 Film
STUDIO CITY
—Film director, producer and actress Julie Davis can currently be seen in Henry Jaglom’s latest stage play “45 Minutes From Broadway” at Santa Monica’s elegant and trendy Edgemar Theatre, but if you really want to get to know her well, after seeing her as Betsy in the most wonderful play of 2009 check her work out next year as a filmmaker in her feature film “Finding Bliss,” a comedy that is based partly on the young beauty’s real life when she arrived in Hollywood an innocent Jewish American princess with an Ivy League education only to join the adult film industry as a way to break into Hollywood. Wait a minute, she never starred in any films, she edited the work of others who created those forgettable but profitable films. Though “Finding Bliss” is not only unforgettable you are sure to acquire an acute case of the giggles after viewing it. The official synopsis states, “Aspiring filmmaker Jody Balaban [Sobieski] takes a job at a porn 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 porn director, Jeff Drake-an initially fractious relationship that simmers into an unexpected romance.”
Although some of the film is about serious personal situations, the very well written and directed film is done very tongue and cheek. No pun intended. Then again it’s based on the adult entertainment world, so maybe it is. What’s the point of this film, you ask? Whatever it is, you had better prepare for a 90 plus minute laugh-a-thon. What’s not laughable in the film? The excellent performances of Leelee Sobieski, Matt Davis, Denise Richards, Jamie Kennedy and Kristen Johnston. What makes Davis’s style so perfect as a director is that although Sobieski is most obviously the leading lady, the writing makes everyone a leading character at some point in the film. There are no small parts, just small body parts, or not. I’d never seen this side of the adult entertainment movie industry focused on in a way that everyone across America can understand it. Matt Davis as adult film director Jeff Drake has moments in the film where he’s astounding and then he knows just how to downplay for his leading lady’s scenes. Seeing actors all willing to play as an ensemble is truly unique and Julie Davis as an actress knows this when it’s her turn to direct a film.
Sobieski’s character Jody in the film represents all of us who arrive in Hollywood believing we are destined to become the next great filmmaker and yet we find no one opens the door when we knock, few calls are returned and budding hopeful filmmakers become almost stalker-types in their quest to prove all they need is a budget and a studio to back a film and we all have in us the makings of “Gone With The Wind,” “The Wizard of Oz” or “Avatar.” Davis may play serious and sophisticated on stage at the Edgemar, but her writing and directing style is magnificently acute in humor and the film doesn’t have one second or frame of anything boring at all. I love her work in “Finding Bliss,” and can see why this film was an official selection at film festivals such as, Slamdance, Gen Art, Method Fest, Newport Beach Film Festival and the famed Seattle International Film Festival.
There’s a chance it’s coming in wide-release next year, but at the very least it will be making its debut in L.A., New York and Miami. The stunning and talented director plans to make every young woman who has a dream to come to Hollywood - find her bliss. “Finding Bliss” a film by Julie Davis and Light Show Entertainment. LightShowEnt.com
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