Review of Disconnect (2013) by Dawdlingpoet — 20 Nov 2021

This is a mix of drama and thriller and it features themes including connection i.e. personal, human connection and friendship, plus digital social networking, identity theft and obviously victimisation and bullying, among others. I felt the topics were well handled - I liked how the film contained numerous sub-plots, all of which are, of course, related. Its a subject area that I find quite interesting and its fair to say that I have, shall we say, some personal experience when it comes to loneliness and wanting to find genuine connections online. Its often surprised me how honest and open people seem to be online, moreso than I feel I'd automatically be if I were having a face to face conversation but then thats probably mainly due to my social anxiety and thats a whole other subject. Suffice to say, I'm curious about the psychology of the subject area. I'd heard recently that loneliness is becoming more prevalent in society, which, considering how quick and easy it is to communicate with people online nowadays (and also cheap, given what equipment would have costed some 10-20 years ago), is somewhat surprising.

I felt the film was quite tense and it did grip me from fairly early on - whether im especially biased due to my interest in the subject area, I can't really say but I thought the various sub-plots were pretty well thought out. Each one raised certain questions and thoughts. The camerawork wasn't particularly smooth, as I noticed the camera seemed to be almost constantly on the move - it wasn't exactly painfully jerky as such but there was a tendency for the cameras to cut between various angles in a relatively quick fashion, which I suppose made scenes seem a little faster paced than otherwise maybe. Cast wise, Rich Boyd is played by Jason Bateman and Lydia Boyd is played by Hope Davis. They both give good, convincing performances. Also present are Frank Grillo as Mike Dixon, Paula Patton as Cindy Hull, Andrea Riseborough as Nina Dunham and Alexander Skarsgard as Derek Hull, plus (of course) others. I wouldn't say that the cast were exceptional, or bad, nothing particularly stood out about the individual performances as such, so thats about all I can think to say on that front. I felt the characters were well developed and thus it wasn't difficult to feel sorry for certain people due to their circumstances.

The film features various instrumental, classical sounding tunes played during key scenes, to highlight the sense of isolation and other issues which are clearly in play at that time - it was a bit chilling to me at times but very well done. Content wise, this film features some strong language, sex references, partial nudity and in general the film has quite a strong emphasis on sex in general, plus drug references and moderate violence - however this does include, more specifically, a scene involving suicide, which could upset anyone who has been affected by suicide, of course. It is a relatively mature film, dealing with adult themes at times and due to this and the rest of the content mentioned, its been given a 15 rating.

Its a tough watch at times but its quite poignant and overall a good film of its sort, so worth a watch.