Fantasia '19 Film Review - Bliss

Sex, Drugs & Rock and Roll are the elements fueling Joe Begos' latest film Bliss. Dora Madison from Friday Night Lights fame is Dizzy Donahue a nocturnal artist who heads out for fun when the sunsets parties till all hours coming home to paint until dawn. Right now she is in a rut, her debts piling up and her agent looking to drop her. She has a piece due for her biggest client but has nothing on the canvas. Looking to fuel her creative side she checks in with her drug dealer Hadrian (Graham Skipper) for something new and exciting. Taking the most potent option of "bliss" Diablo cocaine. After the first hit she finds herself sunken into the floor then hooked up with often absent pal Courtney (Tru Collins) and her guy Clive (Jeremey Gardner). Dizzy gets more that she bargained for from the encounter but her inspiration to paint has returned even though she can't remember any of the brushstrokes.

Writer-Director Joe Begos uses 16mm as the grainy underbelly vehicle for this hard charging, intense ear splitting soundtrack filled gorefest that dances across the screen. Dizzy, of course, wants more as her painting that will be her masterpiece takes shape. She comes to realize that she craves something more than alcohol and drugs alone to keep the creative juices flowing. Begos rapid fire writing style keeps the narrative barreling ahead towards the finish line in a battle for Dizzy's soul between the need to finish the piece and her ultimate survival.

Dora Madison gives a full throated performance as Dizzy. She throws herself with reckless abandon into each scene as the perversion, blood lust, hallucinations, and blackouts intensify. Graham Skipper tries to assist as Hadrian the drug dealer with a conscious. Actually telling Dizzy that she ought to lay off for a while despite her being a paying customer. Look for George Wendt a longtime friend of Begos as one of the cronies hanging out at Hadrian's places swapping old war stories with his buddies before ending up on the wrong side of Dizzy's blood lust.

Bliss is a wild ride that plays more like a long-form performance art piece than a film. Anchored by the total commitment by lead Dora Madison the film is mix of purple, blue and red energy that could have gone sideways fronted by a less engaged actor. It's a compelling study of an artist drive to create and complete, riding that wave as it flows thought them tossing everything else aside including their own health and well being.

***1/2  Out of 4

Bliss | Joe Begos | U.S.A. | 2019 | 80 Minutes.

Tags: Los Angeles, Painter, Creative Block, Advance, Agent, Gallery Show, Cocaine, Dive Bar, Vampires, Blood Lust, Dante's Inferno, Metal.