Disconnect (Henry Alex Rubin 2012): USA

Reviewed by Casey Cummings at the Arlington theater, Santa Barbara

Disconnect is a Cyclelogical thriller that goes deep within the lives of ordinary people and situations that occur along the way. A well made and put together movie. Some shots that stood out were Rubin’s artistic shots through fences and through windows that made specific scenes unique like when the reporter met Kyle for the first time.

It was the opening film for the SBIFF and a good one at that. Ive heard of the Director Henry Alex Rubin before but have never had a chance to experience one of his films. I love how he was able to tie in technology like Face book because that’s what the new generation revolves around it seems like. The only actor i noticed that I’ve seen in other films was Jason Bateman, which played a very serious character in Disconnect oppose to his comedic character he usually plays in comedies.

The first act introduces the characters but you don’t know how all these people are going to essentially tie together. It focuses on three young boys, two who are friends and one who is an outsider that the other two pick on through Face book. They make fake Face book account who the other boy, Jason Bateman’s son, believes is a real person. They then send him a picture of a naked girl from the Internet and he then sends one back to the other boys. They then send it to the whole school and the outsider try’s to hang himself but his sister saves him in time. The one bully has a dad that is an online cyber officer that deals with fraud. While his son and his son’s friend is tormenting this poor boy at there school, his dad is busy helping another family that has lost almost everything by thefts over the Internet. It also brings a reporter into the picture that try’s to get a story on underground sex practices over  web cams.

This movie is confusing at some points with how many people are in it, and how there all tied in together but a touching experience and i highly recommend seeing this film. An important scene is at the end of the film where all the people are fighting and its in slow motion switching back to three different situations between the characters for apparent reasons. Overall a wonderful thriller that will leave you breath taken and wondering.