Bliss

**NON-SPOILER**

I think it would have been easier to follow the film if I wasn't sober. It's very trippy and somewhat hard to follow, jumping from scene to scene without anything really developing. They probably achieved the type of film they wanted to, however it just didn't get going and it was hard to get into. The picture itself is good though and good effects were used throughout.

I get it - Why tell a movie in straight-forward fashion when you have have poor lightning, aggravating camera angles, Super-8-quality film-making, and scenes so dark, oddly-colored and unclear that it looked like it was shot in a psychedelic cave? 'Bliss' is all this and then some. I actually liked the acting of the lead painter; I think she'll go places. The rest of the cast? Not so much. (Norm was wasted in this flick!) There was an interesting, though half-done story in there somewhere, but it collapsed under the sheer weight of the drugs, profanity and violence. 'Bliss' isn't recommended unless you're a gorehound. In that case, you'll get your money's worth.

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.

In LA, an artist (Dora Madison) is at a creative block, but finds herself in a nightmarish spiral of drug addiction and murder. She takes an hallucinogenic drug at a party that unblocks her artistic impasse, but also gives her a vampiric craving for blood.

Joe Begos's debut feature does not hold back, with more than a hint and a shade of Abel Ferrara about it and lots of gratuitous and aggressive sex and violence. It would probably have worked better as a short film rather than a feature that at 80 minutes still feels a little long and drawn out. It does pull out all the shock stops and is most definately of interest.

Nothing is particularly obvious in this movie until late on when the story explodes.

The acting - especially by Dora Madison - is excellent throughout with believable characters that take you into their disturbed lives.

This movie is a conceptual idea of horror from beginning to end without the cliches and with superb production.

If you like something different on your movie menu this is certainly one to watch.