Desire, perfection, deception and defeat; it’s all in the air when one is forced to answer that universal question. What kind of donut do you want? Our “Italian” protagonist stares fate in the face as he tries to decide which pastry best sums up this existential muddle some call life.
Good Lord, are people still goofing on Fellini? This brief spoof might be as clever as it thinks it is, but unfortunately Woody Allen has already sapped the well dry when it comes to this kind of film student in-joke. Luckily, “Fellini’s Donut” is smart without being smirky and it looks great, all monochrome ash tone and dreamy, contemplative camera movement. It proves those half-baked ideas that overeducated people hatch during late-night coffee binges sometimes bear fruit (remind me sometime to tell you how the Three Stooges are really Marxists).
You can thank something called The Kodak 35 mm Project for the existence of this cute cinematic hiccup from filmmakers at the California State University, Long Beach location. Some wack rhyming during the credits kills the buzz somewhat, but otherwise “Fellini’s Donut” manages to say everything and nothing, and far as I’m concerned, that’s all there is.
