Bliss
Amazon Studios | Release Date (Streaming): February 5, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
40
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 21 Critic Reviews
Positive:
4
Mixed:
9
Negative:
8
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
UproxxVince ManciniFeb 4, 2021
Cahill is so effective at blurring the lines and making both “realities” feel equally plausible that it’s hard not to feel your own reality attenuating as you watch it. Owen Wilson and Salma Hayek, something of an odd couple on paper, are also perfectly cast. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleFeb 25, 2021
Ultimately, no matter what angle you see Bliss from, the story converges on a choice and a question: Which world do you choose to live in? And what can bring a person back to reality? Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperFeb 8, 2021
Trippy and entertaining mind-bender. Read full review
63
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanFeb 2, 2021
Bliss isn’t really all that interested in trafficking in the stuff of mass-market science fiction: the bells and whistles, in the form of nifty hardware, special effects and the like. Rather, Cahill’s latest film is an exercise in existential inquiry. Read full review
60
The Irish TimesTara BradyFeb 5, 2021
Expect head-scratching, some non-sequiturs and lots of quirks and Bliss will mostly entertain and consistently baffle. Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim RobeyFeb 4, 2021
Strip away the wiring, and Cahill’s film connects most tangibly as a fable about drug addiction – hardly a shock, with all the crystal-obsessed scurrying to make one grey reality bearable, or switch to another outright. He’s had more ingenious ideas, but the whole thing’s strangely charming. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubFeb 2, 2021
The emotional impact of those shots comes mainly from Wilson, who’s captured in several dialogue-free long takes. His signature drawl is silenced, and his face is forced to do work the screenplay hasn’t. He gives a weighty performance, delivered into a simulated void. Read full review
50
Film ThreatAlex SavelievFeb 6, 2021
The convoluted movie feels like a bunch of grandiose ideas in search of a connecting thread. Perhaps Cahill needs to reconnect with his indie roots to get his creative bliss back. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comNick AllenFeb 5, 2021
Bliss is far more kooky and tedious than it is good, and it's so confusing that even the movie's sense of humor is a question mark. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliFeb 5, 2021
With its blend of existential science fiction and character-based romance, it would seem to be as close to a can’t-miss premise as one can imagine yet, despite that, it somehow does miss – and by a wide margin. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsFeb 4, 2021
I wish the results were better, and a lot stranger. Cahill’s world-building has its moments, though. And the filmmaker did determine — correctly — that it’d be fun to have Bill Nye, the science guy, in a bow tie, portraying a sniffy scientific researcher. Read full review
40
Screen RantMae AbdulbakiFeb 9, 2021
Written and directed by Mike Cahill, Bliss has strong ideas about economic inequality and it ambitiously works to pull off being a sci-fi thriller that is layered with social commentary. However, the film falls short of delivering something more compelling and complex, primarily because it's trying to do too much at once. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckFeb 2, 2021
As with both of his previous works, the filmmaker delivers an undeniably ambitious mind-bender that bites off more than it can narratively chew. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreFeb 5, 2021
Unlike “The Matrix,” there’s too little to hang onto thanks to a flimsy story that dives into future-tech and glib heaven-or-hell discourses, and characters who keep us at arm’s length. Read full review
33
IndieWireKate ErblandFeb 4, 2021
Life might be messy and weird and scary, but it possesses more honesty than this cinematic misery. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinFeb 4, 2021
Convoluted doesn’t begin to describe the sci-fi drama Bliss, which starts off intriguingly enough but loses its way once it attempts to explain itself, before surprising us entirely in the end — and not in a particularly satisfying way. How this loopy film got made may prove its biggest mystery. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonFeb 4, 2021
Ideas being realized on screen? It’s something Mr. Cahill’s characters accomplish far more effectively than does the director himself. Read full review
30
The New York TimesTeo BugbeeFeb 4, 2021
Bliss fails to engage the senses, resulting in cinematic disappointment. Read full review
30
VarietyAndrew BarkerFeb 2, 2021
Cahill gets so bogged down in hair-splitting rules and exposition that he loses track of the bigger themes. Read full review
20
The GuardianPeter BradshawFeb 4, 2021
Every syllable of action, as we grind towards the broadly guessable finish, is jeopardy-free and interest-free. Wilson looks as if he is thinking about something else: the halting sing-song rhythms of his voice sound vapid, and Hayek is trilling, whooping and smirking away in a world of her own. Read full review
10
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzFeb 1, 2021
Completely miscast, egregiously plotted and ludicrous in absolutely every single other way, Bliss is a true cinematic disasterpiece. Read full review
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