We Live in Public

Directed by Ondi Timoner

(Not Rated)

***

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A cautionary tale for the Internet age

You’ll want to unplug yourself from the Internet after seeing We Live in Public, said Joe Neumaier in the New York Daily News. Ondi Timoner’s “compelling” documentary takes its title from an art project that dot-com millionaire (turned self-declared artist) Josh Harris constructed in New York in 1999. As a study of society’s obsession with communications technology, Harris built a “constantly filmed human beehive” that was “part Big Brother, part Lord of the Flies, and part Stockholm syndrome.” By chronicling this odd experiment, Timoner’s film “burrows into thin and darkly funny spaces between artistry and vanity, isolation and community, collaboration and exploitation.” It is so thorough it could double as a “short history of the Internet.” The entire project poses some serious questions, said Manohla Dargis in The New York Times. Will the “right to privacy survive given how eagerly so many now surrender themselves to the camera?” Considering the avenues of self-expression now available, from Facebook to YouTube, you’d expect Timoner to more fully “explore the nuances” of the Internet age.