Her Movie Review

Nominated for 5 Academy Awards
Best Picture
Best Original Screenplay (Spike Jonze)
Best Production Design
Best Original Score
Best Original Song (The Moon Song)

Naturally, I watch a lot of movies ever year. Some of them great, most of them pretty good, some incredibly mediocre, and a small few devastatingly terrible. It's a special and rare event when I watch a film and think to myself "In 30 years when people are still talking about this film, (some who weren't even alive upon its release)  I'll be able to say that I was there when it came out, and that I knew, instantly, that it would become a newly minted American classic'. Of course, I am talking about Spike Jonze's brilliant, daring, and highly original picture, Her, which is one of the best films I've seen in a very longtime, and, quite possibly, the best film of 2013. Now, 2013 (as I have stated many times before) was an incredibly special, landmark year for movies, with the release of films like Gravity, 12 Years a Slave, movies that have forever changed and influenced cinema. And despite incredibly influential and original films such as Gravity or 12 Years or The Wolf of Wall Street or American Hustle, Her is a film that, I believe, truly breaks ground for the future of American cinema. I haven't seen a film this original, this honest, this innovative, and this daring in a very very long time. Not since Christopher Nolan's Inception back in 2010 has a film REALLY impacted cinema in this way. Her is unlike anything I have ever seen, or anything I ever will see. Sure, it may spawn a series of cheap, ripoff, copycat films, unjustly trying to imitate the beauty and innovation that lies in this incredible story, but this is a film that is a completely original work of art, a piece that is all its own, and will be discussed, debated, screened in film classes, and honored for years to come.

The film centers around one, Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) who is an extremely talented writer who works for "Beautiful hand written letters.com" where he writes love notes for others to give to that special someone or whatever the situation may apply to. He's an incredibly lonely and sad man, currently going through a divorce, so he finds a new friend in his Operating System, voiced by Scarlett Johannson. I don't know about you, but if my OS had the voice of Scarlett Johansson, I'd fall in love with it too. The two soon form a relationship, and what follows is a story that could've been a complete, hokey flop right from the start, but instead is the most interesting and, yes, human romance of the year.

I am a huge fan of Spike Jonze's last work, Where the Wild Things Are. While main audiences panned the film and criticized it for being overly sad, depressing, a tad weirded out and cold, I thought it was a true masterwork, one that captured the essence of a child perfectly. That was preschool compared to what Jonze has accomplished here. Jonze based the overall look and color pallet on, surprisingly, JAMBA JUICE, and it breathes a whole new kind of light and energy into the film, showcasing some gorgeous cinematography. Jonze is also a complete pro behind the camera, capturing fantastic shot after fantastic shot, whether it be a steady, long take of Phoenix's face as he talks to Samantha (the OS) or whether it be a swift, confident pan during one of the film's beautiful montage sequences (another reason to love this film: Jonze made montages cool again). However, Jonze shows the most strength in his script which is, by far in a way, the best screenplay of the year, and one of the best screenplays I've ever heard in my life. There are moments of genuine honesty and heartache, as well as flourishes of happiness, joy, and number of absolutely hilarious moments (my favorite one involving a strange creature Theodore finds in a cave while playing a video game). There were countless moments throughout the film when I though to myself "Spike Jonze is a goddamn genius, and where can I purchase his mind".

Of course, Jonze's script, as wondrous as it is, would not work if he had incompetent actors reciting the dialogue. Luckily, he has two wonderful actors anchoring the film. The great Joaquin Phoenix gives the most honest and real performance from any actor in 2013 as the deeply layered Theodore Twombly. Phoenix has moments of incredible likability, but he's never afraid to explore the darker, more flawed aspects of the character and he does so with unabashed emotion and skill. Academy, shame on you. Scarlett Johansson gives the best performance of her career, in a voice performance nonetheless, as the OS Samantha. Johansson gives an absolutely perfect performance, and creates one of the most interesting characters I've ever seen. There were many times where I forgot that Theodore was talking to a computer, and thought he was just talking with a person. Not only should Johansson have received a best supporting actress nomination, but she should've been the front runner. Supporting players Amy Adams, Chris Pratt, Rooney Mara, and Olivia Wilde are all fantastic as well.

But perhaps the most incredible thing about Her, and why I believe it will go down in history as one of the most influential films ever made, is the way it depicts a not so distant future and how real this relationship between Theo and Samantha feels. Because of Jonze's genius, you never doubt the credibility of the love story for one second, but you also don't doubt it because this is something that could truly happen to people in the future. In a society so attached and consumed by the technology at hand, a society that many could claim is already in love with their computers, how long will it take for this to actually happen? Exactly how unrealistic is this movie? Is Theodore really that crazy or weird for falling in a love with a computer? If you were in his situation, with this opportunity presented to you, would you take it? Her is a film that has already sparked major conversation in the film community because, like it or not, this isn't a film you can't just watch and leave at the door. Not only does everyone who's seen the film discuss it, they HAVE TO discuss it, because you'd be a damn fool not to. Many people in our world inhabit that same lonely place occupied by Theodore Twombly, and wouldn't it be convenient to, simply, download a lover? Download a friend? If the real world keeps disappointing you, there's no way the virtual world can. Those are the kind of ideas and questions that Jonze has introduced here, and he does it with such, elegance, humor, and emotion that you can't imagine this story being told any other way. Her is a film for the ages, and will go down in history as one of the most influential and important films ever made.