Disconnect

The movie "DISCONNECT", clearly and dramatically depicts how our culture is now well-woven into the INTERNET fabric of reality. It is an intelligent and skillfully done film. The script is competent and well sculpted, with three simultaneous stories,but the final wrap-up scenes were (story-wise)oddly unbelievable, canned, pre-made, or "off the shelf" for lack of a better term.

There is a large percentage of the population(i.e.my wife and I) that are not fully in tune (or dependent) on the current, internet-laced way of life, but I felt this movie effectively plugged us into understanding and relating to it.

Although the film resides in the Arts & Entertainment category, it also can be perceived as a valuable, cinematographic core-sample of the current culture and society,in ways that "Easy Rider", "The Best days of our lives", and others movies have done in the past.

It shows the"now"of our culture and society in humanistic, suspenseful, and moving ways.

I highly recommend seeing the film if you have the time.

I have not seen a movie like "Disconnect" in a long while. It has this style of telling about the lives of various different seemingly unconnected characters working up to one common story that intertwines all of them together. A decade ago, this style was very popular. This was first brought to prominence by the acclaimed Mexican movie "Amores Perros", and then we saw it in "Traffic", "21 Grams", culminating in the Oscar Best Picture Award given to "Crash." "Disconnect" brings us back to those days when complex intersecting story lines ruled the cinemas.

"Disconnect" leads us into the lives of four characters and their families. What all of them have in common is that they all have been a victim of some sort of Internet crime and abuse. The start of the film was very discomforting to watch. We witness how various internet chat sites can be so dangerous. This is true whatever the nature of this chat site is, whether this is a private pornographic live chat room or a support group chat room for bereaved families. We will see sexual exploitation, bullying, fraud, identity theft, and various other internet crimes in action. We will also see the adverse effects these crimes have on the victims and their loved ones.

The actors were all very good in their roles. I recognize a few of them. Jason Bateman (from "Horrible Bosses") is the busy lawyer whose introverted son was bullied at school. Paula Patton (from "Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol") is a lonely neglected wife who confides her problems on a chat room with someone who could have just stolen all their money. Andrea Riseborough (from "Oblivion") is a television journalist determined to go up in her profession even if it would cause problems to the young man who granted her the interview which would land her on CNN. The other young actors playing the bully, the bullied, and the sex site boy toy all gave memorable performances as well.

The pace of the movie is slow, and I think this was deliberate to make us feel how insidious these crimes can be. They can be happening to us without us ever knowing about it, until the consequences hit us squarely on the face. The director makes us of very dramatic camera angles and apt visual effects to emphasize his points. The editing done was very effective to create an intense feeling of dread and tension. Despite the PG rating given this film locally, the topic of the film is very adult, as well as the treatment, with scenes of nudity, sex, drugs and violence.

This is a very serious and very thought-provoking film for this Internet Age we are in right now. In our obsession to remain connected to our virtual world on our favorite social media sites, are we actually being disconnected from our very own families, and other flesh and blood people around us? A must-see for all netizens. Highly recommended. 8/10

Why hasn't this movie been raved about? One of the best I have seen in a long time. Don't even think it got a cinema release in Australia. This is the sort of movie that should have Oscar nominations and a must see. An ensemble cast and all are outstanding. Jason Bateman is such an under rated actor but can just about do anything, probably hurt by Arrested Development although I must admit I did like that show. If you liked movies like Crash you should enjoy this. 3 stories going on at the same time which also have some intermingling, if there is such a word. IMDb rating is a bit low and I would rate it in the high 8's even getting close to a 9. Have banged on a bit as I didn't realize you needed to submit 10 lines of text to post a review/comment.

This movie has three parallel stories, with one important thing in common: real lives unravel as their presence on the media, especially the social media, spirals out of control. Moreover, as it turns out, each story ends up intersecting with one or both of the others.

There is Ben, a lonely teen who is hideously deceived and then callously exposed on the Web by two mean-spirited schoolmates. This drives Ben to make a grave decision that will leave his future hanging by a thread and his parents and sister reeling.

Then there are Cindy and Derek, who are trying to grapple with the death of their baby. As if that weren't enough of an issue in their life, they discover their credit cards have been maxed out. The private eye they hire, Mike, backtracks Cindy's and Derek's every online move, with unexpected revelations. Moreover, the result of Mike's investigation turns out to compound the problem rather than solve it.

Finally, there is Nina, an up-and-coming TV news reporter who gets her hands on the life story of Kyle, an older teen engaging in a salacious line of work performed online in front of a camera. Nina's TV piece is at first widely applauded, but its broadcast unleashes an avalanche of trouble for both Nina and Kyle, as well as for other people in their career lives.

A ready interpretation of the title "Disconnect" is to associate it with the dangers of "disconnecting" with real people in the real world. And indeed: people in this movie do communicate a lot via text messaging, and in chat rooms. In these spheres, things are sometimes not what they seem—and neither are people: two characters make up another, and communicate with someone else pretending to be that person, with potentially lethal consequences.

But the title "Disconnect" can also be taken as an imperative: "Disconnect!" Log off already! Otherwise, you will forget real existences cannot be edited, backed up, deleted, and restored like virtual ones. Actually, real life in this movie interferes with virtual plots in a way that even the latter take unintended twists and turns.

It turns out Mike not only changes Cindy and Derek's life (they set out to make a dramatic move as a result of Mike's investigations), he also is forcibly involved in the story around Ben. Ben's dad, in turn, is a legal counsel at the TV station where Nina works; that way, he is drawn on two fronts into the fallout from risky behavior of teens on the Internet.

While this is Nina's immediate connection to another story in this movie, the mere fact that she is a TV personality probably superimposes her story on the others: just as everybody is online these days, everybody still consumes sensational TV news. (Need it even be said: when you turn on your TV, you also "disconnect" from real life.)

The three stories progress at a similar pace and climax at the same time. After all the scheming, searching, plotting, and just plain misunderstanding emanating from cell phones and computer keyboards, the scenes suddenly stop in freeze-frame. Real-world existences clash in an ultimate, inevitable collision. The disconnect comes home to roost.

I see a lot of movies, and the great majority of them make little impression on me. They are fun and entertaining, but quickly forgettable. Not DISCONNECT, though. This is a powerful and provocative film that not only keeps you pinned to your seat but also makes you think about the consequences of your actions. It should certainly be required viewing not only for young people but also for anyone who uses social media or communicates via the Internet. This is a timely, well-written, well-acted, and well-paced movie that stays with you long after you leave the movie theater. I was also pleased by the fact that the director and writer did not take the easy way out. No glib, predictable solutions here, which is one reason why the film's events linger in your mind.