Movie Treats Technology As Ordinary, Not Exotic

In a short write-up of the movie Reservation Road, Esquire's Mike D'Angelo highlights how the film's characters use technology in realistic ways, perhaps marking a long-waited-for shift in the way technology is presented in pop culture.

When Ethan wants to find out what the likely penalty would be for a hit-and-run offender, he actually does exactly what you or I would do: He Googles the hell out of it, in a scene that for once doesn't cough up the relevant info nugget at the very first keystroke. Later, he turns for emotional support to a chat group for parents of murdered children, pouring his heart out to strangers rather than to his wife and surviving child.

What's remarkable about this material, paradoxically, is how thoroughly unremarkable it is. Unlike The Net, You've Got Mail, Fear Dot Com, and various other labored pseudo-cyber-dramas, Reservation Road has no particular interest in being au courant.

Accidental Brilliance [Esquire.com]

[#1 posted by monopole , November 5, 2007 9:53 AM]

In the same vein but with much less pathos is the Japanese media phenomenon Densha Otoko(train man). Beginning with a novel supposedly based on a true story, it has spawned a movie, tv series, anime and several manga. The story revolves around an otaku who rescues a pretty lady from a drunk on the train. As events transpire, he eventually gets the girl, but only with the extensive help and encouragement of his anonymous friends on the ascii only forum 2chan.

All the versions of the story retain the "low tech" ascii forum coupled with some real world geek toys such as PDAs. In fact, it is just the "nobody knows you're a dog" aspect of the forum which has the most effect, as each telling envisions the differing correspondents and their actions beyond the forum.