LOL
Screening on Film
Directed by Joe Swanberg.
US, 2006, 35mm, color.
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US, 2006, 35mm, color.
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A film about the ways modern technology isolates even as it seems to bring us together, LOL uses a non-professional cast of twenty-somethings to offer a realistic portrayal of how men and women relate (or don’t) in the twenty-first century. With their laptops and cell phones used like armor to deflect any real connection (while offering the illusion of communication), the three men in the film obsess about online relationships while ignoring the real women in their non-virtual lives. The second feature from Chicago-based Joe Swanberg, LOL borrows its title from the popular online abbreviation for “laughing out loud,” a way of indicating emotion without actually feeling any.