Story one: two boys Jason and Fry (Ford and Bernstein) have registered a girl account on Facebook and use it to fool a closed boy-emo Ben (Bobo), which leads to tragedy. Ben's father Rich (Bateman) is trying to figure it out. Story Two: Breakthrough journalist Nina (Riseborough) arranges an interview with a young boyfriend, Kyle (Tyriot), who works as a sex animator via video link on the Internet. Gradually, there is sympathy between Nina and Kyle. Story Three: A married couple, Derek and Cindy (Skarsgaard and Patton), are experiencing severe consequences after the death of a child. In addition, an Internet fraudster steals all their savings from their account, forcing Derek to humiliate himself in front of bank employees demanding payment on the loan. They are helped by former cop Mike (Grillo).
In form, the film “No Connection” is very similar to the successful film by Paul Haggis “Clash”, which in 2005 won several Oscars, including the most important. The plot is divided into several separate stories, united by a common theme and easy connections between the characters. And if in “Clash” the main goal of the director was to convey mental and cultural-social differences between representatives of different races and nationalities, then in this tape the link is somewhat different.
In my opinion, it would be hasty to say that the object of research here is network technologies and the evil they can bring to people. On the one hand, it seems so, in each of the stories, the Internet played an important role, tying the necessary plot “hooks”. However, the very concept of “Disconnect” can be applied directly to people. It’s more about the fact that there is often no connection between people of different generations (the story of Ben, Jason and their fathers), different social statuses (a successful journalist and a homeless boy who got into bad company), and even between a husband and wife who got into difficult situations (Derek and Cindy hardly talk to each other after the death of their son). This is a film about how our society is divided and hostile towards each other, about how a brother can go on a brother and a son on a father.
From the cast, I would not single out anyone, since everyone worked for one common cause and no one tried to outshine the other performers. However, the most poignant scenes were, perhaps, Bateman and Skarsgaard, and they coped with them 100 percent.
"No Connection" is a great, acutely social drama that makes you look at the world and society from a somewhat depressing point of view. Shaking and mobilizing. I recommend it.
9 out of 10
Once in the TV program it was about one of the diseases of our time – the feeling of loneliness; endless streams of people swirling in the streets of megacities, and, seemingly, getting into this stream, you should feel safe, among the “people”, but it’s just a human mass, locked up, crowded inside, which smells cold, and which, just like you are forced to pretend with icy eyes that everyone around them is indifferent. And once we get to the cozy chair in front of the computer, we open the pores of humanity, we devote all our sorrows and tribulations to people whose real existence we can not even verify, give advice, empathize, spend all our free time with our best PC friend. But what if on the other end there is a friend who does not understand and “always on your side” but a crook, or a person who amuses himself to climb the nooks of vulnerable souls? That’s the whole point of the movie.
In addition to thinking about the plot of the film, I will say that the picture bribes with its clear concentration on the problem, nothing superfluous: here is the cause, here are the consequences, think about it. Here is such a simple logical chain, welded to several storylines, dizzyingly merging into a powerful final chord, presented to us by the director. As it often happens, the picture ends with the motto: “Guys, everything is difficult ... something needs to be changed, but I won’t say what!”
I haven’t written reviews for a long time, touched, touched. We look and think.
I don't have any big words. Every minute of this movie brings up one question in my head: & #34; how come? How are we humans, right? How can we keep turning a blind eye to the obvious? How can we be cruel to our families? How can we look at them and not see them? How can we live like this without thinking for a second about the consequences? Our lives are like fog. And we don't notice that we can't see our own face, and we don't fight, we don't try to turn the steering wheel of a car that's rolling into an abyss. We're just looking out the window. We're waiting. We expect someone to save us. We think that someone else is to blame for the failure.
And, of course, there comes a time when the fog dissipates. A blow to the head, and now we see everything perfectly, suffocate from the rolling reality, take our heads, ask ourselves the same question “how am I so?”
It's about the books on our shelves, the movies, the songs we were raised on. All about the bottom – you need to enjoy what is now, be more attentive to others, think not only about yourself. Because then late, late, when a person gets in the car and leaves, late, when you learn about the lives of children from strangers, late when you come to visit relatives in the hospital.
We're always in a hurry. We rush to live, but we run for the wrong things. We live so we'll be late. Late to the most important people, to the most important events. Don't tell me, it's useless. Nothing will change until we realize it. And we realize too late.
In this film, the title fully corresponds to the content.
No connection. Often it is absent between the closest, relatives. The eternal misunderstanding between the older and younger generations; the wall of alienation between spouses experiencing grief; the cruelty of children towards each other. All this pushes people of modern society to communicate on the Internet. Accidental acquaintances on the network do not seem to oblige anyone to anything. They often even bring something positive to life. For example: an unhappy woman is looking for an interlocutor to share her experiences with him, because her husband does not listen to them; children deprived of parental love pass their secrets to random strangers from social networks and cease to feel lonely. However, such actions have terrible consequences. It is not that the Internet is the root of evil. People do not know how to listen and understand others. Therefore, a crisis begins in the relationship. Then, in the life of the family wedged someone from the outside. Completely alien, but willing to listen and be compassionate. Naturally, it is much easier to discuss your problems with him than with your relatives (whose misdeeds can also be easily told to an outsider). That's where we need to think. If you value good family relationships, you do not need to “take the garbage out of the house”, sharing your pain with random people. Confide in your family, support them in the desire to trust you. Otherwise, one day there will be a realization - "there is no connection."
These thoughts came to me during and after watching the film. For the first half an hour of screen time, I didn’t like the picture. But then... When the characters and stories of the characters became possible to see... I couldn't take my eyes off the screen. Like in a mirror, it reflected various life situations that broke many people. Real drama. Bright, relevant and simple in its execution.
Three novels are told, alternately interrupted, in this film. This is the story of a cruel game of boys with a classmate over the Internet under a fictional nickname, the story of a cute guy who got into work on an intimate services website and the story of stolen money through hacking personal data on the network. There is no connection between them except purely technological: specific events are clearly linked to network procedures. And the title of the film “Disconnect” clearly refers to the Internet event. All three stories grow into drama and even tragedy.
Why were they shown to us? Some see the main message in the idea of disunity of people: the technical unification of society is improving, and human, personal contacts are melting away. Let me disagree with this interpretation. First, it is not true: many people find each other for different reasons and for different purposes, and some simply escape from loneliness without leaving home. All three stories could have happened without the internet. Was it not in ancient times that people were driven to madness or even suicide by anonymous persecution? How many times have banks been robbed? Stories of underground dating houses, including the use of minors, appeared, unfortunately, also not today. So the Internet is here only insofar as it is included in our daily lives.
It would be more appropriate to talk about something else: about the role of parents in the upbringing of teenagers, about the morality of immoral entrepreneurs who make money on child molestation, about the responsibility of a journalist who brings the fate of the hero of his story in favor of journalistic success. All this seems to be in the film, but clearly not in the role of the subject of analysis. In the foreground is just a well-built story about events. Of course, if the authors took the trouble to dig deeper, to deal with the psychology of their characters, the three novels could not fit into the screen time of the film. But does it have to be three? Three if the core is the Internet. If the focus on the internet disappears, any story that gets fuller and deeper will be worth the whole movie.
I recognize a good performance of actors, good editing, built plot. But the superficiality of the story and the formality of the connection of the components do not allow us to evaluate the film highly.
6 out of 10
This movie has two points of reference. This is an indie drama in which there will be no global problems, but there will be an intimate atmosphere and penetration into someone’s personal corner of emotions, desires, aspirations, secrets and secrets. And this is a film with Altman's handwriting, where there are many heroes, several storylines, the points of contact of the characters and a single point of convergence of all storylines. The main problem touched upon in this film is the spiritual and emotional connection between “fathers and children”, spouses, strangers who by the will of fate were connected with each other. Someone has lost this connection long ago and unexpectedly finds it again, someone can not reach the maximum close contact, relax and let the stranger into his world. It all sounds clichéd enough, but the film is rife with such clichés from beginning to end, which doesn’t make it boring, but it can make it a little more superficial, as each story could be told in the timing of the feature film, only it was given much less time here. At the same time, all events are somehow connected with the penetration of virtual reality of the Internet into people’s lives, when virtuality and reality are confused with each other, flirting with each other and easily changing places. From here, you can differently interpret the original title of the painting “Disconnect”.
For me, individual performances are interesting, in which the character of the hero is revealed and the role is fully integrated. This is all in this film, but a separate star here shines Paul Patton, who probably gave the role of her entire career. There is so much sadness in her eyes, an abyss of despair in her soul, goosebumps run through her emotional experiences. Her heroine is experiencing a double tragedy, the death of a child, which remains behind the scenes, and the subsequent discord in the relationship with her beloved. Her character can be characterized by the word “lost”, but at the same time “undefeated”. The city of misfortunes continues, but she finds the strength to continue to believe, love and hope for the best. The investigation that they started with her husband eventually brings them closer, and it is her role that sets the mood for the whole film, as if all the other characters are experiencing this tragedy with her. When she can finally relieve the tension, so does everyone else.
It is also worth noting Jason Bateman, who knows how to surprise only from the good side, but has not yet shown his best game, which he is only capable of. Here he copes with the role at a good level, but there is not much psychology in his game, although this is due to the character of his character. Throughout the film, there will be only one breakdown of his character, and this frame freezes in the eyes, remembering its visual component, perhaps most of all in this picture.
In general, the film does not excessively moralize, does not overdo it with happy endings, but he does not take the bar “excellent” either, but it is given “good” without much difficulty.