So much average

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

I think that this short is so enjoyable, that I had to show all of my friends and family, so that they could understand the awareness and problems it was giving us. It portrays the dangers of chat rooms (so hilariously.) It uses a waiting room to visualise the chat room; you've got all the characters in there, so you can see them for who they really are, and for who they are trying to disguise themselves as, for example blatant use of lying about age and gender (e.g. you've got a huge 40 year old bloke posing as a 13 year old girl named Beth) - not only did it show the dangers of talking about sexual things on chat room, it also shows the dangers of trust; could you really trust meeting someone from a chat room, when there is such common use of disguising ones self in the chat rooms? I think that once seeing this, you are more alert and suspicious about trusting people online; and this film may be a good way to make parents' children aware of the modern day danger of the Internet and its many chat rooms. The only thing I think that would have made this more interesting, is if they had put more focus on all of the characters. Granted that the main focus on 'slappysue' and 'skater' was needed for the twist; but I also feel that exploring the results of the conversations between the other characters would have put more insight into the point that this short was trying to make.

This short had me howling at the accuracies of my chat room addiction days of the late 90's. I really wish I could find a copy of this somewhere, so very well thought out and executed. I believe this won the Sundance "Best Short" award, or something to that effect, for 2001.

Anyone who has ever wasted time in a chat room needs to see this short film. It cleverly, accurately, and chillingly depicts the world behind the computer screen. THE PARLOR will evoke nervous laughter as you recognize yourself in one of the many archetypal chat room denizens: psycho flamer; boy band freak; on-the-make middle-aged married guy; bored, sex-obsessed teen; closeted homosexual; and more.From his filmography, Geoffrey Haley appears to be a protege of Alan Ball, creator of HBO's Six Feet Under. It would interesting to see if he gets any writing or directing gigs on that show.

It takes a few minutes to understand what is going on, but that moment of realization is immensely satisfying, as you realize, "I've done that!" A very witty satire with a great ending. Can't wait to see more from the director.