''Finding Bliss'' is a 2009 romantic comedy film written and directed by filmmaker

Julie Davis Julie Davis (born 1969) is an American film director, writer and actress. Davis is best known for directing, writing and acting in the romantic comedy film ''Amy's Orgasm''. Davis' first film, the ultra low-budget ''I Love You, Don't Touch Me!'' ...

(''

Amy's Orgasm ''Amy's Orgasm'' (title censored to ''Amy's O'' in many video shops) is a 2001 film directed by Julie Davis. It stars Julie Davis as Amy, a 29-year-old Jewish woman who usually avoids dating as she does not believe in love. The film won the "Aud ...

''). ''Finding Bliss'' explores the

pornographic film Pornographic films (pornos), erotic films, adult films, blue films, sexually explicit films, or 18+ films, are films that represent Human sexual activity, sexually WIKT:explicit, explicit subject matter in order to sexual arousal, arouse, fasci ...

industry through the eyes of an idealistic 24-year-old film school grad, Jody Balaban (played by

Leelee Sobieski Liliane Rudabet Gloria Elsveta "Leelee" Sobieski (born June 10, 1983) is an American artist and retired actress. She achieved fame in her teens with roles in films such as '' Deep Impact'' (1998), '' Never Been Kissed'', ''Eyes Wide Shut'' (both ...

Plot

After a long humbling year temping as a traffic cop on a studio lot, Jody is faced with the hard decision of taking the only well-paying industry job she has yet been offered — editing porn at Grind Productions, a profitable adult film company run by former

porn star A pornographic film actor or actress, pornographic performer, adult entertainer, or porn star is a person who performs sex acts on video that is usually characterized as a pornographic film. Such videos tend to be made in a number of distinc ...

Irene Fox (Kristen Johnston). At first horrified by the prospect of exposing herself to the cockroaches of the film industry, not to mention the effect it would have on her strict Jewish parents, Jody has a remarkable change of heart when she realizes that Grind has all the facilities she needs to make her own low budget movie — on the sly of course — but things get complicated when Jody meets Jeff Drake (Matthew Davis), the charming Herr Director of adult films. Jeff, also an award-winning filmmaker, once had his own dreams of making "real" films, but now is a hard-worn cynic who masks his disappointment behind a façade of irony. In Jody, he sees the idealism he once had, while Jody starts to face her own sexual hang-ups as she begins to get aroused by the porn she so harshly judges. Jody and Jeff get close to each other, but she gets hurt when she sees him making out with one of his actresses, Sindi, who was actually taking advantage of Jeff in his drunken state. The movie made by Jody is well received by critics, and Jeff is also nominated for an

AVN Award The AVN Awards are List of movie awards, film awards sponsored and presented by the American trade magazine ''AVN (magazine), AVN'' (''Adult Video News'') annually to honor achievements in the global Sex industry, adult entertainment industry. ...

for his movie. Jody wants to set things right with him; she accepts help from Bliss, the lead actress in both Jody's and Jeff's movies, but with different identities, and pretends to be her to gain entry at an award function. On stage, when Jeff receives his award, he announces his retirement from the Adult Industry to move on. Jeff calls Bliss for special thanks. He realizes that Jody is in disguise as Bliss, and they kiss.

Cast

as Jody Balaban **

Sammi Hanratty Samantha Lynn Hanratty (born September 20, 1995) is an American actress. Her first lead was in 2009, portraying Chrissa Maxwell in ''An American Girl: Chrissa Stands Strong''. In 2011, she played the role Whitney Brown in the film ''The Greenin ...

as Young Jody Balaban *

Matthew Davis Matthew Wadsworth Davis (born May 8, 1978) is an American actor. He is mostly known for his roles as Warner Huntington III in ''Legally Blonde'', Adam Hillman on the American Broadcasting Company, ABC comedy-drama ''What About Brian'' (2006–20 ...

as Jeff Drake *

Denise Richards Denise Lee Richards (born February 17, 1971) is an American actress, TV personality, and model. She rose to prominence with roles in the science fiction film ''Starship Troopers'' (1997), the erotic thriller film '' Wild Things'' (1998), and the ...

as Laura / Bliss *

Mircea Monroe Mircea Monroe is an American actress. She had roles on the TV series ''Episodes'' as Morning Randolph (2011–2017), ''Hart of Dixie'' as Tansy Truitt (2011–2015), '' Impastor'' as Alexa Cummings (2015–2016) and '' Sing It!'' as Stacey Needl ...

as Sindi *

Jamie Kennedy James Harvey Kennedy (born May 25, 1970) is an American actor and comedian. In film, Kennedy played Randy Meeks in the ''Scream'' film series (1996–2000), which saw him as a supporting character in the first and third installments and a le ...

as Richard "Dick" Harder *

Kristen Johnston Kristen Angela Johnston (born September 20, 1967) is an American actress. Best known for her work on television sitcoms, she twice won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as Sally Solomon in ...

as Irene * P. J. Byrne as Gary *

Caroline Aaron Caroline Sidney Aaron (née Abady; born ) is an American actress. She has appeared in multiple Mike Nichols, Nora Ephron, and Woody Allen films and is also known for her role in the television series '' The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel''. Early lif ...

as Debra Balaban *

Tim Bagley Timothy Hugh Bagley (born August 17, 1957) is an American actor and comedian, who has appeared in numerous films and television programs. He had recurring roles on the TV series ''Will & Grace'', '' Hope & Gloria'', ''Strip Mall'', ''According t ...

as Alan Balaban *

Christa Campbell Christa Campbell is an American actress and producer. Campbell is best known for her roles in ''2001 Maniacs'', ''Mozart and the Whale'', ''Lonely Hearts (2006 film), Lonely Hearts'', ''The Wicker Man (2006 film), The Wicker Man'', ''Cleaner' ...

as Kato *

Mr. Marcus Mr. Marcus (born September 4, 1970) is the stage name of Jesse Spencer, an American pornographic film actor and director known for acting in or directing over 1,800 pornographic films. In 2009, he was inducted into the AVN Awards Hall of Fame. ...

as Jake B. Bigg * Donnamarie Recco as Kathleen *

Stormy Daniels Stephanie A. Gregory Clifford (born Stephanie A. Gregory; March 17, 1979), known professionally as Stormy Daniels, is an American pornographic film actress, Film director, director and former stripper. She has won many industry awards and is a ...

as Porn Starlet *

Garry Marshall Garry Kent Marshall (November 13, 1934 – July 19, 2016) was an American screenwriter, director, producer and actor. Marshall began his career in the 1960s as a writer for ''The Lucy Show'' and ''The Dick Van Dyke Show'' until he developed the T ...

as Himself *

Ron Jeremy Ronald Jeremy Hyatt (born March 12, 1953) is an American former Pornographic film actor, pornographic actor, and actor. Nicknamed "The Hedgehog", Jeremy was ranked by AVN (magazine), ''AVN'' at No. 1 in their "50 Top Porn Stars of All Time" l ...

as Himself * Zach Cumer as Bobby Daples * Mario Cassem as Morris Goldstein * Dan Taylor as Cute Guy *

as Dyan Cannons * G.K. Bowes as Additional Voices (uncredited)

Release

The film was released theatrically in the U.S. on June 4, 2010 in New York City and June 11, 2010 in Los Angeles.

Reception

The film was well-received upon its premiere at the 2009 Slamdance Film Festival. Despite that, it received generally negative reviews from critics. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

it has a rating of based on reviews from critics, with an average rating of . On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

the film has a score of 30 out of 100 based on 10 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.

References

External links

* * *
''Finding Bliss''
at

* * {{cite podcast , url = http://creativescreenwritingmagazine.blogspot.com/2010/06/finding-bliss-q.html , title = Finding Bliss Q&A featuring Julie Davis, Christa Campbell, Stormy Daniels and Jamie Kennedy , website = Creative Screenwriting Magazine Podcast , host = Jeff Goldsmith , date = 2010-06-17 , accessdate= 2010-06-25 2009 films 2000s English-language films 2009 romantic comedy films Films about pornography Films scored by John Swihart American romantic comedy films 2000s American films English-language romantic comedy films