We Met in Virtual Reality (2022)
An empathetic—if somewhat shortsighted—study of purely digital relationships
7.3
Movie
United Kingdom, United States of America
English, Spanish
Animation, Documentary
2022
JOE HUNTING
DragonHeart, Dust Bunny, DylanP
91 min
7.3
Emil Hofileña
TLDR
Filed under: movies that would instantly kill a small Victorian child.
What it's about
Shot entirely within the online platform VRChat, players are interviewed on the relationships and communities they've formed online, especially during the pandemic.
The take
A documentary told entirely through animated avatars can be a hard sell, but instead of playing into the expected jokes, director Joe Hunting takes this digital environment extremely seriously, and that makes all the difference. He doesn't downplay how absurd it is to see what are essentially 3D characters going on dates and having bellydance classes together, and yet Hunting still takes time to emphasize how freeing this virtual existence is for all involved. It's disappointing that the film never addresses the many real concerns people have about purely online relationships (deception, exploitation, and abuse, among others), but as a positive and perhaps overly romanticized view of this new, 21st-century social space, the documentary remains fresh and vital.
What stands out
The magic of We Met in Virtual Reality doesn't really hit until you get to scenes in which two avatars display sincere affection towards each other. You don't expect to care as much as you do, but then again the isolation of the pandemic really just might have changed how these kinds of interactions can come across. Given the context of an uncertain future and the profound loneliness everyone seemed to have been feeling at the time, any sort of companionship—even those taking place entirely in ones and zeroes—feels like a welcome hug.
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