{"id":40425,"date":"2023-07-22T19:54:34","date_gmt":"2023-07-22T23:54:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=40425"},"modified":"2023-07-22T19:54:34","modified_gmt":"2023-07-22T23:54:34","slug":"stay-online-2023-fantasia-film-festival-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2023\/07\/22\/stay-online-2023-fantasia-film-festival-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Stay Online (2023) [Fantasia Film Festival 2023]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Director Yeva Strielnikova\u2019s \u201cStay Online\u201d is literally a digital thriller for the modern age, and it\u2019s never been more relevant a commentary on the importance of the internet than before. The digital thriller has become something of a niche sub-genre, and \u201cStay Online\u201d practices that formula, but rather than a horror movie, implements the device as a means of exploring a modern war unfolding before our eyes. America has managed to stay embroiled in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia through various social outlets. One of the most important facets has been Tik Tok, which has dispensed unfiltered information before our eyes.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Kate lives in Kyiv and is a volunteer. The moment she opens the laptop, donated to her organization earlier, she receives a video call. It’s from a little boy, Sava, who’s looking for his father. Kate has no idea about the whereabouts of the man- but she must have gotten the man’s laptop. When Sava flees from the Lviv Refugee Center to find his father, in order to stop him in order to bring him back to safety, Kate convinces him that she’s a real superhero and is currently looking for his dad. Working against time, Kate taps into the info stored in the computer in order to find and locate the missing man to re-unite them. But that proves to be difficult as the tensions and violence rise in her city.<\/p>\n

\u201cStay Online\u201d is a movie that explores the war experience through the eyes of a volunteer named Kate who is tucked in doors and safe from combat, but is tasked with disseminating information. The caveat is that she\u2019s forced to sit stationary in his domicile watching events unfold before her eyes and not being able to do anything but hope for the best. \u201cStay Online\u201d would and should be a fantastic thriller but it sadly never really clicks. Even at its height, \u201cStay Online\u201d really loses steam after the first half hour, and seems to be basically treading water before it drags its feet to the finish line. All things considered Strielnikova\u2019s film is well edited and tightly directed, but \u201cStay Online\u201d feels like a seventy minute movie stretched in to a hundred minute endurance test.<\/p>\n

Some scenes just felt like filler, while sub-plots involving various confidants kind of fizzle out. Nevertheless, Liza Zaitseva is great in the leading role as Kate, and does a great job bringing us in to the current war torn landscape of Kyiv. A humongous portion of the film is reliant on the performance Zaitseva and she delivers an emotional punch, even when the film pretty much peters out after the first half. \u201cStay Online\u201d has an interesting and relevant message that confronts the current struggles in Ukraine and how it affects the innocent. I just wish it were a better thriller, overall. It lags and sags in so many places, which is a shame since leading actress Liza Zaitseva really is very good.<\/p>\n

This year the Fantasia International Film Festival runs in Montreal from July 20th<\/sup> to August 9th<\/sup>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Director Yeva Strielnikova\u2019s \u201cStay Online\u201d is literally a digital thriller for the modern age, and it\u2019s never been more relevant a commentary on the importance of the internet than before. The digital thriller has become something of a niche sub-genre, and \u201cStay Online\u201d practices that formula, but rather than a horror movie, implements the device […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2497,12],"tags":[302,367,1013,1087,1173],"class_list":["post-40425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasia-fest","category-movie-reviews","tag-drama","tag-foreign","tag-suspense","tag-thriller","tag-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40425"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40427,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40425\/revisions\/40427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}