A movie empty as cybersex
Here's a new idea: As people become more reliant on, and immersed in, the world of computers, people become more isolated and alone. Physical intimacy is supplanted by auto-stimulation. Sex is cyberized.On_Line, a trendy little number about a band of solitary souls connected by a live erotic Web site, works this revelation for all it's worth - which is, alas, not that much.
Here's a new idea: As people become more reliant on, and immersed in, the world of computers, people become more isolated and alone. Physical intimacy is supplanted by auto-stimulation. Sex is cyberized.
On_Line, a trendy little number about a band of solitary souls connected by a live erotic Web site, works this revelation for all it's worth - which is, alas, not that much.
John Roth (the Jeremy Davies-like Josh Hamilton) runs Intercon-X with his roommate, Moe (Harold Perrineau). Sitting at his computer station, John guzzles peppermint schnapps and surveys the streaming videos of his digital domain: gays and straights, lesbian lovers, and women who undress for their Web cams - and for the paying voyeurs of the Internet.
Set in New York City, and in cyberspace, director Jed Weintrob's feature debut teems with soft-core scenarios and the sort of pulpy, pornographic chatter that is, well, the stuff of Internet sex. The trouble is that the characters here - Hamilton's brooding cyber jockey, the sultry fantasy girl (Vanessa Ferlito), the punky downtown bartender-artist (Isabel Gillies), the suicidal gay teen from Ohio (Eric Millegan) - aren't any less cliched than their technologically transported dialogue.
On_Line wants to get to the despair gnawing at the heart of a generation of instant messagers and chat roomies whose ideas of human interaction have been shaped, and warped, by pop-ups and porn sites. But the film never really gets beneath its own surface of PC screens, of pixilated video sessions and masturbatory role-play.
On_Line director Jed Weintrob and costar Eric Millegan will be at the Roxy Theater tonight for Q&A sessions following the 7:30 and 9:30 shows. Info: 215-923-6699.
Contact movie critic Steven Rea at 215-854-5629 or srea@phillynews.com.
On_Line ** (out of four stars)
Written by Andrew Osborne and Jed Weintrob, directed by Weintrob. With Josh Hamilton, Harold Perrineau and Vanessa Ferlito.
Running time: 1 hour, 27 mins.
Parent's guide: R (sex, nudity, profanity)
Playing at: Roxy Theater