Rating: 
Summary: A Quiet, Involving Character Study
Review: "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.
Rating: 
Summary: Elegant neuromance
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Is chemistry everything?
Review: 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 .
Rating:
Summary: Just a Chemical Reaction?
Review: Excellent. Within ten minutes of the film, I was easily drawn in to the story unfolding. The casting was amazing and the natural flow that each actor presented made this movie an easy five stars. Each actor took to their character and contributed to the story in a such an integral way that I was very anxious to see happened next. Outstanding performances by John Livingston (Rand) and Sabrina Lloyd (Sarah). With this great acting also comes great directing, editing, music, and everything else that makes a classic. Embedding the true nature of an Independent Film, this movie was concieved and created by a team with no movie experience: a team with a story to tell who did a marvelous job. Aside from the main movie itself, the DVD also comes with great behind the scenes cuts such as the making of the movie (which was not easy), trailers, and interviews. With the satisfaction I recieved from the movie, I look forward to viewing other Sundance winning films. This is highly recommended to any looking for something new and away from the mainstream flow of today's love stories.
Rating:
Summary: Just a Chemical Reaction?
Review: Excellent. Within ten minutes of the film, I was easily drawn in to the story unfolding. The casting was amazing and the natural flow that each actor presented made this movie an easy five stars. Each actor took to their character and contributed to the story in a such an integral way that I was very anxious to see happened next. Outstanding performances by John Livingston (Rand) and Sabrina Lloyd (Sarah). With this great acting also comes great directing, editing, music, and everything else that makes a classic. Embedding the true nature of an Independent Film, this movie was concieved and created by a team with no movie experience: a team with a story to tell who did a marvelous job. Aside from the main movie itself, the DVD also comes with great behind the scenes cuts such as the making of the movie (which was not easy), trailers, and interviews. With the satisfaction I recieved from the movie, I look forward to viewing other Sundance winning films. This is highly recommended to any looking for something new and away from the mainstream flow of today's love stories.
Rating:
Summary: Good
Review: I liked Dopamine for the little movie that it is. It was not a big movie released at every theater in America, but it was released in small art houses. And, I have to respect it. The generally about if people really do fall in love or is it just pheromones that make people attracted to each other. The movie goes around that idea showing different scenarios of love (and what is hormonally not a choice). The movie isn't a typical cute romance movie that everyone will swoon over. It is kind of cute, not really romantic, but cute. They even go to the extent of using scientific knowledge as a way to attract each other. What is that? I really liked the 2 main male characters. The main man Rand is such a nice guy wanting to love and to be loved. The other character Winston, well, isn't the same as Rand, but he has the best one liners throughout the movie. This movie is educational (learning something about people and how they work), but doesn't need a brainy person to understand. It is a cute movie, but not the most exciting, but enjoyable.
Rating: 
Summary: Not quite there
Review: I looked forward to seeing this movie for some time. And, maybe I built it up in my mind a little too much. But, I was somewhat disappointed. It was not a bad movie, but not as good as I had hoped. It just seems to keep approaching greatness and meaning, but never quite getting there, leaving much too soon or not confronting those issues head-on. Be that as it may, I still liked it, but then I would probably watch anything with Sabrina Lloyd. She rates very high in the cuteness category. I guess my crush on her affected my opinion of the main character, played lethargically by John Livington. How could he not love her? Who cares about the actual scientific chemistry of love? What kind of warped mind examines love in that context? Or on the other hand, what does she see in him? All questions that are hard to answer. Nonetheless, though disappointed I still feel that the movie is worth viewing and would probably check out other films by the director Mark Decena.
Rating:
Summary: Ebert said it best -- this is an important film .....
Review: 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 .....
Rating:
Summary: A great little Indie flick
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: good pick by sundance
Review: 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.
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