Disconnect (Henry Alex Rubin, 2013): USA

Reviewed by Sasha Miljkovic. Viewed at Santa Barbara Film Festival 2013.

In this day and age, nearly everyone has some sort of screen in front of their faces throughout the day. Cell phones, I pads, I pods, game boys. Lots of people are disconnecting themselves from meeting in person, and just doing it all online. People are interacting with one another over social  websites, webcams, and texting in general. So many people are online, it makes  you wonder if online interactions can ever replace face to face interactions.  Henry Alex Rubin’s narrative, Disconnect (2013) starring Jason Bateman, Alexander Scarsgard and Paula Patton, goes deep into the depths of the positive and  negative outcomes of this predicament.

Disconnect is a series of three different stories to connect and intertwine with each other as the film progresses. A story of a young boy disconnected from his father, Jason Bateman, having trouble connecting with people because he is shy, and has headphones around his head all the time. He is a perfect target for these two bullies who take advantage of him over Facebook  The second story Is of Paula Patton and Alexander Scarsgard. They play a once happy couple that recently lost their child, and is struggling to stay positive as their money is stripped from them by an unknown identity thief. The third story is about an eighteen year old stripper who makes his money on a webcam doing whatever his audience desires, for a small fee of course. A reporter stumbles onto his webcam site and is fascinated by his story and also a little interested in him herself.

I wanted to point out that Alexander Scarsgard plays a great, lost, angry husband. Once you get past him being Eric Northman, the vampire from True Blood, you can really start to appreciate him as an actor.

The film is kinda similar to  Crash, in which both tell a story from multiple characters and perspectives. The film was really interesting, but at some points very sad and dramatic. If your looking for a fun movie, with some of your favorite actors, then this isn’t for you. But if you want a great dramatic story, that only this generation can understand, then disconnect is for you.