Chocolate Strawberry Vanilla

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.

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!

I read a review of this movie suggesting there was some novel twists in the movie, unlike standard mainstream movies.

I was expecting fledgling auteurs to be making a mark in Australian cinematic history.

How wrong I was.

Being a native of west Melbourne suburbs, I found the locations were recognizable and accurately reflected the demographic in this movie. These being drug addicts and life's losers.

That was something I could suggest was positive about this movie. Along with nice cinematography and reasonable editing.

The script was slow, lacking vitality and the acting was dreary(Glenn Maynard stood out as particularly bad), uninspiring and flat. The characters were 2D and the plot was banal. Using periodic incidents of violence to make up for a missing story.

If this was a student film I would say it was a good first effort.

I am guessing that the cast and crew are trying to make their way in a 'cliquey' closed business and they have put this together to do something and prove their skills. Which are demonstrable in part but the movie failed as a whole.

Sad that lots of hard work has resulted in such a poor result. 2 stars - 1 is for effort, not for cinematic merit

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.

It starts off a bit iffy but once it gets into the plot it is a very intriguing film.

Gray Maynard is great in this film. The jerk off scenes are equally hilarious, disgusting and sad.

This is a great story about obsession.

The directing is very original and well done and so is the script you really start to care for Warren.

It catches you off guard by being absurd.

I have never seen a film before that uses a TV show in a movie as a learning toll for the plot . The video diary's are greatly done and you really start to see Warren in a different light. These videos were inspired by an actual stalkers video diary's.