Her by Spike Jonze

I loved Her.

Deeply provoking, deeply philosophical, deeply soul-searching.

It's something my philo and film lecturer would definitely add to the to-analyse list of films.

One scene that really stood out for me was the one where he, after seeing Amy Adams clown around with her own OS, sits down at a stairwell and talks serious with Samantha. How he puts his pride down, denies himself and decides to open up, to commit to the relationship. And at the end of their conversation, he breaks into the most genuine, most unpretentious, toothy smile (kudos to Joaquin Phoenix, he's the man) because he's finally ready to feel real emotions, to give and receive real ones and there is that seeming joy... The crux of the film is caught at this precise point. The blending of alternate realities and actual reality; the irony of decreased disinhibition with less social indicators; the disconnectivity in a connected society; the substitution of real human interactions and relationships with ones that pretend to be human.

And if I were to put it bluntly, Theodore's whole idea of Samantha and his relationship was a mere thought-masterbation. It is actually sad, if you see it that way; when you see us that way. We are just as unreliable, just as unfaithful, just as irresponsible, just as alone.

Her is easily one of my new favourite films. Every scene in the movie was a perfectly revealing shot of that social alienation and the acting - Phoenix pins this performance down. Kudos, Spike Jonze (Adapatation, 2002). My only comment is that it would have been an even more powerful experience should they have used an unknown's voice (although Johannson was absolutely brilliant) and not publicise the voice actor - like she's a ghost actor, because mentally, all I see is Johannson's image and it distracts the viewer's thought-process, I guess.

"Sometimes I think I have felt everything I'm ever gonna feel. And from here on out, I'm not gonna feel anything new. Just lesser versions of what I've already felt."