Bliss

This film is marketed as a sci-fi, altered reality adventure. It isn't. "Bliss" is a drug-induced hallucination from the perspective of a man who has lost touch with reality and fallen in love with an enabler. This is his struggle to regain his sobriety and reconnect with his estranged daughter. The film is a bit messy and the acting is simply passable... However, it is fresh and inventive, and it moves along swiftly.

This film has so many interesting ideas but i found that it doesn't really follow all of them though.

I'm pretty confused at the low score and how badly it is being panned by critics.

I thought the acting was pretty good and i was really interested in these characters. Which is where i think some of the issue are found.

I think this film needed to take a step back from the sci-fi elements. They are very sparse but are there enough to hinder the true storyline. If i am being honest i think the whole 2nd act needed retooling. It was like a brick wall that the movie just slammed into. And then it just sort of slogged along. Once again i thought 'oh this is interesting' but then it just like stalled and i sat around thinking what is this movie now. It kind of gets its momentum back in the 3rd act but i think the 1st is where this movie shines.

This movie is also great at visual storytelling. The production design, costuming and make up all work so well. It allows you to understand what the film is trying to say before the film explicitly tells you and i though that was really good.

I honestly think this movie could have been great but it just got its self bogged down with the sci-fi part and trying to trick? the audience.

I think it held its cards too close to its chest but i think the twist is blatantly clear from literally the first scene. This isn't a bad thing at all. I think it would have been better letting us view this world though the lens of us knowing twist from the beginning. I think that would have been a much more interesting and very eye opening character and subject study.

Thirty-five years ago, I passed the point where drugs and alcohol brought me bliss and entered the hell of physical dependence without the payoff. I decided to stop, and every day clean felt like the pavement hitting me in the face. Eventually, the craziness of sanity was less than the craziness of intoxication, and reality became more normal than being high.

Anyone can do it, but most don't. They just like the fantasy more than life. My mother, two close friends, my cousins,, colleagues, etc. All stayed in the world of bliss until they died.

If you are using, stay here with the pain. Let it strip away from you the fantasy that is killing you. You deserve to live, and all you have to do is start where you are.

Now, about that movie. It's crap on a cracker, with the kind of mind-numbing insights people have when they are either newly sober or very, very stoned. There are better movies about addiction and mental illness, but what does it matter? If something in this movie gets through to you, use it as a way out. Get help.

Another creative wonder by Mike Cahill. Unless someone fully understands, or has/had addiction and/or mental health issues, this film may be confusing.

I like how Cahill thinks out of the box, and the way this story was portrayed, was genius, albeit flawed. His screenplay was somewhat all over the place, sloppy, and did have some plot and technical issues. The story didn't flow and transition as well as it could have, like it did in his earlier film, Another Earth. Although the pacing was slightly better in this one, it still needed improvement and less filler for the 103 min runtime. For me, this film missed the mark and had much more potential than what I saw. Owen Wilson and Salma Hayek were great in their roles, as were the rest of the cast.

It's a different film, but once you get what's going on, you'll appreciate it a little more. It's a decent one-time watch. So it's a 7/10 from me.

Those who marketed this movie made a huge mistake. They gave a high expectation of a Syfy type movie. I watched this movie with exactly that in mind and it left me lost and confused. I really believe it's because of the lasting impression the marketing left on me.

It took me just about past the midway point of the movie I started to realize it wasn't about Syfy at all. It's about drug addiction, the mentally disabled, and homelessness. The moment I recognized this, I had a better impression of the movie. Having a career in LE in a city I experienced many with those difficulties. It's easy to criticize the homeless or dismiss them, but if you had a better understanding of the issues they're having mentally your feelings would change. And I think this movie did a good job putting the viewer inside the mind of an addict/mentally ill person. I only wish those in charge of the marketing would have done a better job.

With having a better understanding of the movie, the actors did a great job.