Bliss

source: Bliss

'Artsy? Is that what that preposterous shrieking stinking pile of meatloaf was? I can appreciate arty horror. 'Out of Skin' was terrific. 'Bliss' is trash posing as 'art'.

Sex, drugs, rock n roll, paint and blood. This movie is like a slow and enjoyable trip to hell but really too long for what he got

Dezzy (Dora Madison) is a struggling artist. The muse seems to have deserted her. She spends her time high as a kite, having sex, listening to chunky grunge music and swearing. A lot. To have a good time, or to cope with a bad time, she meets up with others just like herself. Together, they get as high as a kite, have sex and listen to chunky grunge music. Oh, and they swear a lot. So much so that, at the beginning of the film, their stream of endless profanities and imaginatively arranged expletives are riotously funny - until you get used to it and it just becomes irritating. In between all these pastimes, they talk about themselves endlessly. Who would have thought being so 'bad' could be so boring? That's the characters, though, not this film. 'Bliss' moves along at a brisk pace. 'Norm' (George Wendt) turns up as 'Pop' for the briefest time. Even he is surrounded by thick cigarette smoke and a whirl of bad language. Director Joe Begos clearly wants us to become as immersed in this grindhouse lifestyle as possible. There are eccentric camera angles and fast edits to create for us a disorientating world. There's even a warning for epileptics at the beginning. I enjoyed the film. It's a slow build-up. Yes, we understand - these characters are hardcore! But it is a convincing environment and the horror, when it comes, alongside some excellent gore effects, is effective and above all - does something different. It isn't possible to sympathise with someone who takes so many narcotics just so she can function enough to take *more* narcotics - and then complains, in the strongest possible terms of course, that she is not well. I get the impression, though, we're not being asked to sympathise with her. Whether we care about her is up to us - she is presented as what she is: take it or leave it. In real life, I would definitely leave it, but in this film, it is interesting to see where her increasingly deadly trips - and her equally immersive art - are taking her.

I did not care for this film. It was about a painter who takes some drugs to get inspiration, but also has some kind of experience in a bathroom at the bar that seems to transform her. She blacks out, and when she comes to, more of her painting is finished. But she also becomes violent, attacking people and whatnot. I think it ends with everyone dying but the painting is finished. I didn't really care about the main character for whatever reason, and I wasn't especially interested to visit her world. Bit of a miss.

Acting left Alot to be desired...and I get that he made the film look crappy on purpose but..... like how come when Joe beggos does it...it's "genius" and when anyone else does they suck? I dunno for me the crumby acting and crumby picture keep me from really getting into the story or lack there of... Hard to follow but not because of the plot.

The main character spends the majority of the movie not giving a damn about anything and soon you wont either. The movie feels like it was written in 3 hours in a bar and they just grabbed the people in the bar to be in it. George Wendt must have been walking by and got yanked in. I didnt know you could write a script around the word f--k. Seriously, skip it.

No spoilers. Apart from getting sold on the synopsis I didn't really have any ideas on what "Bliss" is going to be, somehow Joe Beggos had slipped under my radar before. Not going to lie, I'm now definitely planning to watch his previous movies & wait eagerly for the ones to come. I'm pretty sure that "Bliss" is going to find a cozy place with only certain audiences & I realize that the rest will likely pass it by or watch it and go like "eww" with some dissatisfaction. For me, "Bliss" was a doozy, 80 minutes long blast of awe. It is a mean-spirited grindhouse/art-house flick, a nightmare fueled by drugs, sex, blood, filth and an atmosphere that feels like the impending doom. It was easy to be amazed, perhaps it is the fact that this is the kind of style I'd like to explore as a filmmaker or that art-house is by far my most favorite subgenre, but pretty much everything in this movie, contents-wise & filmmaking-wise, was impressive. The lead performance by Dora Madison is sure and strong, the cinematography/editing/sound design is creative, effortful and adds to the atmosphere a lot. Mad props for the soundtrack & original score, heard Electric Wizard and more great stuff. Pacing is fast, boredom - nonexistent. Depiction of the underground world - as filthy as it is. As for the plot, nothing more was necessary, a lot can be found in the pleasantly chaotic visual story telling. 9 months into 2019 "Bliss" takes a high place among my favorite horror movies of this year & something like this was well needed. I recommend "Bliss" to anyone who enjoys the aforementioned horror subgenres, is into drug or metal culture, or likes dark art, any art. My rating: 8/10.

This film really doesn't have much of any story in it. A loud and angry starving artist down on her luck, heavy drug use, three-way sex scenes, lots of * and a_s shots, very loud music. f-bomb mentioned 219 times in 80 minutes (avg 3 f-bombs per minute), and some vampire biting. When they rely on the F word so often, the screenwriters didn't have much to write. Probably copy and paste most of it. This film will be forgotten within five minutes and it's not worth a second watch.

At the very beginning of 'Bliss' comes a warning that there are a lot of flashing lights in the movie and that epileptic people should be warned. Now I'm not epileptic in any way but man did I struggle to watch the opening credits. It was almost hypnotic, I wanted to look away but couldn't. This was an early indicator that this would be a very visually unique movie. A lot of bizarre and fascinating imagery is thrown at the audience. It's not an aspect of movies I typically notice but I couldn't help but be aware of it in this case. The film had a bit of a 'Requiem for a Dream' vibe about it, particularly early on. There is a lot of heavy drug use featured in the film - in fact that's more or less what it's about. If you want to give your children a "don't do drugs" lesson this could be a good film to throw at them. It doesn't particularly glamourise them at all, in fact it makes them look downright nasty. The final third of this film really changes everything and makes it into an almost entirely different film. I guess it's what makes it fall into the "horror" category. To be honest that was probably my least favourite element to the film. I could see why they went that way, and it tied in beautifully with the painting that is central to the film, but it just didn't work for me. Because no other characters are ever given any screen time or introduced to us in anyway it was impossible to care about any of them, and so the end scenes had almost zero intensity. 'Bliss' is a very quick little film (sitting at about 80 minutes) that has some really interesting stuff going on, but just struggles to combine it all into a fluent package. The ideas are all there, the execution is just slightly off.