Her (2013 Nominee)

Theodore, A lonely writer, develops an unlikely relationship with his newly purchased operating system that's designed to meet his every need.

First off, let me say how much I dislike Scarlett Johansson.  I am seriously… She bugs me.  She is typecast into the slutty, dumb roles and men just drool all over her…. blegh.. ANYWAYS, this year she has begun to change my mind.  Her role in Don Jon was awesome (I recommend that film!  Disappointed it got no love for screenplay from the academy).  And her performance in this is quite good.  She plays Samantha, the OS who Theodore falls in love with, which means it's just her voice.  I was very impressed by the range of emotion she was able to convey and Joaquin Phoenix's relationship with her was so interesting and believable. It almost started to make sense.  And yes the sexual aspect of this movie took some pretty odd turns, yet made the movie much more intriguing.  There is a minor vocal part by Kristin Wigg that almost had me peeing my pants.  It was super funny.  I assumed the movie in general would be much more humorous than it was because it was actually pretty sad, yet hopeful.  Highly recommended and a very unique and interesting take on where technology is affecting our relationships with people.  If you like this, give quirky  Lars and the Real Girl a shot- not as high budget but just as much heart.  

It is so fantastic to see Joaquin Phoenix and Spike Jonze working again; the fact that it is working together is just a bonus for us. Spike Jonze is the genius behind the wonderfully quirky Being John Malkovich and the staggeringly original Adaptation, which has become one of my all-time favorite films.  I feared that Phoenix would have a hard time finding work after his possibly brilliant but certainly frustrating I’m Still Here burned some bridges but his work in The Master was fantastic and it’s great to see him taking brave and difficult roles. Her portrays a future that seems frighteningly near in which human interaction is stunted by the operating systems that are permanently queued up in people’s lives- think of a weird combination of an IPad, being jacked into The Matrix and sitting in one of the hoverchairs in WALL-E all at the same time. Even the lead character’s job of dictating to a computer beautiful love notes from other people to other people to be reproduced to look handwritten seems like a real occupation in the not-too-distant future. Yet something about the performances, the script and the vulnerability of the characters makes this weird relationship really powerful. While there seems to be an obvious stigma about being “in love” with a computer, it’s hard to find it too weird in the 21^st century when their first dates together are a mirror image of what you see people doing in every cell phone commercial you have ever seen. Katie and I walked into this movie expecting a romantic comedy, and while it occasionally is (the CG avatar that Phoenix encounters in his video games is absolutely hilarious) this movie also hit me deep and sometimes could be a painful experience as it becomes clear that this evolved form of closeness may only lead to new forms of rejection. But it also left a deeper impact on me than several of the films that received more nominations or got more press. Her is ultimately a hopeful story of the triumph of humanity, and while it won’t be to everyone’s taste, it was one of my favorite and most thought-provoking of the year.

During some of the more emotional scenes, Amy Adams would sing songs from famous musicals like "Annie" and "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" in order to cheer herself up. Eventually, Joaquin Phoenix would join in and they would sing together. However, they stopped after they saw Spike Jonze filming them.

Amy: I think anybody who falls in love is a freak. It's a crazy thing to do. It's kind of like a form of socially acceptable insanity.