Her (2013)

The other day, I was a guest on the podcast Illusions Travel by Streetcar (I will be on Episode 4), and one of the films discussed in some detail was none other than Her. If there is one thing we were all rather shocked by, it is how seriously this film has been taken by the movie-going public. My co-host had expected it to be laughed at, while I had expected it to be some kind of acidic satire. We came to the conclusion that the warm embrace Her has received is due to how plausible its portrayal of the near-future is. In an age of online dating, and long distance relationships, the notion of falling in love with the idea of a person as opposed to the actual flesh and blood person themselves is no longer seen as absurd by many people (though I am not one of them), so the idea of falling in love with an operating system is not at all far off. Personally, I found this movie to be terrifying for that very reason. Perhaps even because I could see myself (God-forbid) in the main character's shoes. Jonze certainly speaks to ever-expanding mass of those who feel increasingly isolated and disconnected from society, as well as those who are perplexed by the changes brought about by the digital revolution. After leaving the theater with my aunt and uncle, my uncle said his favorite scenes were the ones where Pheonix would be in public talking to his computer, and no one thought twice about it because they were all doing the same thing. It certainly is eerie. Then again, a meme involving people on a train car all reading newspapers with the caption "All this technology is making us anti-social" has been making the rounds online, but consumer technology is designed to be addictive in a way newspapers were not. By no means is Her a great, or even good movie, though. It is incredibly contrived, and endlessly draining and mopey to an absolutely unnecessary point. One can only see Jaoquin Pheonix's sad face so many times before wanting to scream.