We Met in Virtual Reality

Very refreshing to see a doc that doesn't involve a homicide or general destruction of something precious. If you open your mind before watching this film, you'll come away inspired.

It takes us into a nascent world that few in the mainstream would otherwise see and never once is the audience held above the subjects. They and this world they have helped create are treated with the utmost respect and we meet them entirely on their terms, which is another thing that separates this from most documentaries. There's also some real filmmaking muscle on display here, particularly in the establishing shots, general framing of shots and the subtle way exposition is handled.

I was completely fascinated and greatly moved in several parts. This film gave me hope for humanity that I hadn't felt in a minute.

Having been a creator in virtual worlds of one form or another since 2,000... I understand the community, concept, and draw of these worlds. While I found the concept of VR Chat somewhat interesting, I got the feeling that there is a lot more to this world than was touched on in this film.

To me, that was it's greatest letdown. It is like being given a 5 minute glimpse into a 3 hour opera. It's hardly representative of the world. It's okay to see the experience of individuals on this world, but that doesn't mean we wish to see the same person's experience over and over again. After the first trip to the Helping Hands classroom, I felt no particular need or desire to attend another six sessions of the same environment. Surely there's something else in this world to present to the audience.

There were moments that were touching, parts that were funny, and parts that were somewhat mysterious (such as the Ghost Club-- so mysterious there was almost no information). The variety of avatars was interesting-- and for me one of the highlights of the film. But overall I felt we were just given a glimpse at one small room in a huge museum... and that a great deal of the film time could have been better filled with greater variety.

Saw this at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival

Usually movies about the modern digital media, the internet and social media tends to fall flat because many movies either don't simply understand how the internet works and how the modern media age goes by. Very few movies like Searching, Feels Good Man and The Mitchells vs. The Machines actually understands how the internet works and how modern digital media goes on. Director Joe Hunting clearly knows how VR works and this documentary did surprise me.

Filled entirely inside the VRChat platform, it never once felt boring or uninteresting as there were many different and interesting discussions about how people are able to connect with each through the virtual worlds. Especially during the pandemic and how it had a major impact on this certain individuals. Hunting was able to capture the realism about how people go on their days through VR and he was able to bring many interesting insights about this topic. It's definitely not a perfect documentary as there were some technical moments that could be improved throughout and it did feel a little too long. About 10 or 15 minutes of the film could have been trimmed.

I believe even if you didn't grow up through the online years or digital years, you will still be able to get something out from this. Being someone who grew up with the internet surrounding me, I was able to connect with the movie personally. I recommend this and I do look forward what director Joe Hunting would do in the future.

Rating: B+

Fresh and tasty... but so is the #3 combo at Wendys... Kinda cool to put on in the background while you get your chores done. Certainly a treat for the VR set and the tweens, but this gum runs out of flavor quickly for the rest of us.

We Met in Virtual Reality is a documentary (i.e., a movie format that concerns real life) shot entirely within a made-up world. More importantly, it focuses on the connections we discover via the World Wide Web when the physical world fails us -- and no, it's not from the vantage point of a scrutinizing old fart this time.

There's a certain wave of films that seem to be emerging as Millennials (and some of the older Zoomers, depending on which scholar you ask) are growing old enough to tell tales of their own; no longer are these concepts treated with the same out-of-touch Boomerism as an Unfriended sequel or a cartoon based entirely around emojis. With pictures like Feels Good Man, We're All Going to the World's Fair, and now this, we can tell that life in the age of memes and social media is being depicted by those who truly lived it. (I feel similarly about the writing of Millennial dialogue in new shows like Harley Quinn and Tuca & Bertie, but will talk more about that in a future post.)

Obviously, this film is made even more relevant by the fact that it focuses on virtual reality in the post-COVID world. Much like Among Us, Jackbox, and Discord, the game VRChat rose to major popularity during the early days of the pandemic and became the go-to place for many.

For those not in the know, VRChat is essentially a more advanced version of Second Life; the sort of virtual platform that Ready Player One tried and failed to envision -- and the kind that Neal Stephenson "warned" about in his 1991 novel Snow Crash (which Mark Zuckerberg, ominously, also borrowed the term "Metaverse" from), albeit with even zanier avatars than anything he described in that book. The anime girls with questionable jiggle physics are among the most common, but a crudely modeled Kermit the Frog and Ugandan Knuckles aren't out of the question. I called it a "game" before but really, it's a place to just hang out and, in lieu of any strict "gaming" activities, simply interact with people. (One Letterboxd user quipped that even in VR you can't go to a party without some dude whipping out his acoustic guitar.)

The film jumps back and forth between a number of figures, including a person running a VR dance class and another who teaches a group of fellow users sign language -- that is, "to do so with the mobility limitations of their digital incarnations", to quote Carlos Aguilar's summary. Another storyline concerns a romance blossoming between users DragonHeart and IsYourBoy, who have never once met each other in real life, culminating in a wedding where the attendees' avatars visibly weep. It is a surreal movie to behold, and I'm hoping to see a behind-the-scenes special on how they achieved this authentically documentary-esque camera work.

Many essays have been written about virtual reality as a new sort of spiritual experience. Are these strange avatars/personae -- unbound by the expectations/demands of conventional society and even the laws of physics -- a closer representation of who these people "truly" are than their IRL bodies? Is it fair to say this new dimension is more "real" than the transcendence we try to achieve through hallucinogens, meditation, and mumbo-jumbo about "souls" from a religion or New Age blog of your choice? Or is it simply an addictive affirmation of our delusion and escapism? Perhaps both sides are onto something (recall that even Black Mirror occasionally has a hopeful view of VR).

What of the future? How will this film be regarded in terms of prescience in a few decades? What other layers of expression and interaction are there to explore? Will these avatars, in turn, start programming their own virtual realities and make movies within those?

Obviously, not everyone is intrigued by all this. Some critics, including Aguilar, have noted that writer-director Joe Hunting probably needed to focus more on the negative aspects of VRChat and how its creation allowed for a whole new type of bullying and harassment. I feel like we already know of that side of digital-age interaction quite well. Oftentimes, it is represented by those aforementioned skeptical Boomers and out-of-touch "message movies" like Cyberbu//y, but that doesn't mean it's invalid. It's just that we could do with some films that elucidate the positives: the life-saving capacity of online community in an age of isolation.

More than anything else, however, We Met in Virtual Reality is a love story; one that explores how the connections some people make via wires and computer-generated images are more meaningful than the ones they find in reality. It's up to you, then, if you want to find this movie beautiful -- even spiritual -- or horrifying.