"It was nice to play a character who is completely not spectacular," says the actor. "He is not uniquely capable or afflicted. It was a nice change of pace."
Allowing actors to stretch is at least partly what film festivals are about, and "East Fifth Bliss" is just one of many U.S. independent features being screened for the first time at Newport. Others include a zombie road comedy, "DeadHeads"; "Waking Madison," with Elisabeth Shue playing a suicidal sex phone operator; a comedic superensemble including Horatio Sanz and Ed Helms in "High Road"; and "Balls to the Wall," a new film by "Wayne's World" director Penelope Spheeris about a struggling cartoonist who finds more success as a male stripper.
"We really like to find some of the best films that haven't been screened yet or picked up by a major studio," says Gregg Schwenk, executive director and chief executive of the festival. "For a film like 'East Fifth Bliss,' exposure like this really can jump-start its opportunities for distribution."
In "Bliss," Hall plays 35-year-old Morris Bliss, who is stuck in a bad state of New York ennui. He has no job and no prospects and lives with his laconic widowed father, played by Peter Fonda. A surprising relationship with a precocious daughter of a former high school classmate shakes up his otherwise static life. Full article here.
This was an excellent character study about a guy who is "stuck". With this film we see his lack of prospects, his inertia in life, but because of some events that unravel around him, he is (as Michael C. Hall put it in the Q&A, "on a roll". I look forward with much anticipation for every role Mr. Hall puts out there for us to consume, and his portrayal of Morris was excellent. All the acting was great in fact.
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