One A Week Reviews #38: Finding Bliss

Practically a sitcom about the "wonderful world of Porno", this feature reviewed for dvdsnapshot does have it's charms...

FINDING BLISS

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS

Aspiring filmmaker Jody Balaban (Leelee Sobieski) takes a job at an adult entertainment studio, planning to use the company's lush facilities to secretly film her own movie after hours. When Jody's ruse is discovered, she's forced to collaborate with infamous adult entertainment director, Jeff Drake (Matt Davis) – an initially fractious relationship that simmers into an unexpected romance.

OUR TAKE

Apple-cheeked and overly optimistic film student Jody Balaban takes a student award, one encounter with Garry Marshall, and a lot of hope and promptly moves to Los Angeles to fall on her face trying to break into the movies. Desperately taking an editing gig with an adult entertainment production company; she starts plotting, sassy scamp that she is, to make her own film with the production house's facilities after hours while imagining conversations in her head with Bliss, the porn star she can project her neuroses onto. She winds up using the cast and crew to make her own movie, “Mickey and Judy putting on a show” style, while working on editing the porn film.

Personally, I think this all just sounds rather exhausting, but the film keeps things fairly light and sunny. You'd think porn casts were the cutest group of wacky co-workers ever to spring from a sit-com style reimagining of Boogie Nights. (This was originally developed as a Showtime series, and that “Group of wacky TV characters” feel definitely still lingers.) Pretty much everyone's seen pornography, rather they admit it or not, and it's certainly nicer to picture the cast and crew as a sweetly dysfunctional family than whatever the reality might be. Jody goes on to spar romantically with Jeff Drake, the director of the dirty movie. Matt Davis and Leelee Sobieski have friendly chemistry but not romantic, however that's not that big a deal for this frothy comedy. Also, she starts out as something of a prude but we all know she'll loosen up considering the circumstances. If you don't think she won't learn, grow, and fall in love, then you've never seen a romantic comedy before.

Sobieski has grown to be both a sober and amusing lead, while Jamie Kennedy (all of him, ahem), Caroline Aaron, Denise Richards, Ron Jeremy and Kristin Johnston bring their woozy, addled comedy stylings to keep the varied characters amusing and easy to relate to. I find it hard to believe these two groups, the porn stars and the straight world, would have so much trouble with the so-called “awkward gulf” between them. Discovering common ground is part of the journey.

Finding Bliss keeps the comedy light – with silly sex toy and porn industry humor. This is comedy with adult content, but it's wholesome at heart, even if there's a big scoop of cheese at the end when there really should be whipped cream.

SPECIAL FEATURES

Finding Bliss is presented full-screen with both French and English 2.0 stereo and 5.1 Dolby Surround sound. Included are Deleted and alternate scenes, storyboards, and a musical “shake it up” montage and trailers for Adventures of Power, I Do & I Don't, and Play the Game.

CONCLUSION

A wholesome sex comedy set in the porn industry (and we should all have such nice coworkers); Finding Bliss is cute enough you could watch it on a date. I wouldn't recommend showing it to the kids, though.

OVERALL PICTURE

MOVIE: B-

EXTRAS: B-

Jay's Reviews: I Am Virgin

 Sometimes, kiddos, I take one for the team and watch something so you don't have to. This dvdsnapshot review is one of those times.

I AM VIRGIN

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS
The end of the world comes... and you don't.

It came without warning. The virus wiped out most of the world's population in just a few days, and everyone who survived became a vampire with an insatiable thirst for sex. Everyone except Robby. He's the last normal man in a world of unbridled sexuality, and he's a virgin. Accompanied by his trusty Basset Hound, Billy, he's looking for love in a city full of vampire vixens who want nothing more than the next depraved thrill. Faced with temptation, Robby must resist the lure of this world of lust and sensuality or risk becoming one of the sex-mad undead creatures himself!

OUR TAKE

Three years after the breakout of the H1D3 virus, Robby is one wandering virgin in a world full of nymphomaniacal vampires that all seem to be former strippers and adult models. I Am Virgin is a soft-core sex-spoof of I Am Legend that feels like it wanted to be a full-on porn-film but wimped-out in the end. The story, such as it is, grinds to a halt every few minutes so that Robby can stand off to the side want watch some truly harsh-looking, tattooed women and a few muscle-bound men simulate sex. Each of these breaks is interminably long and follow porn-scene structure so the viewer is left to wonder why they added the fangs but left out the penetration. Being that he's pretty sure he's the last man on earth and his life consists of hiding in his parent's old house with only his dog and an inflatable sex-doll (an alien one, no less) for company, he deserves whatever entertainment he gets, such as it is. Each time he runs away from the vampires so he can go home and bemoan his virginity when he should count his blessings that the electricity still works and the spam keeps flowing into his inbox. If anything, you'd figure he'd be throwing himself at these sex-crazed vamps. He'd sure be a lot happier. I mean, it's not like they want his blood.

Spoofs get the luxury of having the films they're sending up do the actual work while they can just coast of the structure and add jokes. I Am Virgin does this but traded in most of the humor for the sex scenes. Was Robby looking into a Men's Room and saying "What a bunch of junk?" supposed to be funny? I ask because it's the only laugh I had.

When a low-budget film comes out, viewers tend to be forgiving because you admire the filmmakers' moxie and commitment in getting it made at all. I'll leave it at that.

SPECIAL FEATURES
The case touts "with 12 additional minutes not seen in the theatrical version" though I doubt this got much in the way of a theatrical run. The I Am Virgin DVD offers a commentary track by the film's director, a slightly amusing 8 minute behind-the-scenes feature called "T&A of Darkness" that seems mostly an excuse to highlight the local Portland ladies featured in the film, and a collection of Z-grade movie trailers from IMD films. The film is presented in widescreen, and there are no extra audio options.

CONCLUSION
I Am Virgin is the type of film where you have to say "good for them for getting together and putting on a show." There's not much else to endorse. An overly long riff on I Am Legend stuffed with deathly long simulated sex scenes, it's not one for the kiddies. It's only for the immature adults, really.  A good solution for the budget conscious who'd like to go see cheap strippers but are unwilling to spend the money?

OVERALL PICTURE
MOVIE D+
EXTRAS C