Disconnect (Henry Alex-Ruben, 2013): USA

Reviewed by Reyes Munoz. Viewed at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (2013), The Arlington Theater.

With a title like ‘Disconnect’, the city Santa Barbara couldn’t have picked a better picture to kick off the opening night of one of the year’s most anticipated events: the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, a 10 day festival full of independent filmmaking, panels, awards, and special tributes. Henry-Alex Rubin’s Disconnect (2012) is a modern day drama centered around the everyday stresses and complications of always being ‘connected’ – whether by internet, tablet, or smart phone. The film is an examination of the many things that can go wrong when technology is either abused or falls into the wrong hands. As imdb.com describes it – ‘Disconnect is a drama centered on a group of people searching for human connections in today’s wired world.’

Simply put, the story of ‘Disconnect’ revolves around groups of parallel individuals who in one way or another are frantically looking for some type of human contact or interaction in a world that is so caught up with technological devices.  These individuals include: a lawyer, an introverted teen, a widowed ex-cop, an ambitious journalist, an ex-marine and his wife, and a lonely boy, all of which whose stories are interwoven and eventually collide, much like 2005’s Crash. Some of the reoccurring themes in this film include emptiness, loneliness, and organic vs. mechanic. All of the stories and events share these common themes.

The film begins with the story of an emo/goth teenaged boy who is obviously an introvert as he skates through a mall full of people and he seems to be lost in his own world as he blasts his music through his over-sized headphones that cover his entire ears. This opening scene not only sets the tone for the film but also manages to pay tribute to the film’s title as the boy manages to disconnect himself from everybody else around him. As he walks through the mall, he makes eye contact with another boy whom we later find out is lonely as he lives with his widowed father who is too busy working all the time. This young boy (Jason) and his decide to play a prank on the teen (Ben) by creating a fake Facebook profile of a girl named Jessica. They message Ben constantly and make him believe that this ‘girl’ is in love with him. Everything seems to be just an innocent joke until things go horribly wrong. The boys decide to message Ben a nude photo of this supposed girl and ask him to do the same. When Ben eventually gives in, the boys are shocked and in disbelief and decide to share the photo with the entire school. When Ben finds out what has happened he falls into a state of depression and decides to take his own life by hanging himself. He is eventually found by his sister moments later and is taken to the emergency room where he remains in a coma.

Cindy and Derek are a married couple who’s romantic flame has burnt out. Derek is always away on business trips while Cindy constantly finds herself home alone looking at old photographs of their deceased child. Because of their constant distance from each other, Derek develops an online gambling problem while Cindy finds herself chatting with other individuals on social networking sites where she develops some sort of cyber relationship. They both eventually end up losing all of their life savings to identity theft and both are to blame as either could have become the victim through their online activities.

Nina is a very ambitious reporter who is willing to do whatever it takes to move up the journalistic hierarchy. She finds herself chatting with a young man (Kyle) in a pornographic web-chat site for a story she is researching for. She eventually ends up meeting with Kyle in person a she conducts a series of interviews which will air as her story. Her story eventually catches on as it garners a lot of attention and she ends up winning an award. But not all is smooth for Nina as her story also grabs the attention of the FBI who is attempting to put a stop to this pornographic site. Nina finds herself in a deep whole as she loses the trust of Kyle, lies to FBI agents, is put on leave, and is told by her lawyer (Ben’s father) that she needs to find another attorney.

I thought the film was very well put together, especially the climatic scene where all of this stories collide, but for some reason the overall feel of the film left me feeling a bit empty. The ending didn’t really offer much closure as it closed with an open-ended ending. Overall I found Disconnect’s theme’s of technology and human interaction to be very interesting as it reflects the many problems that society faces today. My favorite part of the whole experience of seeing this film at The Arlington Theater was that as soon as the credits started to roll, the whole theater began to light up as people began to reach for their cell phones. Disconnected? I think not.