Review: Thought-provoking sci-fi drama Bliss works on multiple levels

Enlarge / Greg (Owen Wilson) and Isabel (Salma Hayek) find themselves shifting between a beautiful and an "ugly" world-but which is real, and which is the simulation? (credit: YouTube/Amazon)

A depressed man finds himself questioning the reality of his existence when he meets a free-spirited woman who insists he's inhabiting a simulation in Bliss, a new film from director Mike Cahill that stars Owen Wilson and Salma Hayek. Sure, it sounds like an indie riff on The Matrix, and there are a few shared elements, but Bliss is markedly different in theme and tone, and it is very much Cahill's unique vision.

(Major spoilers below the gallery. We'll give you a heads up when we get there.)

As we've reported previously, Cahill also directed the 2011 indie sci-fi film Another Earth-his first feature-which received a standing ovation at its premiere and won the Alfred P. Sloan Prize at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. Cahill's 2014 followup feature, I Origins, also snagged the Sloan Prize; in fact, he's the only director to have twice won the award, so he has some serious indie sci-fi film street cred.

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