Disconnect Movie Review - Marc Jacobs, Jason Bateman

Let us preface this by saying that we love the internet. No, "love" is not enough ? we breath in its ASCII and grumpy-cat memes. But there comes a time during the day when it becomes too much, when the constant updating of information overwhelms us, the screen begins to hurt our eyes, and it is time for even the R29ers to call it quits. Between text messages, push e-mail notifications, and Facebook, we begin to lose sense of what?s surrounding us, who?s in our lives, and where we?re headed. In fact, our ?ber connectedness has left us disconnected from the real world.

Henry Alex Rubin?s Disconnect weaves together different story lines in the same vein as 2004?s Crash. Only, it?s not so much why these people are linked, but how. The film engages in an examination of our basic everyday connections and innocent internet habits, and how something that?s meant to bring us closer together has in fact done the opposite.

Like most teenagers, Ben Boyd (Jonah Bobo) spends most of his time on Facebook. He doesn?t have many friends, so he turns to music as refuge. Rich, his father, who is wonderfully played by Jason Bateman, is so wrapped up in his law practice that his smart phone might as well have a seat at the family dinner table. So it comes as a shock to both Rich and his wife Lydia (Hope Davis) when a Facebook catfish prank that?s pegged Ben as the butt of the joke goes tragically wrong.

Then we meet Mike Dixon (Frank Grillo), the widower father of Jason (Colin Ford), one of the boys behind the prank. After Dixon?s wife passed, he lost his police officer job and put much of the blame on Jason, who behind the fake catfish persona of "Jessica", confides this to Ben over the Internet. Dixon, of course, is now a private detective specializing in cyber crime. This leads us to the next link: He?s assigned to investigate the identity theft case of Cindy and Derek Hull (played by Paula Patton and Alexander Skarsg?rd). Their story reveals a couple who's retreated from each other to their respective internet corners after the death of their child.

The final story is a stretch, but it still works. Nina Dunham (Andrea Riseborough) is a TV reporter whose in depth research into a cyber sex brothel employing underage boys and girls becomes a huge hit. Her investigation results in FBI interference for which she turns to lawyer, Rich Boyd. Circle complete. In this segment, Marc Jacobs plays a cyber-pimp who's recruited Kyle (Max Thieriot), a young man who becomes the focus of Nina?s infatuation.

Photo: Courtesy of LD Entertainment.

Source: http://www.refinery29.com/disconnect-movie-review?utm_source=feed&utm_medium=rss

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