Hotshot stockbrokers delight in the materialism of Wall Street, baseball players relive the struggle through Bull Durham, prostitutes look to Pretty Woman for guidance, and Roman warriors no doubt have a soft spot for Gladiator. Now, with the release of On_Line, adult Webmasters finally have a movie to call their own.
Since its dawn, the Computer Age has seen many cinematic offerings that set computer technology, or more specifically the Internet, at the storytelling apex. Hackers, The Net, and Fear Dot Com woefully come to mind. Though pop culture classics like War Games, Tron, and the more recent Startup.com embraced such technology, they did so in much broader terms.
The primary device lacking in these tech-specific films is the element of sex and its relationship with our emergent technology.
What On_Line achieves - in winning fashion - is a present-day expos� on the culture of the adult Internet. With dating sites like Match.com and reality TV thriving nicely on the fringes of "adult" entertainment, the nonstop explosion of personal (see: private) communication technologies and the intriguing subculture of cyber-hipsters, the film catches lightning in a bottle by uniting a triumvirate of popular themes: reality, sex, and the Internet.
Directed and co-written by Jed Weintrob, On_Line is best described as a progressive love story set in Manhattan's cybersex industry. Starring Josh Hamilton (Kicking and Screaming), Harold Perrineau (The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions) and Vanessa Ferlito (25th Hour), the film follows the story of six people whose lives are intertwined with the Internet.
I remember discovering America Online, which led to my descent into the cyber chat scene. On_Line reminds me of late nights (and occasional mornings and afternoons) in college, exploring chatrooms, seeking sexual stimulation from strangers. It was better than any dirty magazine, a sexual addiction all my own. Though I knew there was a person at their computer, they were negated of gender, voice, personality or any characteristic, save for their ability to get off and type at the same time. It was simply a human with a computer and modem hook-up who desired the same intimacy as I; at least until I would cum and then drift back quietly into cyberspace.
On_Line taps into the very private world of one's sexual peccadilloes and connects it with an industry built essentially to provide the outlet. The film proves, perhaps shockingly to some, that sex and love is just as wild, unpredictable and heartrending in a business about sex as anywhere else.
At the nucleus of the story is Hamilton's character John Roth, a cybersex entrepreneur who, a long with his roommate Mo (Perrineau), runs a live erotic Website called Intercon-X. John works long hours and sulks over the loss of his ex-fianc�e and dull social life via Web cam diary entries. Mo hooks up with unstable art babe Moira (Isabel Gillies) and John eventually meets Internet fantasy babe Jordan (Ferlito), creating quite the love quadrangle. Completing the cyber community is man-on-man cyber host Al (John Fleck), and a conflicted, young gay man named Ed (Eric Millegan).
According to a written statement, Weintrob's purpose was to "explore the growing community of people who conduct most of their social and sexual lives at their computers." At one time running an interactive media company during the tech boom, Weintrob applied his 'Net experience and curiosity over cyber-relationships in formulating the story for On_Line.
"I was interested in the phenomenon of sex over computers," wrote Weintrob, an honors graduate of Harvard University. "We are living in a world in which people are able to find and connect with others across the globe, or across the street, instantaneously."
The film (produced by Tanya Selvaratnam and Adam Brightnam), which premiered at Sundance 2002, marked Weintrob's directorial debut, and incorporates a myriad of digital technology. Shot with an austere digital video style, there's a blitz of split-screen images, genuine Webcam feeds, and visual cleverness, allowing Weintrob to bring the viewer as close as possible to the cybersex experience. An original score by Roger Neil, plus an eclectic soundtrack (assembled by Matt Diehl and Todd Roberts) featuring artists like Pink Martini and Afghan Whigs, underscores the film's mood swings, an audible association between story and character.
Toshiaki Ozawa's cinematography deftly captures the intimacy of the characters interacting online, and because today's chat capabilities play out in real time, it was important to capture that element in the film. The multiple split screens provide several angles for online chat scenes, thus allowing for the tension, sexuality and reality of each sequence to be heightened.
Perhaps the most important role wasn't played by an actor, but in fact the Website itself, Intercon-X, built by visual effects supervisor Christian Brunn and team at QuantumFilm.com. Because much of the actor's interaction is played out in video streaming, it was vital to have an interface conducive to this approach.
By using a split-screen technique Weintrob had both actors communicating via Web cam on screen at once; thus allowing shots of the actors speaking to the Web cam and being shown on the Web cam simultaneously.
At times there are multiple split screens used in the film, enabling Weintrob and the film's editor, Stephanie Sterner, to manipulate various angles of a chatroom scene which often featured five and six actors at a time.
In one of the film's sexier moments, John and Jordan meet online and proceed into a wonderfully dirty masturbation scene. Incorporating the split-screen, the intensity skyrockets, as we see both actors getting off en masse, culminating in what must be the best Internet orgasm ever caught on film.
Co-written by Weintrob and Andrew Osborne, the film at its heart is a romantic comedy, but shot through a cyber space canon, loaded with raunchy language, explicit sexuality, and the heat generated between oversexed/undersexed young people in the big city. Underneath the darkish veneer is the life that exists between the offline and online. The sexual tension so vividly mustered between John and Jordan during their juicy, cybersex romp is completely lost when they meet in person for the first time; the safety of cyber space no longer a curtain to hide behind.
This moment underscores a much larger theme; often times we create a persona in cyber space divergent of who we are in real life.
My ego was overstated whenever I surfed chatrooms, an over-sexed collegian seeking cyber orgies. This was the early 90s, when Match.com was but a glimmering idea and personal ads still had a taboo status for meeting the perfect mate. The Internet cut the chase in half, allowing cyber citizens to connect and do as they pleased. The idea of Big Brother watching whilst I jerked-off in the Hot Beach Babes chatroom is another story.
On_Line smartly taps the mood of Web culture, more specifically the adult Internet, because we're not talking about shopping for Christmas gifts at Gap.com here. The film reflects a true snapshot of an otherwise complex and unpredictable business, replete with intertwined social and personal issues.
On_Line can be observed as, arbitrary or not, a positive spin on the state of the adult Internet business in a post-dotcom bust economy. Surely Internet capitalists and Webmasters will smile with glee as they watch the scene at Intercon-X headquarters (Moe and John's apartment) as the digital meter rapidly ticks off the amounts of money being tallied via chatroom activity. Moe and John are not multi-millionaires (yet), but the message is clear: the adult Internet market is alive and kicking, thank you very much.
Webmasters will invariably scrutinize the film right down to the server, tech verbiage and streaming quality, and rightfully so. But film fans should find Weintrob's cyber love story funny, sexy and full of bravado, and a glimpse at the link between pornography, the Internet and six people.
There is a twist, which I'll not divulge, which adds a semblance of closure for John and Jordan while sending the story off on a high note.
On_Line succeeds by turning the traditional romantic comedy on its ear. The customary boy-meets-girl anecdote becomes a three-way, if you will, with the inclusion of the Internet and its entire bag of intrigues - most notably cybersex.
The film offers a revealing glimpse, perhaps, at our sexual future and, most importantly, finally gives the Internet its cinematic due.
