Dopamine

What's alluring is the way the characters played by John Livingston and Sabrina Lloyd savor each other, in between their troubles. Movies are too quick to interrupt romance with sex. Sarah and Rand fascinate us with their dance of dread and desire.

Overcomes some forced artiness to be a sweet, smart romance without being saccharine.

The moody, distinctively San Franciscan Dopamine has other charming little touches -- its humor, its characters, its city life -- that make you want the film to succeed. It doesn't entirely; it's more likable than it is good.

A melancholy romance that has the distinction of being the first film set among San Francisco dotcommers that knows it's about the end of the boom.

The ideas behind the story are intriguing and could prompt endless hours of lively discussion, but the film proves surprisingly drab.

The issues Decena raises rarely get treated on any but the most superficial of levels, and the flatly realized characters make it difficult to care what becomes of them.

This feels like a movie that was grown in a petri dish -- poked and prodded with all manner of overcooked symbolism and thesis statements, but fatally absent the genuine human emotions about which it incessantly prattles on.