Bliss Is...

I saw a review of Bliss Is… on Bri Prooker's website by actress Juliet Landau (Tim Burton's Ed Wood) that made me quite happy, as it was much- deserved high praise. Ms. Landau says "In BLISS IS… Bri Prooker calls to mind the vulnerability and desperation of Sandy Dennis' Honey from WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?" It seems worth mentioning that Sandy Dennis won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for this performance!! And I have no doubt that Bri Prooker will one day be winning her very own Academy Award. She is so real, genuine, vulnerable and magnetic in her portrayal of a pregnant teen desperately awaiting the results of her STD test that you just can't take your eyes off her. Your heart goes out to her and her pain becomes your pain. She makes you feel. And that's what great artists are supposed to do. Make your heart grow just a little bigger. Just like the Grinch's heart grew three sizes after experiencing the true meaning of Christmas!

Is ignorance really bliss? It seems it once was for home-schooled and extremely isolated teenager Emily Green (played with such non-judgment and genuine likability by Bri Prooker). Reality can be a bitch. One day you're in love; the next you discover it might have been really nice to have taken a sex-ed class… Emily Green is the kind of character you'd think you'd want to roll your eyes at (at the very minimum) or full-on BERATE for not knowing what a condom is or that having sex can make a baby or any number of STDs. And then tell her that once she finally does get a clue, maybe she should read a textbook written after the 90s so that she won't be so panicked that having unprotected sex one day is going to give her AIDs the next! But the thing is, Bri Prooker plays this ignorant-as-hell character with such heart, soulfulness and (dare I say it) intelligence that all I wanted to do was give her a hug (and maybe some condoms!) Emily Green became a full-rounded, three dimensional REAL person up there on the screen. Not some slutty idiot. An innocent, strong, smart girl afflicted with way too much ignorance that is going to change her life forever. There is pain in reality over ignorance. But BLISS IS… offers hope that the present pain (and knowledge) could lead to eventual (if not bliss) then at least some form of happiness.

What I remember most about seeing Bliss Is at a festival screening is how I was immediately drawn in to the lead actress, Bri Prooker's, pain and vulnerability. So was the rest of the audience. I remember a stillness in the theater as everyone was focused on her on the screen. She was the only one there. And the camera never moved. The whole movie was just her character sitting on the floor and either talking on the phone or talking directly to the camera. And I admit that was a little off-putting and unusual, the lack of production value, but Prooker's raw performance more than made up for it, which, given the other films screening with hers that obviously had big budgets, was a little shocking to me... how well hers held up against them all. But I know I wasn't the only one in the theater who felt that way, as there was communal laughter at the very few and far between amusing parts of the film and that to me is the biggest compliment I can give Prooker, as it means everyone was paying attention throughout all the pain her character was enduring, to all laugh in sync when suddenly she said or did something funny. That is a high complement, as I include myself when I say that audience members have an extremely short attention span. We normally need the big budgets and fast cuts and high action scenes. Just a woman alone in front of a camera speaking? We are bound to tune her out. But I didn't. And I don't think anyone else in the theater did. That's how powerful Bri Prooker's performance was. You felt her pain through the screen and just wanted to go give her a hug. Kudos to the strong acting and even bigger kudos to the actress who also directed this and had the balls to trust her story and her incredible performance ability so much that she foregoed all production value entirely... to much success!

It's hard to feel empathy for a young, modern woman who claims ignorance about sex and its consequences. But Bri Prooker brings such profound vulnerability to her portrayal of Emily, a home-schooled teenager, that you find yourself immediately drawn to her plight – pregnant and waiting for the results of an HIV test. You not only believe in Emily's innocence, but get wrapped up in her frantic phone call to a health clinic, a furious conversation with her boyfriend and a heartbreaking entreaty to her unborn child. BLISS IS… provides stripped-down production – no artful lighting or intricate camera angles – and an incisive look at the stripped-bare emotions of a fragile, but unbroken woman. The director made the right decision in keeping the camera squarely focused on Bri -- nothing should take your attention away from her acting and storytelling triumph in BLISS IS...