Chocolate Strawberry Vanilla

A great thrill ride of a film, telling the mental disintegration of an ice cream salesman who has developed an unhealthy obsession for the central female character of a Home and Away style TV soap story. Depicts very effectively the sordid and lonely lifestyle of the main character but with touches of warmth and perverse humour throughout.

Not easily classified into any genre but a mix of dark comedy, psychological thriller, human drama, revenge horror and even spaghetti style western. It is not always clear where the lines, if any between reality and delusion are drawn in the increasingly fractured world of Warren (played with absolute conviction by Glenn Maynard) but it all builds to a cathartic and brutal finale.

One not to be missed in a world of formulaic, middle of the road and average cinema.

So this won a lot of awards... if the awards are for: DULL. LIFELESS. BORING. SLOW. GO NOWHERE STORY. MIND-NUMBING. WHAT THE HECK IS SUPPOSED TO BE HAPPENING. I'd vote for it in an instant! I can't believe that one of the best magazines around, Rue Morgue, said this was worth watching. Maybe under the influence of cannabis or other harder substances. I watched it and wish I could apply bleach to the brain cells that will never let me forget this. The main character, a creepy ice-cream man, obsessed with a soap star, is creepy from the moment he walks on camera. How creepy? Know how in the first shining, Jack Nicholson looks like a maniac from the second he appears? Well that creepy. Other than that, and waiting and waiting for something to move this along, it's just a dull, dull, dull movie. But, in today's world, where everyone gets a trophy... I can see how this won some awards.

This film seem like it should be a interesting film but it just doesn't get there. It follows an ice-cream van driver and soap opera fans life over a few months. During his work he meets one of the actors from the soap show and he has to put up with cruel people.

I would have to disagree with another review up here that claims it is similar to Bad Boy Bubby, which I loved. The only similarities I see is that they are both Australian films in which you feel sorry for the main character. In Bad Boy Bubby I was hanging on to see what would happen next because it kept you enthralled but in Chocolate Strawberry Vanilla I was just waiting for something of interest to happen.

The film feels like it is trying to do something that it has not achieved and as a result ended up as a slow boring drama that doesn't hold the viewers attention. I saw it listed as a dark comedy but found almost nothing in the film funny. I do not feel the need to watch this again and personally I would recommend watching something else over this.

An Australian b-movie! This low budget feature concerns the shy and socially awkward Warren that runs an ice cream truck. Being the product of heavy bullying and social isolation (seen through his own in-camera confessions), he is obsessed with a television actress of a local TV-show and gets completely euphoric when she shows up at his van to buy some ice cream. In the meanwhile he encounters several people who mock him or are themselves quite weird. After numerous setbacks, Warren gets Travis Bickle-like crazy. Luckily, the pretty predictable plot and rather conventional cinematography are outweighed by the authentic DIY feeling and an awesome over-the-top performance by Glenn Maynard (Warren), but it's too close to make a real impression. It seems like Maynard and Addison Heath (the writer of Chocolate Strawberry Vanilla) are on an underground crusade though. After their collaboration on this movie, two others will follow: Under a Kaleidoscope and Bubblegum: A Detective Story. I wonder how those will turn out to be!

So, I came across this by accident. I never saw a trailer or promotional for it. I almost never like anything the first time I watch it. You can't help but think Warren is a little creepy at first, but as the movie progressed I couldn't help but feel sorry for him. He's a nice guy, slightly delusional at times, but a bit misunderstood. Long story short, when we see Warren's situation getting worse, I couldn't help but to have empathy for him. People can only be pushed so far before they get fed up. Without any coping skills, Warren goes off the rails in a full blown trainwreck. The best way to describe it would be, Bljork stalker-like. I can understand why some people won't like it but I thats why they make chocolate and vanilla, and maybe strawberry<........ugh lame pun, sorry.