope Biller's walking -- it's hard to knowingly make a 'bad movie.' When filmmakers try to do so, by deliberately being campy or kitschy, the results often feel cynical and lazy. Think Snakes on a Plane or, quite frankly, a lot of James Franco's vehicles.

But Biller clearly has affection for the sexually-tinged horror films of the late '60s and early '70s, and that's reflected in the sets, costumes, and Technicolor look of the film -- all of which Biller reportedly designed herself.

She's also aided tremendously by her cast -- especially the doll-like leading lady Samantha Robinson (who resembles and sounds a lot like Alison Brie) -- who may or may not be in on the joke, but perform the largely symbolic parts to perfection.

Just the way Robinson delivers the line "A homicide? How horrible," brought a smile to my face. And Gian Keys is wonderful as a thick-headed, square-jawed police officer who would feel right at home in the old Batman television series.

The movie's oddball rhythms (including an extended Renaissance fair sequence) and soapy soundtrack definitely take some getting used to -- but if you settle in an embrace the absurdity, the movie has some very smart things to say about anti-feminist women and men who calls themselves feminist while still practicing the worst instincts of the patriarchy.

Like Meyer's best films, there is plenty of titillation on the surface and some jarringly goofy jump cuts, but it also is content to immerse you in a world of its own, stocked with brilliantly realized retro imagery and a truly alluring, dream-like quality.

This is the kind of film that requires repeat viewing and could very well become a cult classic; at the very least it suggests that Biller is a director to watch going forward.