Undie
young and party forever—that is the hedonistic school of vampirism we know from
Anne Rice, Bret Easton Ellis, and Tony Scott’s The Hunger, among others. Of course, you’d better look good,
because people will be judging you for centuries. Dezzy Donahue is already
indulging in sex and substances like she is undead, but she will soon undergo
the full vampire experience in director-screenwriter Joe Begos’s Bliss, which is now available on VOD and
screens tonight in Brooklyn.
Donahue
is a borderline collectible artist, but she is blocked on an important
commission and can’t pay her rent. Obviously, the solution is a massive drug
bender. However, this time Bliss, her designer drug of choice, just doesn’t get
her inspiration flowing like it used to. Fortunately, her pseudo-friends
Courtenay and Ronnie are there to lead her further astray.
When
she wakes up from an evening of excessive indulgence, she really can’t remember
what happened, including the burst of work she did on her canvas. She feels
sick and hungry, but is strangely unable to keep down conventional people food.
Of course, we know what is going on, even before Courtenay explains it all to her.
In
a way, Bliss is a bit like Dan
Gilroy’s Velvet Buzzsaw, but it is
exponentially bloodier and grungier. It definitely suggests there is a
vampiric, exploitative dimension to artistic creation, but does not delve too
deeply into any of the philosophical or psychological issues this might raise.
Instead, Begos immerses us in the lurid, neon CBGB-bathroom-like world Donahue
and her cohorts inhabit. Seriously, you might want a tetanus shot booster
before watching this one.
Dora
Madison definitely goes all in and then some as Donahue, the hot mess, Ab-Fab
vampy vampire. Her commitment is impressive, but she still leaves us cold. Yet,
most of the rest of the characters are essentially flimsy stock figures. That
even includes George Wendt (from Cheers) appearing briefly as crusty old
“Pops.”
Frankly,
Bliss is far more concerned with
look, texture, and vibe than character development and plot points. There is
nothing inherently wrong with that, but the atmosphere here is rather
unpleasant. Perhaps Begos’s gritty aesthetic just works better in hardscrabble
Rhode Island, where his first two features were set.
Regardless,
we were relieved when this one was finished. His previous film, The Mind’s Eye was terrific, but the one
before that, Almost Human, was just
okay, so maybe he is due for another really good release (like Star Trek movies), especially since his
next film is already on the festival circuit. Not recommended for vampire fans
(only patrons of extreme, hallucinatory horror should consider partaking), Bliss is now available on VOD platforms
and screens tonight (9/28) at the Williamsburg Nitehawk.
