Dennis Vehlen’s review published on Letterboxd:
There certainly are things to be loved about 'The Love Witch' but eventually its flaws also drag it down a little too much to be as good as it could have been.
It's obviously a gorgeous movie. The visuals are beautiful and often come very close to that 60s Technicolor look we all want to copy or see again in movies and that's fantastic. So are the costumes, the colors and some of the sets and scenes (especially the ones involving the other witches). Most of the cast is a dead-on match for the 60s style as well. Samantha Robinson really has the looks for the part and seems to understand this kind of campy performance perfectly.
Having said all that, what brings the movie down for me mainly is that it can't quite decide if it wants to be a period piece or a modern movie in a world where everybody just looks like they're from the 70s but still use mobile phones and drive modern cars. It's a bit distracting to see all those new cars in the background when everything else looks as if Douglas Sirk directed a giallo. The interior sets and characters all look like they're from a completely different time than the movie apparently takes place in, and I understand that this could just be a compromise because movies cost money, but whether it's a budget thing or an artistic choice I don't get, it doesn't work for me.
The biggest problem I had with the movie however is the running time. There is no way this needed to be 120 minutes long.
Anna Biller seems like a talented woman and I admire all the hats she wore on this movie, but editing should not have been one of them. She clearly fell in love with her movie a little too much and I get it - you made the effort and you want people to see it. But it will always end up hurting the movie if you tell an 80 minute story over two hours.
I was really looking forward to this and I wanted to love it, but even with all the positive aspects it didn't quite click with me tonight.
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