Bliss (2019)
Genre: Horror
Duration: 80 minuten
Country:
United States
Directed by: Joe Begos
Stars: Dora Madison, Tru Collins and Jeremy Gardner
IMDb score:
5,9 (6.435)
Releasedate: 27 September 2019
Bliss plot
Dezzy is a Los Angeles artist desperate for inspiration. She turns to any tool that can help her finish her masterpiece. For example, she recklessly participates in parties and succumbs to drugs. Partly due to the use of these substances, Dezzy ends up in a hell of sex, drugs and murder.
Reviews & comments
leatherhead
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- 3556 messages
- 1813 votes
Nice. Made me think of a kind of strange mix of Devil's Candy and Grave, but then directed by someone like Noé. But despite all the obvious sources of inspiration, Begos' film can certainly stand on its own. Certainly towards the end, the film gets into a flow of wonderfully frenzied and hyper-stylized horror. The climax is really something, nicely noisy and chaotic.
Stylistically impressive, only the soundtrack I found a bit mixed. I have absolutely nothing to do with the whole metal environment/atmosphere and initially I had my doubts a few times. Fortunately it does improve and the soundtrack becomes more electronic as the film progresses. Sometimes even a bit Irréversible-like, with those nagging drones that pop up every now and then.
An hour and a half of delicious insanity. For a higher rating than 4* the brakes could have been released even more, but otherwise Begos delivers an impressive piece of horror here.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Tonypulp
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- 21231 messages
- 4608 votes
Genre film of the year. Abel Ferrara's raw vampire themes from The Addiction (1995) disappear into a blender with the best that American Indie genre cinema has to offer (not seen so convincingly since Pop Skull (2007) ), with a psychedelic and ever-escalating avalanche of colorful visuals and intense hyper-montages ( Mandy (2018) ). A coke/DMT-fueled trippy nightmare with a heavy metal sound that effortlessly merges with the dark sound design, in a film that mirrors its gritty character to late 70's/80's exploitation, without making it a gimmick. Begos chose to shoot it on 16mm for that reason and it benefits the film on all levels. The explosions of explicit violence in particular are extra raw. It's the icing on a delicious, uncompromising genre cake that remarkably far surpasses Begos' previous work ( Almost Human (2013) ). Modern masterpiece.
Translated from Dutch · View original
remorz
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- 2502 messages
- 2760 votes
A film that suffers somewhat from a rough start with Dezzy, the stuck artist; a main character who not only evokes little sympathy but is also somewhat ambivalent in her (financial vs artistic vs hedonistic) ambitions.
It soon becomes of little consequence, because by the time Bliss gets going, the excesses take over - and you can safely read that as blood, paint and cinematographic excesses. Dezzy becomes artistically inspired in a manic way under the influence of drugs, but also has to deal with a bloodlust as a side effect. Due to her excessive use, at one point she can no longer distinguish reality from a trip and spirals out of control.
The film seems to want to mirror that madness with an excessive use of audiovisual tools: many short cuts, effects, overlays, color filters and a screaming soundtrack together create a chaotic atmosphere that does not exactly run parallel to Dezzy's wandering but rather is a constant signature. One that does evoke echoes of Noé and Aronofsky, but itself really lacks the control and purposefulness to be able to measure itself on a qualitative level.
It's a madcap mess and I enjoyed watching it, but overall the feeling that the film really wants to be something but doesn't have enough to offer is overwhelming. 3*
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