Finding Bliss: Review By harveycritic

FINDING BLISS

Phase 4 Films

Reviewed for MovieWeb by Harvey Karten

Grade: B

Directed By: Julie Davis

Written By: Julie Davis

Cast: Leelee Sobieski, Matthew Davis, Donnamarie Recco, Denise Richards

Screened at: Review 1, NYC, 5/20/10

Opens: June 4, 2010

Some literary critics hold that puns and double entendres are the lowest form of humor. Maybe so, because a pun is an ambiguity that is cheap way of communicating and a double entendre is an ambiguity that features an "indelicate" interpretation. Yet Shakespeare's plays are loaded with both. Even the title "Much Ado About Nothing" would be better understood in the Bard's own day because "nothing" then was slang for a woman's genitals, and in fact the word "all," then slang for a man's private parts, derived from "awl," which is an agricultural implement shaped like a penis. The porn industry these days shows off titles that more often than not are double entendres ("Debbie Does Dallas"), while "Finding Bliss" exploits director Julie Davis's pun that directs our attention both to the actual meaning (extreme pleasure) and the name of a leading character in her third movie. More salacious, though, are some abbreviations known by folks from the industry: ATM does not mean Automatic Teller Machine and DP is not a displaced person. Nor does actor Richard Harder go by anything but his conventional nickname.

Before "Finding Bliss," Davis's second feature, her "Amy's Orgasm," deals with a 29-year-old self-help author who falls for a radio shock-jock with a reputation for hitting on his guests. "Amy's Orgasm" may be inspired by Davis's life but "Finding Bliss" is even more closely autobiographical. Davis at one point worked for the Playboy Channel: her job was to edit adult films, to turn hard-core porn into a classier, soft core version. Her alter ego in this film, Jody Balaban, is an Ivy-League grad who takes top honors for a student film, goes on to graduate school determined to become a major film-maker (if only she could contact Garry Marshall), but ends up directing traffic on a studio backlot. She hits the jackpot when she gets a call from Kristen Johnston's character, Irene Fox (not necessarily a double entendre), who runs Grind, a soft-core porn film company.

Leelee Sobieski takes on the principal role, a young, accomplished performer with a distinct way of speaking excitedly and ending her sentences abruptly. Her Jody Balaban is in one sense more naïve then one would expect in these times, perhaps because she's a nice Jewish girl whose parents, Debra (Caroline Aaron) and Alan (Tim Bagley) brought her up as such. Desperate for a job that could get her noticed by the major powers of Hollywood, she reluctantly agrees to edit porn films directed by Jeff Drake (Matthew Davis), gets to know the performers such as the aforementioned Dick Harder (Jamie Kennedy) and of course Bliss, an actress whose name is deliberately hidden for reasons that later become clear. She justifies working for these alleged low-lifes because she uses the equipment and the actors to make arthouse fare at night, the performers working the double shift without pay because they too want to break into mainstream cinema.

"Finding Bliss" is briskly edited, sometimes coming across like a video production, which could be Julie Davis's intention. The story has a copout ending, a sentimental one since Jeff, the good-looking director who is lusted over by the women in his casts, is someone other than he at first appears. Sobieski dominates the proceedings (no double entendre intended) in a film that looks more kindly than most on the porn industry (assuming that the majority of viewers are not singles who spend extra money on nightly video entertainment or couples who turn on from the stuff), though it would be a hard sell (no double entendre intended) in Pakistan. A fun picture with no pretensions.

Rated R. 96 minutes. © 2010 by Harvey Karten Member: NY Film Critics Online