Fantasia Film Festival 2020 Screening – A raw and unflinching look at how virtual reality creeps into the livelihood of a lonely-boy and takes up too much space, PVT Chat (2020) is a melodramatic, awkward, and slightly creepy love story. PVT Chat‘s shot-on-video production-quality is saved by writer/director Ben Hozie’s uber arthouse directing and framing style, not to mention the bold narrative that unabashedly shows the effects of modern solitudinous living. A virtual erotic adventure that shows the full monty and is definitely not for the sexually faint of heart, PVT Chat is screening during the online 2020 Fantasia Film festival.

In internet-speak, “pvt chat” is short for “private chat”, and this movie tumbles down the rabbit hole of cam-girl private chatting, exploring a chance connection between two lonely people in a big city à la Lost In Translation (2003), only much grittier and with a lot more nudity. PVT Chat feels intimate because of its raw-looking footage that seemingly peers over the protagonist’s shoulder, but at the same time, the movie cultivates a profound sense of disconnectivity and isolation with scene after scene of our protagonist working and lusting/loving through a computer screen. It is truly amazing what director Ben Hozie accomplished with so little, making use of the natural lighting of New York’s dimly lit and empty side streets to invoke an atmosphere of loneliness and yearning.

In the movie, the protagonist, Jack (Peter Vack) lives alone in his NYC apartment after the death of his roommate. To make money, he gambles in online card games, and to pass the time, he visits happy ending massage parlors, but mostly, spends his time surfing a cam girl site. After meeting a performer named Scarlet (Julia Fox), a guarded dominatrix by character, Jack becomes infatuated with her and makes himself out to be an App Developer to impress her. When his virtual fantasy becomes reality after spotting her around NYC, the situation comes to a head once the pair finally come face to face IRL.

Julia Fox (the mistress from 2019’s unexpected masterpiece Uncut Gems) is enthralling as the character Scarlet, it is believable that our protagonist would fall into a deep obsession with her as she shreds the typical manic pixie dream girl persona and steps into the patent leather boots of a deeply-layered, dominatrix fantasy woman. Peter Vack (breakout star of Assholes (2017)) also shined in his role as Jack, portraying the struggle between wanting to live in a fantasy online vs. living through the harsh realities of everyday life. Every character, ancillary and main, was likable, well-performed, and seemed necessary to the script, making PVT Chat a well-edited film inside and out.

Writer/director Ben Hozier displays an understanding of the modern world with his film, PVT Chat, which is both relatable and a gripping to watch. He masterfully and delicately presents a story that is steeped in the sociological ills of virtual reality and the band-aid that is fleeting online interaction (camgirl sessions, in this case) through candid depictions of financial and sexual struggle. The cinematography looks similar to something out of the kino or French New Wave cinema style, or at least similar in spirit, with its no-budget, eroticism, societal commentary, and the seemingly guerilla-feeling style of capturing film. When first I thought I would be getting a sensationalized porno feature, PVT Chat turned out to be so much more — a wholly original and slightly f’d up love story for the new age.

MOVIE RATING — a generous 7 out of 10