Disconnect

I'm going to keep this a simple review, there's plenty of longer ones if you want that. I went to this movie with zero expectations. I wanted to see a movie today and this just happened to be 1 of the 4 playing at my small theater. The movie was very well done. All 3 stories were intriguing and believable. Many sad stories such as these are often over-dramatized and make me hate them. However, I found this one to hit the drama level perfectly. They make you feel for the characters and believe their actions (to which I'll say all of the actors did an AMAZING job, particularly the kids).

I almost wish I could see a feature-length movie of 2 of the 3 stories in this. Those being the bullied kid and the other of cyber sex ring. Those 2 were definitely hit their mark. I thought the 3rd, with the couple who lost their money to identity theft, was good as well...but perhaps not to the same level as the others. To be fair though, the other 2 might just have been more intriguing of a topic for me.

Just a quick comment on the Rating: Personally, I think this movie should have been rated PG-13. There was only light violence (not gloritized, either) and very brief, tasteful nudity. All while 2 of the stories were relating to very real scenarios related to kids. Meh, maybe I'm just being silly thinking kids can handle movies about topics they clearly live through.

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've never heard or seen anything about DISCONNECT, glad I gave it a chance !

Already after a few minutes it became clear, this is not just another Saturday night movie u sit through. The way the stories are interwoven felt natural, smart, logical and very uneasy. All of them had a vibe of foreboding. That things won't end well ... Good Intentions turned slowly but surely upside down. Secrets created havoc, lies ruined life's - all connected through the internet and our personal or artificial bonds. I'd label it thriller, due to the intense atmosphere it manages to create but after all, it's a powerful and upmost relevant tale of our current society and interaction with each other. A pity it did not receive the buzz it deserves.

I have watched this movie 3 or 4 times and it is gripping. Now, in 2023, the core of this seems like it should be old news, the awareness of just how dangerous and delicate online living should be second nature to understand it is virtual, not real, yet real people are involved in and they all have their stories. The drama of this one involves several overlapping lives, connected but not and deals with some very real things that are happening in society. I cannot go into it or it won't be a surprise, but this is a heavy movie to watch. Actors played their roles really, really well directed well, great dialogue, serious emotion going on.

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.