Life 2.0 [HD]

Incredible what this director caught on film in Life 2.0
Life 2.0 is an astonishingly meaningful and entertaining look at the subculture of Second Life. The film tracks several people through their engagement and sometimes addiction with the online 3D virtual reality world. One woman sells enormous and immaculate virtual homes for real money in second life, while living in squalor in her parent's basement, working in her pajamas twenty hours a day. Another couple, who turn out to look surprisingly similar to their extremely attractive avatars, fall in love on Second Life and their relationship spills into first life with unexpected consequences. It's incredible how close the director got to his subjects, and you can't believe some of the moments he's managed to catch on film. Finally, the film manages not just to tell these amazing, and sometimes troubling stories, but many of the scenes, and the film itself, functions as a metaphor for our contemporary world's layers of reality, encouraging us to contemplate "what is real."

Very interesting
Life 2.0 is one of the most interesting documentaries I've seen. The stark realism captured in this film sheds real insight into not just virtual environments such as Second Life but, the entire phenomenon of meeting and interacting with other people online. I think this documentary will probably mean even more to people who have experienced anything close to what is covered in it.

Provocative
Life 2.0 is a documentarian's look at the world of Second Life and those who are addicted to it. There are three main story threads: A man and a woman who decide to leave their families and be together after meeting online, a woman who lives at home and who makes her living from playing Second Life from 6pm until 11am, and a man who plays a little girl online (in theory, there are no adolescents online, as it's illegal for minors to play Second Life). The documentary's structure makes it jarring viewing: Real-life interviews are interspersed with footage from Second Life, so it's difficult sometimes to separate what's real and what's fake. Certainly, for the individuals portrayed in this film, Second Life is far more real than their own real life. As the film progresses, it becomes clear to what should have all been too obvious from the start: that the people most addicted and absorbed by Second Life are exactly those who suffer from deep psychosis and seek an escape from the...

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