Her

A man struggling with connecting to woman as a result of a recent divorce decides to get an Operating System that manages to be self aware, intuitive and lovely. He falls in love with Samantha, as she calls herself. But can a human have a real relationship with an operating system?

I loved being in this world. Jonze creates an incredible world in which he depicts a future that seems not too far away. Bright colours and fashion from our history, such as high waist pants, blends awkwardly well with the advancement of technology showcased here. Not once did I ever think that in our near, or distant future, that we would not achieve what Jonze envisions here.

All of Jonze's films are high concept, Being John Malkovich, Where The Wild Thing Are, etc...you'll see a lot of melancholy. Her fits well with his resume, but comes off as a more mature and held back piece. I was invested in the characters, more so than any other film this year. Hell, Her depicts the most honest and real relationship this year and one of them is nothing but ones and zeros. Both characters here are yearning for something more, Theodore, played by Phoenix yearns for connection. He needs to be with someone, but can't emotionally because he still wants to be with his wife. Samantha, voiced by Scar-Jo, yearns to be more than an operating system. She wants to feel, learn, be alive. This film mirrors what these characters go through, which is self discovery.

The film doesn't look at the technology as our saviour, nor does it look at it as our curse. It's simply part of our lives and the use of this allows us to examine relationships in a slightly new way. We are disconnected from people due to our devices, but we feel more connected with people because of them. The film manages to make the viewer wrestle with the question, what makes us human? Especially with an AI character and having so many people in the film walk around, in a zombie state, connected to their highly advanced devices. All the people Theodore sees in one way or another mirror him. They all have their ear pieces in, connecting with technology.

Phoenix is marvellous here. I'm not a huge fan of him, but I simply loved his performance here. I believed everything he did here and I think it had to do with his eyes. He invokes such sympathy with just his eyes, that Phoenix the actor disappears and Theodore the awkwardly emotionally detached AI lover emerges. He tries to fill his void of loneliness with the technology, as do most of the characters depicted in the film.

Amy Adams shows up as a neighbour to Phoenix and best friend. She's here to showcase to us that he is able to talk to and connect with a human being, he's not necessarily this recluse. This is a nice counter to the technology aspect. There is a brother-sister relationship here, which was crucial for the film. This helps us to see the technology as more of a tool for the characters, than simply a good or bad aspect of our future.

Her is heartfelt, funny and depressing. If your asking yourself, can a human and an OS have sex? Her answers this question, in a unique way that lets us focus on the sound and not the visuals. Her is without a doubt extremely inventive in the way it approached and handled the typical generic genre about romance and relationships. Her is one of the best films of the year and I highly recommend it.

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"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."

Suspect's Reviews

What is this world coming to now that they've started making movies where Joaquin Phoenix has sex with a computer?

Sounds like my type of movie.

If you need me, I'll be having sex with Movie Forums.

I'll be watching.

Database Errol Jimmy Johns'd that SC post...weird...it's almost like they are the same person.

For those who like or are interested in Her, take a look at an episode of Black Mirror called Be Right Back.

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

I will see Her... but this movie has to be pretty awesome to overcome my "Joaquin in love with Siri" reservations.

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Fear and Loathing in MoFo... The Gunslinger 45's Top 50 Favorite Films

In the 10 Ring: Gunslinger45's reviews

I think Joaquin will finally be getting his golden statuette this year for this movie.

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“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!” ~ Rocky Balboa

Looking forward to seeing this.

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#31 on SC's Top 100 Mofos list!!

Please. He looks like a big dork in this. It looks indie all to Hell. No different than a lot of his other stuff.

Her
(directed by Spike Jonze, 2013)



Spike Jonze, the director of Her, is all over the plate with me. He's the director of Adaptation, the 2002 movie starring Nicolas Cage as the screenwriter of the movie itself, which I used to consider my #1 favorite movie and still is one of my top favorites. He's also the director of Where The Wild Things Are, which I absolutely despised and almost committed suicide during my screening of the movie. He's also the hilarious old lady character from the Jackass movies who is always losing her clothes and showing off her saggy boobs to everyone -- remember Gloria, the 90 year old slut?



And, of course, he also directed Being John Malkovich, which I think I've only seen maybe twice, but I liked it. Whatever Spike Jonze does, it's bound to get a strong reaction out of me, usually. Maybe.

Here he has written and directed Her, starring Joaquin Phoenix as a man going through a divorce. The film is set in a world that feels like it could be five or ten years from now. Maybe fifty, who knows? Futuristic without really being strongly futuristic. Enough to feel like it's today. An operating system (like Windows) comes out and it comes with a "consciousness" that talks to you and gets to know you and does chores for you and basically tags along with you in life. You can choose to have either a male or female consciousness. Joaquin gets the operating system and chooses a female consciousness. Suddenly, a lady's voice starts talking to him and she's doing errands for him and taking care of his e-mails and phone calls and such. She's like a secretary. If you have the operating system, you have your own secretary.

Like all things, though, sex gets involved. Soon Joaquin -- and as you can imagine, everyone with a conscious operating system -- is hooking up with their bodiless secretary. They're frighteningly like real people -- except, of course, they're missing bodies. You might as well be dating an imaginary friend that lives in your head. It's Drop Dead Fred minus Rik Mayall.



Her pushes the boundaries of weirdness. If you thought Lars and the Real Girl was strange and f**ked up to see Ryan Gosling pushing a love doll around in a wheelchair and taking it out for haircuts and ice cream, just wait till you get a load of Joaquin Phoenix dating what is basically his cell phone. At least Ryan Gosling went for something that had a body. This might as well be having sex with an answering machine out of a Stephen King book. And BOY is she kinky. I don't wanna give too much away -- but she uses actual humans as basically sex toys.

A wide spectrum of love related issues actually gets explored in Her, whether you realize it or not. It looks like it's all going to be a major sap fest -- a total vagina movie for women all about love and romance and warm, snuggly feelings. A feel good romantic sci-fi comedy.

It's actually a long lost episode of The Twilight Zone.

Expect something dark. Expect something creepy. I HATED Samantha, the operating system who falls in love with Joaquin Phoenix, and with good reason. Men will learn that no woman, not even a bodiless, fake woman, is their love savior. Pain and misery and unhappiness is found everywhere, no matter what kind of new form life takes. All we can do is accept that.



Her is funny and original and didn't bore me. I don't know if it's worth watching countless times (except, of course, maybe if you're a certain kind of Joaquin Phoenix fan out there...) but watch it once to see something unique and interesting. And, in a way, scary.

After all of this, Sexy likes the movie?

I never dissed the movie and I still say he won't probably won't win an Oscar for it.

Great review, SC.

Interested in seeing Miss Vicky's thoughts about this one.

I haven't seen it yet. I should see it sometime this weekend, though.

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I too give it a . Very good movie, i think it can appeal to a wide variety of audiences. I think this is destined to be a modern classic.

I might watch this tonight.

I ended up watching it tonight and this is what I thought (copied from another thread):

I pretty much agree with its consensus, although I don't find it to be the masterful piece that some have claimed. Still very, very good, nonetheless.