Peneflix MOVIE REVIEWS BY PENEFLIX
Riveting, thrilling “Disconnect” is paradigmatic of the twenty-first century’s addiction to cell phones, internet; obsessed with 24/7 connectivity; diners, noncommunicative spheres; emailing, texting, eating, “I tweet, therefore I am”; constant collisions on streets and sidewalks; coffee shops, airports are hotbeds of the colossal mania to Twitter, Skype; Facebook has electrified, energized relationships, correspondence; also piloting the death of introspection.
Director Henry-Alex Rubin and writer Andrew Stern depict an efficacious, remarkably honest portrait of the havoc and devastation these tools of creative connectedness can wreak upon the trusting jejune: identity theft; cruel, sadistic bullying; salacious, teenage chat rooms; tightly transitioning from one scenario to another (echoes the pace of “Crash”); brilliant acting informs the sophisticated script; resulting in revolutionary inveterate behavior reversals; lives crumbling, awakening; scintillating entertainment, flirting with the astral.
Jason Bateman is “Rich Boyd” a lawyer cemented to his phone, neglecting his family, especially his talented, hermetic son, “Ben” (Jonah Bobo); Andrea Riseborough, avariciously ambitious reporter “Nina Dunham” unearths a teenage porn site and verbally seduces “Kyle” (titillating performance by Max Thieriot) into anonymously telling his story. A grieving couple “Derek and Cindy Hull” (Alexander Skarsgard, Paula Patton) their identities and finances ravished, compromised by an unknown, accomplished hacker.
At the core of this insightful film is loneliness, the consummate partner of those perpetually -fastened souls; so isolated that they convey their most profound intimacies to cyber sobriquets. Terrifyingly pathetic; terrifyingly realistic.
At times contrived, minimally melodramatic but razor- sharp in portraying individuals whose debilitating quest for constant linkage leads to a disconnected, bifurcated existence.
FOUR AND 1/2 STARS!!!!
For Now…………….Peneflix
Excellent Film. Tremendous acting.
AND SO TIMELY…
TO WIT –
During it, I had to lean over to my right and ask a young woman to turn off her cell phone which, while not emitting sound – suddenly lit up brightly and stayed lit. When I said something a moment later, she apologized and said she hadn’t noticed,and shut it off-
although it had sat at an upright angle near her right wrist in a cup holder at the end of her seat arm.
From across her body it caught my eye like a laser.
I’m reading THE SHALLOWS by Anthony Carr, about how the internet is re-wiring our brains. Engaging read.
It’s going to be interesting; the years to come.
To my left, I had to reprimand three women in their 60s and 70s to get them to stop chattering ( as they had been all during the trailers and now were continuing into the body of the film ) ,,,but that’s another story 🙂
YOU ALWAYS MAKE ME LAUGH! THANKS, XO PENELOPE
WOW!! What an amazing film! I just saw it. I stumbled out of the dark theater thinking: this is real, it’s what’s going on, it’s real life! And you’re right, Penelope, it’s about incredible loneliness. All the ways technology exploits that basic human need. I think everybody should see this movie!
Totally concur! Great comment! Thanks, P.
What an intense and wonderful and sad film of our times. So pathetic that it took tragedies to make people connect with one another. We know how naive teenagers are but adults seem to be just as naive and lonely.