[.ca] Dopamine

good pick by sundance:
Nice little movie that really questions, is love real or just a series of chemical reactions that push us to do or say different things that our brains processes as love or lust. Both Livingston and Llyod do a great job of not overacting their parts and there is a 'chemistry' about the two of them that is not overpowering but gradually grows as the movie progresses.

Leaves you wanting more:
The central theme of this film is endlessly fascinating: do we have genuine feelings in the classical/romantic sense, or are our emotions simply the sum of neurochemical processes? A sub-theme, the nature of artificial intelligence and how much it has in common with the human psyche, has been far more developed in films such as "A.I." and "Bladerunner," but was nevertheless poignant in the character of Koy-Koy. There was some intelligent scripting here, though the material on brain chemistry failed to go much beyond what one could glean from one good newspaper article. I felt it was a missed opportunity to really explore the topic in depth. The the actor playing Rand stands out as a real natural. Nice tasteful soundtrack. An enjoyable and touching film, but it felt a bit thin and underdeveloped.

Is chemistry everything?:
Dopamine is an unusually thoughtful romantic drama that asks whether romantic love is a purely chemical phenomenon. With such an intellectual theme, the movie could easily have been artificial and nothing but a series of cerebral discussions, but director Mark Decena does a good job in making it all very natural and compelling. Strong performances also help to flesh this out into something more than a thesis. Rand (John Livingston) is a computer programmer who has created an animated character named Koy-Koy; right from the beginning, it's obvious that he is a bit too attached to his creation. If human emotions are nothing beyond chemical reactions, then a computer-generated creature could conceivably be considered human, or at least alive. When Rand meets Sarah (Sabrina Lloyd), the teacher in whose classroom Koy-Koy is going to be placed, the two enter upon a series of discussions and debates over the nature of romantic love, as well as embark upon a tentative romance of their own. Sarah is skeptical of Rand's coldly scientific view of love, but is herself very ambivalent about getting emotionally involved. Rand gradually reveals that his point of view is a way to protect himself from painful family experiences. Both exhibit a wide enough range of emotional responses to help counter the artifice of the basic theme (i.e. in real life, everything seldom revolves around one particular philosophical question). The camera work and understated shots of the San Francisco locations also breathe soul into the film .

Ebert said it best -- this is an important film .....:
I saw Dopamine at Sundance and I recall that Roger Ebert said its an important film because its real and genuine and "in one way or another, "Dopamine" is about us." (check his review at http://www.suntimes.com/ebert/ebert_reviews/2003/10/101001.html) Everyone that I know who has seen "Dopamine" feels the same way. This is a film that will make you think about your own life -- about what makes you who you are and what inspires you -- about what love is and about your choices today and your future. The cinematography alternates between tight shots of the characters and fantastic highlights of the San Francisco area. Look for the quick visual of Sarah in bed which is a flashback to a critical choice in her life and is brilliantly filmed. This is not a sappy Hollywood romance but a movie about reality that makes you think and is entertaining as well. See it with someone you care about .....

A great little Indie flick:
My adult son had the opportunity to go to Sundance, where he saw this film; he came home raving about it, so I was glad to finally be able to rent it on DVD. It's weirdly quirky in its attempt to ask the film's central question: What is love? Is it spiritual or hormonal, metaphysical or chemical? Here's the deal: There are these 3 guys who have spent what, like 3 years? working to create an interactive computer pet, a bird named Koi-Koi (at least, that's how I'd spell it), who will respond appropriately to voiced emotion-laden conversation. They take it into a classroom of pre-schoolers to test it out, and Rand, one of the computer guys, falls in love (but there again, What is love?) with the teacher. Both of them are struggling with major loss of significant other people in their lives. The settings in San Francisco, the hills, the distant vistas, the bike rides thru the Presidio and the views of the Golden Gate Bridge, Angel and Alcatraz Islands...they all lend authentic sense of place, and speaking as one from Oakland, the 'other' Bay Area town, I appreciate that accuracy. Nice little film. Not great, but very, very nice.