On_line (2002) from Tuna

Not long ago, in reviewing a film I have mercifully forgotten the name of, I opined that it was not possible to make a film about cybersex interesting. The problem with every example I have seen is that you end up with little actual action, and a whole lot of keyboarding and narrative. On_Line proved me wrong.

The story revolves around people who spend their lives in cyberspace. Some do it for a living, such as room mates Harold Perrineau Jr. and Josh Hamilton, who operate a version of interactive adult chat, much like the real life I-Friends, and their regular paid performers/ Others do it because they are alienated or isolated from normal society.

The story switches among several characters, Hamilton is still getting over being jilted, but has the hots for Vanessa Ferlito, one of their performers, and also watches Liz Owens on the "angel cam," obviously patterned after Jenny of Jennicam fame. Perrineau is a real player, and is dating Isabel Gillies, who hangs around a suicide chat room, as a counselor, but with serious depression problems herself. We also have a young gay man in Middle America who is desperate for a real man in his life. His weekly cyber-experiences serve only to make him feel more isolated and alienated from society.

So how did they beat the problem of making a cyber-sex film interesting? First of all, they made very artistic use of split screens, simulating the medium they were portraying. Second, they made the interactions live video and audio feed, but most important, they took the characters away from their computers and into the real world.

I will stop there, as I am giving this film a thumb up. I will even forgive the film for what is an overly happy ending.

This is low budget filmmaking, and not a formula film, but has an element of real creativity -- the very thing that attracts me to indie films. It is not perfect, but it is entertaining, interesting, factually grounded in technology and cyber personalities, and presents good character development.