Pitchforks: 4.5/5
Rated: R
Released: April 12, 2013
Making its debut at the Venice Film Festival and receiving a nomination at the Toronto International Film Festival, “Disconnect” has arrived to general audiences. The film tells the story of three interconnected families and a side story that wraps it all together. The cyber world affects them in ways they never thought were possible.
The beginning of the film might seem confusing due to the instant introduction of the characters and three distinct plot lines. Drugs, cyber-bullying and identity theft are all woven into the story. Designer Marc Jacobs also makes his acting debut with a few minutes of screen time as an identity thief named Harvey.
The screenplay might seem original, but it uses similar plot elements as the 2004 movie “Crash” without involving race. Director Henry-Alex Rubin does a great job of bringing out emotion from both the actors and the audience through camera angles and the gloomy score.
The story involves four scenarios: A couple that has lost a child and is now facing identity theft via chat forums, a nuclear family where the parents are workaholics and the teenager faces depression, a son and a father who have lost connection and do not understand each other, and finally the case of an underage minor who is involved in an online sex-trafficking community, struggling to make his way out of its binding roots.
The discombobulated families are very much related through a person, bringing forth the six degrees of separation theory.
The irony comes in when cyber-bullying meets Facebook through a fake profile and a teen that attempts suicide after a naked picture of him circulates the school.
One of the teens that created the profile has a detective father that cannot understand that he is the source of his bullying instincts. The same detective is helping the family with the identity theft issue and covers for his son’s mistake by erasing all past data from the iPad used to bully.
The father that is suffering because of his son’s coma is also simultaneously involved in solving a sex-crime investigation, after a reporter pays a cyber-sex site in order to delve deeper into a potential story. The story lands her at CNN, but also brings her big consequences after the FBI finds out the newscaster has allowed her to pay for the services in order to get her story.
“Disconnect” has a very different feel to it, and it is easy to relate to, given that nearly everybody has a Facebook account, has visited an advice forum and probably has known someone who has accessed porn online. The film shows the dire consequences of it all and the questionable possibility of a resolution.
This film has no happy or sad ending and it offers no closure. The audience never finds out what happened, and though it is annoying, the director’s decision was intentional — to make the audience think about their actions and reconsider everything.
With an indie feel to it, “Disconnect” certainly feels like a documentary versus a drama, despite some overly dramatized beats. If you enjoyed films similar to “Babel” and “Crash,” or enjoy watching the Lifetime channel, then this is certainly a must-see.
“Disconnect” came out in theaters on April 12 but is beginning to be released in several theaters across the Valley.
Reach reporter at rlopez20@asu.edu or follow on Twitter @RosieLopez14
