REVIEW: by Peter Nichols | B
Synopsis
Feeling his marriage with Natalie – a sex doll, he has been with for 3 years, has grown stale, Gunther purchases a new doll that he adores and esteems as “true love.” However, “true love” tends to be questionable and never lasts. When he finds out he is cheated on by the young wife and wishes to win back the old wife, he’s faced with the fact that he has lost both of them.
I might have tricked myself into believing that Doll It Up belongs in the Drama/Sci-Fi genre, but lets for the sake of this review leave it as a drama/comedy (romance) genre.
Doll It Up takes a re-look at what is possible in a marriage, considering a person is married to a sex doll. This fictional startling yet bold approach raises the age-old questions about infidelity and pain of a loss in a marriage.
The idea is to not question if Doll It Up is possible, even in a fictional way, but rather to logically consider it a reality that a person (in this case a man) can be married to a sex doll. Gunther dumps his first wife for a new and second younger one but finds out that what happens in a human marriage also happens in a marriage to a sex doll.
It is a welcome feeling to see that the age range of the men in the film married to sex dolls are above 40, and it cuts across all types of men. Take a look at Doll It Up below:
Writer & Directed: Yalan Hu
Cast
Timothy J. Cox as Gunther
Jeff Mandel as Suit Man
Devin Craig as Delivery Man
Wayne DeBary as Hobo
Produced: Hunter McGarry
Cinematography: Bailey Liu
Film Editing: Yue Zhao
Production Design: Jonah Johnson
Art Direction: Dani Fiondella
First Assistant Director: Tianjun Gao
Second Assistant Director: Billy Kalstrom
Sound Department: Nathaniel Price Camera and Electrical Department
Key Grip: Joyce Guan
Gaffer: Eric Hoyer
Best Boy Grip: Millie Jenkins
First Assistant: Camera Jameel Karim
Best Boy Electric: Joshua Little
Second Assistant Camera: Karissma Robinson
Assistant Editorial: Sheree Chen
Script Supervisor: Yue Zhao
The Doll It Up Poster
“If you really do want to be an actor who can satisfy himself and his audience, you need to be vulnerable. You must reach the emotional and intellectual level of ability where you can go out stark naked, emotionally, in front of an audience” – Jack Lemmon
