Dina (2017) Reviews

• Powerfully moving, intimate view of a disabled couple's beginnings

  scaalto2017-10-26

  The filmmaker's ability to take such intimate, personal scenes and tell such a powerful story truly honors these two people. If you are empathetic with those who are challenged and struggle to find meaningful relationships I think it would be hard to not be quickly drawn in to this story. Dina has had significant life experience - Scott's world has been much more limited. But his love of Dina and his wish to succeed in this marriage won me over repeatedly. Dina was surprising in her ability to articulate what she needed from Scott. His appreciation of Dina's past said so much about his character. Dina's accident was revealed in such a stark and stunning manner. This is not a commercial film but I hope it continues to find an audience. This is the most moving film I've seen in decades.

• If you can find it see it.

  ahejna2017-03-14

  Dina is a documentary film by Antonio Santini and Dan Sickles as they follow an autistic couple on their approach to marriage. Dina Buno is a 48-year-old widow that lost her husband to cancer and had a violent attack by her ex-boyfriend. But Nina never shows these setbacks because of her huge self-esteem. Scott Levin works at Walmart and is very opposite of Dina. Scott has a hard time showing emotion and is always invested in his phone. Dina is a longtime family friend to Dan's family and after meeting Dan became so interested in Dina he followed her getting 600 hours of footage. We see the couple after deciding to get married and they move in together before their marriage to test out living together. Very quickly they start to notice their differences. But Dina is not a person to give up easily and we follow the character's struggle to overcome their obstacles. One of the most memorable scenes is the bachelorette and bachelor parties. Scott's version is going bowling with his friends and Dina's is a hired stripper for her and her friends. At first the idea of an autistic couple may not seem relatable. But Dina and Scott go through the same things any other couple getting married would go through. The film explores the couples wants and needs and how they can provide them for each other. The film does an extremely good job at humor. When Dina brings Scott to see the ocean for the first time she brings Scott a book about sex. This scene shows a very private moment with lot of humor. Dina finds it extremely easy to talk about this when Scott really doesn't. There are many moments like this where we might question laughing or put us in an uncomfortable spot. The filmmakers want us to laugh with the characters instead of laughing at them. Everything we see in the film seems so private but with every changing scene we want to know more about Dina and we are invested in what she is going to do next. As the documentary goes on we learn more and more about her past but the film takes there time. The filmmakers wanted us to know Dina as herself and then show how her past has affected her and possibly made her a stronger person. So the information we get makes us want Dina to succeed. Dina is a charming love story like no other that makes us think about marriage, love and overcoming our past.

• A different world

  jjmoore-656072017-09-02

  We go to the movies to be changed. This film sits you in the life of a couple- with lots of things against them. They change your view. Worth seeing, and seeing again to think about. We all are not the same, but we all love, find ways to make it through life. The differences are more than most of us think about.

• Patience is Nonnegotiable

  thirtyfivestories2017-11-11

  Dina reaches for a stranger's hand, unaware of the social constructs that have ruled this action taboo. She's a woman that overflows with honesty and is incapable of deceit. Grasping the assistant's hand, Dina compassionately squeezes, knowing that a drill in her mouth pales in comparison to the blades of her past. After far too long, Dina has chosen to marry again. Scott is the most personable Walmart employee in town, and has an obsession for his sports teams and Evanescence. Dina's vice is plush toys the Kardashians. Together they only share interest in one another. Scott's ESPN app chimes audible tension as Dina sighs at her scatterbrained finance. Dina's not-so-subtle seductions fly clear over Scott's head, but it is impossible to scold his density. The truth is that Scott's confidence has always been in limited supply, while Dina has floated to the surface of hell. Scott tells Dina that he would be dead if he had lived her life. They are trying to savage their remaining years, but childlike innocence might clog their engines. Terrors of Dina's past spill out of her mouth, but the faucet of exposition is throttled to perfection by the filmmakers. Love hands out second chances, and patience does not always appear kind. The complexities of joining grow more compelling when the subjects are honest to a fault. Life becomes more the television programming, evolving into terrible foot massages and onomatopoeic kisses. Dina offers the intangible "perspective". She becomes irritated, but always for appropriate reasons. More so, she articulates her frustrations openly. This skill has been pushed into the recesses of human expression. Peering into Dina's struggles and triumphs inspire a straight-forward, authentic approach to living, one that looks a little funny, but the laughter fills the gashes.

• Pleasant, if not outstanding

  gholderbach2017-06-23

  Dina was decent. The standout elements are the very restrictive cinematography, with everything shot on a tripod making the film resemble a slice-of-life drama award contender; and the incredibly entertaining characters, with everyone behaving in a nonchalant and quirky way, almost like characters in a Wes Anderson film. While this film has an abundance of charm, I didn't find it exceptional. One metric I use to judge a documentary's quality is determining whether I would still care if it were a work of complete fiction, and I don't see myself being as forgiving if that were the case. My main annoyance with this film is that the story begins to feel extremely repetitive after a while. We are constantly cycling through the process of Dina getting frustrated, her fiancé having trouble compensating, and the to making up before starting again. If not for how entertaining the people featured are, the film would have been a complete slog.