Finding Bliss (2009)

Expectations

I'm so sick of these gloomy movies. I wanted a comedy. Hence, I found Finding Bliss. Which, P.S. Netflix has a sub-genre of comedies called "Late-Night Comedy". Perhaps you knew this, I however, did not, expect me to be pulling from this category more frequently. There will be a spoiler alert at the bottom, however, this movie is quite predictable, thus you could probably figure out the ending on your own. (BTW, I'm trying a new format) Finding Bliss, according to IMDb:

A romantic comedy that explores the adult film industry through the eyes of an idealistic 25 year-old award winning film school grad.

This movie is kind of what I hoped Elektra Luxx would be. A funny take on the porn industry. Maybe some behind the scenes action.  

This movie is actually why I started this project. Well, not this movie specifically, but I wanted an eclectic mix of good and bad movies that were worth watching.

This might not be for everyone as far as the love stuff goes, but it has some fun comedy moments that kind of gave me what I needed after a long week.

Oh and let me say here the film art is not at all indicative of the movie, at least, not with those characters

In a Nutshell

Jody Balaban (Leelee Sobieski) is an ivy-league film graduate determined to make it in the industry. The movie starts with her showing the downfalls of her sexual history; talking openly about sex to her parents, failed spin the bottle, an awful de-flowering story (but let's be honest, who's first time is all that magical?). Yeah, Jody is sexually repressed, but okay with that. She's far more focused on her career anyway. 

After sending her screenplay and the student film she created out to everyone in the industry unsuccessfully she finally receives a call for an interview. Within the first five minutes of the interview she realizes that while she's being asked to be an editor, she's also in a porn -- excuse me, "adult entertainment"-- studio. The director of this studio has a vision of creating a porn that can be seen in art houses and thinks Jody will help him accomplish this goal. Horrified at first, she soon accepts, as she figures she'll work during the day and create her own movie at night.

She begins the filming process illicitly after hours and soon gets caught. The actors she hires get scared off from the movie once they realized that they are even tangentially linked to a porn studio. Jody is in a bind and hires the pornstars to be the actors in her movie as well. Oh, and her boss, Jeff Davis (Matthew Davis), whom she has some serious unrealized chemistry with, once he finds out, allows her to continue filming provided she buys her own film and and helps re-write his movie, which, by the way is called, "Finding Bliss"

In case you're curious, Finding Bliss is about a woman who voluntarily gets gangbanged just before her wedding. Classy stuff. Jody's movie is art imitating life. It's about a sexually repressed idealists who doesn't want to have sex too early and be considered a slut.

The rest of my synopsis will be at the bottom in the spoiler alert.  It's not a deep movie and fairly predictable.

DaFuq?

I'll be honest, while I enjoy occasionally acting really snooty and bourgeoisie, I enjoy a good (or bad) dick joke more. This movie did not disappoint. Right away they poked fun at porn titles: Gladiator = Glad He Ate Her and Charlie's Angels = Charlie's Anals. They even made a "dick in the box joke". No, it's not comedy gold, but it is a nice pop culture reference. And every time they said "come", I could just hear the double entendre in my head.

Aside from Sobieski, you'll recognize Denise Richards (who didn't do a bad job); Jamie Kennedy (who really just played every role he's ever done; and you may recognize Davis. He's done some movies and T.V. but he honestly he just looks like every cocky guy at a bar. Go out tonight, you'll see what I mean.

This movie is the lowest common denominator and that's what I enjoyed about it, but what I didn't like, is that they didn't play that up. The movie is too long. this is a semi-filthy, dumb movie, you don't have to give me some great closure and ending with a tiresome build up. I get it the Princess will end up with her Prince some way or another. I just stopped caring at a point. I'm realizing that I just got sick of Jody. Whimpering women wear me down. Yes, I respect the career-woman-driven-young-and-hungry attitude. I get it. I live it. But at some point I get sick of watching you fail at love. Especially when you're hot and people would be dying to be in your position.

I enjoyed Jody's BBF Kathleen (Donnamarie Recco). She's successful, sexually open, and totally okay with the knowledge that some of the guys she's been with have been absolute losers. There's always a colleague of Jody's who quite entertaining: Gary (P.J. Byrne). He's awkward, an over-sharer and has weird sexual quirks.  Naturally he and Kathleen make an awesome couple. 

On a totally separate note, what happened to Leelee Sobieski? I remember her being touted as this rising  star who was on the verge of true Hollywood acclaim. 

Spoiler Alert

Jody's sexually repressed. Jeff's cocky (see what I did there?) but not what he seems to be. At some point they're going to want each other, but first, their love has to struggle. They decide to be official, but then at a drunken party, Jeff is hit on by another woman. Jody walks in not even bothering for an explanation. She proceeds to say some hurt things

Cut to the premiere of her movie which is received well, but no one from the studio attends. This turns out to be because they're at the AVN's Annual Award in Vegas and Jeff is slated to win an award. Jody rushes out to Vegas and there and on stage, her and Jeff reconcile. I imagine they live happily ever after

Oh, and you will see Jamie Kennedy's cock. As if there where any doubt.

Elektra Luxx (2010)

I chose "Elektra Luxx" inadvertently as my next movie. I say inadvertently because I had actually watched this (at least parts of it) on some random weekend on HBO. I'm trying to watch movies that are new to both you and me, but as I'm trying to post consistently, I didn't have time to selecte another. The plot according to IMDb:

"Life for porn actress Elektra Luxx gets turned upside down when she finds out she's pregnant."

I liked this much more than "How to be a Serial Killer". It had a bit of wit that kept me entertained. I'm a fan of Joseph Gordon-Levitt 'cause, who's not? And I recognized Carla Gugino from the few things she's done that I've seen.

Now with all that out of the way, let me really tell you about this. Don't watch this movie based on the tag line. It is not exactly accurate. It would be far me appropriate to say "Life gets complicated for retired and newly pregnant pornstar Elektra Luxx."

There are so many thoughts and subplot lines. I'll try not organize them a bit:

• There's Gordon-Levitt's character Bert Rodriguez. He is a vlogger who reports on porn stars and the industry at large. He is obsessed with Elektra. He has an annoying slightly younger sister. You are lead to believe he's in his 30's living in his mother's basement. 

• Next is Adrianne Palicki's character Holly Rocket. Holly's a disgraced porn star who previously worked on a movie with Elektra. Holly's dumb. Like one's of those people who you get tired of correcting because they always say or misunderstand a word that's a little too big. She's also attracted to her BFF (another character entirely) and doesn't know how to handle this. The two are going to Mexico. 

• Lastly, there's Elektra. Newly pregnant. Running a workshop of how to be a pornstar in bed, previously linked to a now dead rock and roller. Has a sister in jail. Is visited by the Virgin Mary (Julianne Moore!) in an hallucination. 

Got all that? Fantastic, because that doesn't even seem to be the main plot line. The main plot seems to be how all these random people in Elektra's life are making an impact on her and how she's making an impact on them. By the last three quarters of the movie you realize that Elektra's in a kind of dark place and the people in her life really aren't helping her positively.

Now let me say this. I said this movie had wit, but it's understated and definitely not a laugh-out-loud comedy.

I don't recommend this out right. I moderately enjoyed it, and if I'm super bored again, I might re-watch it. I intentionally didn't put spoilers in this post though. I figured if you wanted to watch this and find out what happens you could, but this post should give you a good sense of whether it's worth seeing.

Oh, and for anyone not sure and hoping for some moments, You don't even really see side-boob.

While I appreciate the concept, it was not executed properly. You're left wondering why Holly Rocket and Bert Rodriguez needed a whole subplot. It would have been better to keep the characters and her interactions with them short and neat.