Virgil Bliss

Ultra low budget movie costing just $700, which is solid proof you do not need any serious money to produce a semi important picture. 'Virgil Bliss', comes from the mud rags and tatters of hyper realism, in fact you are probably watching real people, acting out what appears to be genuine situations but that is where all the skill of the director lies. The chief actor has done real time in prison, so the perfect choice as Virgil, a Southerner that on his release from Rikers (who is then placed in a squalid halfway house), finds himself on the streets of an unkind, harsh and unforgiving reality (shades of 'Midnight Cowboy'). With just a crew of three, this is one impressive and memorable film and free in this instant does not mean cheap.

I really had to keep reminding myself that I was actually watching a MOVIE, and not experiencing a real scenario. The acting is absolutely STUNNING; the characters of Virgil and Ruby are so incredibly realistic that you will forget these are actually actors and not real people. I felt that Virgil and Ruby were soul mates, but due to the hopeless circumstances on which their relationship was based, their union was doomed from the start. This movie is what independent film-making is all about; Virgil Bliss will solidify the fact that regardless of your budget, if you get the right talent, the right director and writer, you can make a masterpiece! 9 out of 10.

I can't watch the whole thing in one setting. It's real enough that it reminds me deeply of the life that I have been lucky enough to get out of but regret that so many people still live there. Well done to all. But what is the purpose? What do we walk away with? The movie is good enough to make me wonder and worry about such questions. Hope lots other see it and have similar thoughts.

"Virgil Bliss" was a film I've been meaning to see for some time now. It was a pick at the IFP Market a few years back that I attended with my own script but never got to see. Finally I did on IFC around 1:00 in the morning. What really stood out for me in this film is what stood out in another film by Joe Maggio, "Milk and Honey". The performances. Clint Jordan plays the troubled man-child just released from Rikers. In the beginning I thought it was a strange pairing of this "southern boy" in a NYC maximum security prison but after the rules were established of who this person was I found myself a part of his experience. His experience is a inevitable journey through the hard, cold reality of an ex-con set free to live in the dead end world of starting back at square one. The object of his innocent desire is Ruby, a ten dollar a blow job prostitute played amazingly by Kirsten Russel. The prostitute role in film is a dime a dozen but to see it played believably is rare. She's troubled and she is trouble. Virgil has no chance after he's released. All the elements of the outside world drag him back into the belly of the beast. We know he is doomed and yet we watch anyway because maybe just maybe this good intentioned career criminal might escape the life he has been apart of for so long.

I'd never seen a film by NYC indie filmmaker Joe Maggio before until I watched a double feature of his new film "Bitter Feast" paired with "Virgil Bliss." Both films were exceptional but the real find is this $700 wonder from 2001.

First and foremost are the performances from the three principals, namely Kirsten Russell, whose Ruby easily diminishes the term "Hard as Nails" into an understatement. When she first meets our title character, played with a poignant down-to-earth realism by Clint Jordan, she laughs in his face. She's a dime-hooker who camps out in some of the skeezier parts of New York, nursing a drug problem, and fooling herself into thinking she'll ever see the child she has long bartered away in the process.

The power Russell brings to this role cannot be oversold. You should have every reason to hate this character, but somehow you don't. She plays the role so well that as her rock hardened heart begins to thaw you can't help but have the same (almost ridiculous) hope that Virgil has of making her love herself. A scene where she finally allows herself to bask in his love --- she has to do it in the privacy of their bathroom, fondling and wearing one of his shirts --- could be taught in an acting class.

Anthony Gorman brings a scary vicariousness to the part of Virgil's ex-halfway house roommate --- a perpetual Hell's Angel wannabe who desperately needs someone to make him feel better about himself.

Maggio's writing is superlative. This is a "standard" Straight Time-type story. You know Virgil's in for a rough ride, and everything he encounters rings with just the right amount of toughness, not overplaying the hand for sensationalism's sake but vivid enough to make it all seem too frighteningly real.

This is not a slick movie. There is nothing feel-good or commercial about it. No, it's guerrilla filmmaking John Cassevetes would be proud of and there ain't enough of it, for my taste.