Cookies & Cream (2008) User Reviews

Zero budget film

[Sexy-scientist · 2/10 · 26 August 2015]

I saw the bad ratings and even then, on the basis of one or two good reviews here, I decided to watch it. And nobody has told it in here but, this movie is made with no budget. Very cheap cameras, they could be mobile phones. I can guarantee you that outdoor shots are taken without the permission of the authorities or even the fellow passers-by. Yeah, you could have been an extra in this movie unknowingly if you happen to live in the Brooklyn area (is it actually shot in Brooklyn?), so look closely. They don't have any arrangements to slide the camera, so all the walking shots in the outdoors are taken from a standing camera near the characters, and then the characters walk away from the camera and the camera follows them by angling towards them (no sliding, no zooming in). In some shots, there's some sudden zooming in and zooming out; looks like digital zoom.

The voice-over is very lame. It never feels that the characters are actually talking. Sometimes, characters open little mouths and the voice comes quite loud.

Direction is very very weak and editing is even worse making this movie unwatchable. Those in the reviews saying that men gave this movie bad ratings because they are expecting sex scenes, I'm telling you that even nudity with this kind of direction can't save this movie.

Easily one of the worst movies ever made

[H-x-mon · 1/10 · 25 January 2011]

This is easily worst movie ever made. I mean, if you can call it such. We watched it about 1/3 in and eventually turned it off, once all the laughs were out. The acting was the most horrible part of the experience, I mean, this is probably what casting directors feel like. Good material for MST3K though.

OK, so, I don't want to be brutal, especially to an indie director working with a low budget, but for Pete's sake there are some basics of storytelling that even I understand - like scenes should not just pile up on top of each other akin grocery items but rather gently flow to form a cohesive meaning; dialogs need to feel real not plastic and first-date scenes should reveal some deep chemistry between the characters in a way distinctly different from 72 takes of awkwardly sipping the same (constantly full) glass of water.

I wish I hadn't seen this film

[rpuyasi-945-677914 · 1/10 · 8 November 2014]

I really wish I have never watched this film. It is so boring and totally lifeless. The plot is a good one; A single mother is trying to earn her living by doing some odd adults only stuffs. Yet she wants to have a normal life and she was searching for a suitable partner. Yet her odd life style as a porn star wouldn't let her go. The performance of the leading actress is definitely below average. She is trying but not good enough. Anyway her character is the only character has even that development. Others are only bygones. There is no action, no comedy, no horror, no romance and not even tragedy. So what is it? A drama? Well if it is it totally sucks. I lost some good time of my life upon this film.

This should have been a good movie

[ebert311-1 · 1/10 · 21 February 2011]

As I watched the first five minutes of this movie, it reminds me of the typical porn website that has the same tired premise. When you realize that this is about the woman and how she is struggling with her choice to enter the adult industry, it actually makes you interested.

I love movies that features entertaining conversation and witty banter. This movie contains neither. The main character is frustrating to watch as you see her struggle with her choices but she's not truthful to anyone at the same time. By the time she does find a good man, she lies to him about her profession and then we (the audience) are suppose to feel sympathy for her lies. The movie also has characters that are not necessarily important to the movie. She has a scene with her parents that goes nowhere and she has a daughter that we don't see til nearly the end of the movie. Those scenes were probably designed to make us feel for the character, but by the time they show up, you are already checked out of the movie.

So, what went wrong with this movie? Part of the reason why this movie isn't that great is because it doesn't go anywhere for nearly 50 minutes. You keep waiting for something to happen and nothing does. You are suppose to be in awe of watching a couple fall in love and it's more like watching a couple talk at a house party about drapes for an hour. The other thing that's missing is a solid plot. We have a very interesting beginning and the first 10 minutes tells a good story. But after that, there's nothing until the last 2 minutes of the movie. So, for the majority of the movie, you have nothing going on and it's part script and part direction. However, I will say that there are some very unique camera setups and basically, I found myself looking at that more than the movie itself.

I would usually say if a movie is bad, rent it for a dollar or something. In this case, skip this movie entirely. It's just a waste of time and a good idea. I would love to see someone redo this story with a plot and interesting dialogue.

There ain't nothing wrong with the other team

[jfgibson73 · 5/10 · 24 March 2011]

I enjoyed this little story about Carmen, a women who performs on a porn website. The actress, Jace Nicole, was very capable, and seems like someone who could go on to bigger roles. However, it is very much a slice of life story: slow moving, character-focused, without a lot of plot advancement. Basically we see her struggles, the focus of which is her dating life. The tone of the film is very poignant. Carmen dates one jerk after another, until she finds a nice, genuine guy who we expect her to end up with. However, she holds back from telling him she works in porn. The movie ends with Carmen continuing to work on the website so that she can build a better life for her and her daughter. I kind of expected an ending like "Pretty Woman," but got something closer to "Boogie Nights." Some of the acting and dialog was pretty bad, even for a low budget production. The boyfriend probably was the worst actor, but the parents were given the most ridiculous lines. They had to tell these sappy anecdotes that had nothing to do with anything. It sounded like it was written by someone who had no idea how these characters should sound, like a middle schooler trying to think up dialog for a senior citizen. Overall, I was glad to have seen it, and I think the biggest reason was the performance from Jace Nicole. I do hope she gets noticed.

An adult webcam star becomes a woman.

[mcwhammer · 9/10 · 13 November 2009]

From the outside, Cookies & Cream may seem similar to another indie film named "One Hour Fantasy Girl". One Hour Fantasy Girl even follows a similar path - that of a girl on a struggle to find herself, while working an odd-job to pay the rent.

However, now I have a better frame of reference, having watched Cookies & Cream; and I can clearly see what is lacking in 1HFG that C&C has in abundance... heart.

Carmen (Jace Nicole) has an 8 year old daughter that she gets to see only three days a week. She has a high-rise apartment, but a lack of a substantial and steady relationship. The only men she sees are those she meets through work on her website. A decidedly adult web page featuring only herself, called Cookiesandcream.com. Every man she works with tries to take it further, but she won't allow it. They often spew pick-up lines out of a book, and Carmen wants a truthful person who will just be himself.

By chance, not too long into her story, Carmen meets a man who seems to fit all of her criteria... and she starts to fall for him. But the guilt hangs over her, as she tries to figure out how to tell her new boyfriend about how she makes a living (only going so far as to say she works with computers).

Jace Nicole is the biggest revelation amongst this cast. She shines in every scene, and just when you expect her to crack under the pressure of an emotional moment, she somehow keeps the conversation real - and believable. The director does a good job of getting into the head of most of the characters in the short span of the movie - rather than glossing over half of them in favor of quickly telling a story.

Perhaps my only real complaints are debatably minor, but I couldn't shake the thoughts of them even after the film ended. Several of the characters smoke cigarettes in plain view, without hesitation - something I thought we were getting away from in films. It really sullies the reputation of the actors to see them take something that's so important (their lives) so lightly.

And one other bother is the way some of the earlier conversations in the film are presented. Characters are filmed in the city streets of New York, and surrounding areas - but the problem is how they are recorded. They are shown from 100 feet away or more - with their voices sounding dubbed in, whether they are or not. When you're watching conversations in a film, you want to pay attention to the faces, the gestures - all things that need to be experienced up close and personal (not from the bushes across the way). When these cannot be seen, ranging from 30 seconds to a minutes worth of staring at their backs, the viewer becomes frustrated.

These moments do make you appreciate how important it is to see your actors when they deliver their lines. If there were many more moments that could not be seen, it could've ruined the film.

However, as it stands, I can easily say that this film presents a modern drama in a new way. If this had turned out to follow the methods of every romantic "comedy", while trying to pass as a drama, I certainly would've considered it horrible. But with the mantra of our main character Carmen being "The show must go on", It definitely does, and without the flaws of a big-budget production. This is the kind of film that can only ever exist in the independent realm, because no major studio would have enough guts to film the story of an adult film star in any way but a comedy.

A wonderful breath of fresh air

[Clifford_Kiyabu · 7/10 · 9 March 2009]

Cookies & Cream is the first feature film by Writer/Director Princeton Holt and produced by his own production company One Way or Another Productions, and is an Official selection of the Sexy International Film Festival. The film is a character driven piece that is about a young woman who accepts a job in the adult entrainment field doing pornography for money so that she can support her 8 year old daughter, the film takes its viewers deep into the life of Carmen (Jace Nicole) a girl who is driven to work for her money regardless, the film shows that she isn't happy with how her life has turned out at the moment but continues to do it because the most important thing is her child and it doesn't matter how unhappy she is so long as her child is taken care of, but aside from supporting her daughter the film expresses her deep loneliness that comes with the territory of doing adult films, because of what she does and who may have seen it, she keeps a shield of armor up over her emotions and doesn't allow things to progress far enough for it to become something truly and deeply real. At first glance the film may look and feel like an X-rated skin flick to the viewing eye, however after given a few minutes the film opens up as a touching film with a lot of depth and an incredible sense of weight within its story, though some might argue that the lack of the daughter's presence in the film is an incredible gap in the plot, but I disagree, because this is a character piece which focuses on the individual and not everything else. the film had such meaning behind it that I felt as though I was right there alongside the characters, which I really enjoyed the concept and direction that Holt took the story in, which believe me could easily be summed up to a bittersweet ending.

Only those who wanted a skin flick hate this movie

[myfirstmovie2000 · 8 September 2011]

I googled and saw that the people who were mad at this film were all guys - guys that for the most part, were turned on by the cover art and storyline and thought you were headed for a fun, sexy time. I saw this film at a film festival and we liked it a lot. Most women in attendance loved the film because its more of a women's lib tale so sorry it angered you lonely guys that these legit indie actresses didn't show you some skin.

Look at the reviews section. Many of these guys obviously missed the point of this movie. They have a thing for what it is you are looking for. Its called "porn," and you usually cant get those in places where they sell film festival award winners.