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| View Larger Image | Dopamine | DVDStarring: Kathleen Antonia, Ian Berzon, Timothy Breitbach, Bruno Campos, Rueben Grundy
Also With: John Livingston (Primary Contributor)
| List Price: | $14.98 | | Price: | $13.49 | | You Save: | $1.49 (10%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | DVD | | Rating: |  | | Run Time: | 79 minutes | | Format: | Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC | | Studio: | Sundance Channel Home Entertainment | | Number of Discs: | 1 | | Aspect Ratio: | 1.33:1 | | Release Date: | April 01, 2005 | | Sales Rank: | 80,407th |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Amazon.com
Indie flick Dopamine wants to know: Is love a transcendent, spiritual experience, or simply the result of hormones like dopamine (a chemical in the brain that inspires pleasure)? Rand (John Livingston, Where's Marlowe?), a San Francisco computer programmer developing a virtual pet, is convinced it's all neurochemistry--until he meets Sarah (Sabrina Lloyd of the TV show Sliders), a teacher at a pre-school where the pet is being tested. During their nervous, awkward dates, he struggles to maintain his cynical, hormone-driven perspective as his feelings seem increasingly real. The dialogue and ideas in Dopamine are clever, if not exactly convincing; unfortunately, the pace and performances are stiff and morose--the romance feels more predetermined by the filmmakers' schematic plan than by chemistry. Occasional inserts of sped-up film and computer graphics try to offer some respite from close-ups of the actors looking very serious. --Bret Fetzer |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 15 reviews)
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Such a fascinating Subject by Harlow86 (Ohio)  5 Stars
July 23, 2006
Chemical or Real? That is what this film is about. Are human feelings real or are they brought on by chemical reactions within us? I found the basis for the story to be very interesting, and I was not disappointed after viewing the film. The characters were so real. They felt like people I've met. Little details about each character made them so fascinating. Like Sarah's tattoos - I couldn't help but wonder at their meaning. The actors did an amazing job. The film was put together beautifully. It was artistic and I enjoyed every minute of it. There were parts of it that were funny, but also very serious elements that really left you thinking. It'll make you think about your own relationships and your own feelings and chemical reactions *grin*. If you like independent films that leave you thinking, then I would definitely recommend this one.
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Nicely Put together Story, Pretty Images, and Good Acting by Www.SubjectiveArt.Com (Miami, FL USA)  4 Stars
May 20, 2005
This is a good love drama to watch. The guy trys to explain everything, including love, in terms of biochemistry but faces the limitation of doing so with a help of a lady whom he falls in love with. He was intellectualizing all matters by means of escaping from painful memories associated with his parents.
Once I know the story I don't feel like watching it again. The movie is good but not the greatest.
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A FILM WELL WORTH SEEING!!1 by Michael L. Cantara (Merrimack, NH USA) 4 Stars
April 04, 2005
First of all, in support of a previous reviwer, this film is not about dopamine. I think the film "Titanic" may have caused some confusion because it is about a titanic boat which is also called the "Titanic." The current Fox TV series "House" is not about a house so the reviewer may want to avoid that as well. If I hear that any of the big drug companies plan to market dopamine, I will let him know.
This film left me exhausted in a good way. Much like the type of exhaustion of a good workout. I found a deepening empathy for both characters as the film went on. The performances by Lloyd and Livingston communicated a vulnerablity and honesty to the characters of Sara and Rand that made me care about what happened to them. Sabrina Lloyd's eyes alone are reason enough to see this film, they communicate 100 pages worth of dialogue. These are human beings (I won't use the word flawed to avoid being redundant) that most of us, with even a small amount of self awareness, too whom we can relate, damaged but still willing to go forward with their lives.
There are a couple of awkward scenes toward the end of the film that were a stretch. This movie has its heart in the right place however, and I can accept the end's symbolism. Its more important how Sara and Rand get to that point. The film is more prone to start discussions than to end debates.
The Dylan reference at the end kind of suckered me in anyway, even though it came across a bit forced. Much like Dylan's music there are layers that reward repeated viewing. In a just world people would line up at the cineplex to see films like this, and we'd all be kinder and smarter as a result.
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Elegant neuromance by JT (Stanford, CA USA) 5 Stars
February 14, 2005
A virtually perfect movie, in multiple ways. "Dopamine" delicately weaves its themes of love, intimacy, and fear of loss. All its characters are engaging and nuanced, in their various attempts to grapple with the risks of closeness--including Koy Koy, the virtual creature who flits seamlessly around and through the human drama; the digital character never intrudes in a contrived way, and stays totally believable as software development while being very endearing . Decena has a deft touch and subtle wit, never giving in to sentimentality but showing much compassion. The acting and faces are fresh, real and very Gen-Y SF. This isn't simply about a neurochemically obsessed guy, it's about a bunch of brittle, defended people trying to transcend their isolation. Watch for the fleeting synaptic "flashes" as surprisingly effective, novel exclamation points.
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A Quiet, Involving Character Study by Greg Hamilton (Austin, TX) 4 Stars
September 24, 2004
"Dopamine" starts out with a pretty rockin' title sequence, but the rest of the movie is something fairly different. It is a pretty well written, well acted character study about a dot-com programmer named Rand (John Livingston) who comes out of his emotional shell. Rand works at a start-up company trying to create a computer animated bird that responds to other people's emotions. In the process, Rand begins to respond to the emotions of a pre-school teacher, Sarah (Sabrina Lloyd), and discover his own feelings. As directed by Mark Decena, "Dopamine" captures pretty well the feel of a small, late 1990's San Francisco start-up full of big ideas but short on time and cash. To anyone who has been there, the moment when the characters in "Dopamine" fail to get their second round of funding from their angel investors will have definite resonance.
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