The film follows a group of high school teenagers and their parents as they attempt to navigate the ways the internet has changed their relationships, their communication, their self-image, and their love lives.
Social issues such as video game culture, anorexia, infidelity, fame hunting, and the ease of access of illicit material on the internet, are scrutinised with each characters narrative.
As each character and each relationship is tested, the variety of roads people choose are analysed, some tragic, some hopeful, and it soon becomes clear that no one is immune to this social change that has come through our phones, our computers, and fundamentally, our lives......
It's a difficult one to recommend this one. It's way too dark and depressing to be a comedy, and too silly silly and incoherent in places to be a damning commentary on the state of youth, demographic, and class in today's society, thanks to the the advent of the internet and social media.
The film tells us we can be who we want to be on-line, we can have who we want if we have the money, the looks, and the status, but in doing so, we lose the most important thing in our life, realisation into who we really are and who are important to us in the real world.
Sandler proves he can put in a good performance when he wants to, but his character is such an unlikable one, you really couldn't care less about what happens to him. He's a cheat, and when he finds out his wife is just the same, we are supposed to feel sorry for him? That's not how it works my friend.
The film comes and goes with its different threads of narratives and different plot lines, but it's never really resolves each story it delves into.
It's an interesting film for sure, but it's message is the same message that my mum used to say to me when I was growing up.......'turn it off and go and do something useful'
Social issues such as video game culture, anorexia, infidelity, fame hunting, and the ease of access of illicit material on the internet, are scrutinised with each characters narrative.
As each character and each relationship is tested, the variety of roads people choose are analysed, some tragic, some hopeful, and it soon becomes clear that no one is immune to this social change that has come through our phones, our computers, and fundamentally, our lives......
It's a difficult one to recommend this one. It's way too dark and depressing to be a comedy, and too silly silly and incoherent in places to be a damning commentary on the state of youth, demographic, and class in today's society, thanks to the the advent of the internet and social media.
The film tells us we can be who we want to be on-line, we can have who we want if we have the money, the looks, and the status, but in doing so, we lose the most important thing in our life, realisation into who we really are and who are important to us in the real world.
Sandler proves he can put in a good performance when he wants to, but his character is such an unlikable one, you really couldn't care less about what happens to him. He's a cheat, and when he finds out his wife is just the same, we are supposed to feel sorry for him? That's not how it works my friend.
The film comes and goes with its different threads of narratives and different plot lines, but it's never really resolves each story it delves into.
It's an interesting film for sure, but it's message is the same message that my mum used to say to me when I was growing up.......'turn it off and go and do something useful'