#21 "Her" (2013)

"Her" is the tale of one man and his love affair with his artificially intelligent operating system.

OK, that sounds like the set-up for an awful high-concept Hollywood comedy directed by Todd Phillips - or a snarky satire on modern technocracy by Mike Judge. Instead, it's a truly beautiful, complex and often poignant movie that skilfully blends the very best of two very different genres - science fiction and romantic comedy - and is one of the most amazing films in a year of amazing films. There's so much going on in Spike Jonze's fourth feature film that I won't even try to hit on it all here. I can tell that this is a film that I will keep coming back to over the years.

The performances are stunning. I don't usually give a damn about Oscar "snubs," but, yes, Joaquin Phoenix was robbed by not being nominated for his portrayal of Theodore Twombly, a writer at beautifulhandwrittenletters.com, who makes his living capturing the deepest feelings of other people and expressing those emotions to those nearest and dearest to his clients. Amy Adams is so real as his friend and one-time girlfriend, a struggling documentarian and a professional games designer of games like "Perfect Mom," where players get Mom-points for feeding their children right and making other Mom's jealous with their baking skills. Rooney Mara is sweet, captivating and sharp as Theodore's soon-to-be ex-wife, who he is struggling to let go of. And Scarlet Johansson is perfect as the breathy, ironic and vulnerable Samantha, a universal operating system customized for, but independent from, its user.

That's one of the things that most impressed me about this film: it all feels so three-dimensionally real emotionally. None of the characters feel like they exist as stereotypes or plot devices or go-to punchlines, even though a lot of the film is genuinely funny. Everyone in this world has agency, self-awareness, a sense of humor and complexity, even the supporting characters like Theodore's overly-impressed colleague or Olivia Wilde as Theodore's emotionally desperate date. Every character has a life outside the frame (very much including Samantha, as we see more and more throughout the film).

Jonze backs this up with a thorough, well-thought-out and complete vision of the near-future and the world Theodore moves through. Art direction and costume design create a vision of the future in pastel and primary colors, seamlessly blended with real-life LA (where the film is set), Shanghai and subtle CGI that enhances the cityscapes. Theodore's world is just different enough from our own for us to suspend our disbelief but is relatable enough for us to feel what these characters experience.

The interplay between Theodore and Samantha is so beautifully done that I found myself struggling to believe that Phoenix and Johansson weren't in the same room at the same time. One of the things I loved about Jonze's vision of the future is that the new technology (which we're on the cusp of right now), for all its flaws and ridiculousness, isn't dehumanizing, as it is in the classic dystopian sci-fi view. This is technology made by and for us humans and it is fully informed by and inextricably linked to our humanity. The Siri-like OS's, along with the practically sentient video games Theodore plays and the letters he writes, do in some important ways isolate us in our own little worlds but they also allow us new ways to be human, to connect and to understand and question just what humanity and connection actually are.

A shot of Theodore walking through a plaza talking to Samantha while everyone he passes is busy talking on their headsets shows the 'bubbling' this smart technology all too easily creates, but what defines Samantha is that she isn't just a reflection of what Theodore wants - or what she's been programmed to be. Samantha is independent and constantly evolving, and Jonze stays true to his sci-fi premise by charting that evolution from a convincing human facsimile to a full-fledged human consciousness to something that is both human and far beyond human.

Although Theodore's wounded ex, Cathy, accuses him of not being able to have a 'real' relationship and congratulates him on finally getting what he wants in love with his 'laptop,' the paradox is that Theodore's relationship with Samantha is real. Cathy assumes that Theodore is getting a tailor-made, flawless illusion of intimacy, but the fact is that Samantha challenges Theodore emotionally is a way that is just what Cathy thinks he is protecting himself from - and is just what Theodore needs to grow as a human being.

There are two (virtual) sex scenes here that illustrate how talented Spike Jonze is as a director. The first follows a horny / lonely Theodore as he logs on (via the ever-present ear-piece he wears) to an audio chat with a similarly inclined young lady. They flirt, then quickly move to the verbal down-and-dirty, all of which is pretty hot until she throws in a fantasy / fetish element that is so... out-there that Theodore turns on a dime from turned-on to awkwardly trying to accommodate his virtual lover so that she can finish climaxing and he can get off the line. It's awkward and hilarious and all we see this whole time is Phoenix's facial reactions as the encounter turns from steamy to creepy. As soon as the woman on the other end of the line is done, she is over and out, leaving Theodore puzzled and more than a little perturbed in the darkness of his room. He may have been on the line with another human being, but there has been no meaningful human interaction - he's just been an object in his partner's masturbatory fantasy, not a participant.

By contrast, when Samantha and Theodore make virtual love, it is just that - love. They've gotten to know and trust each other and Jonze makes one simple directorial choice that makes all the difference to how we experience their encounter: the screen fades to black as Samantha and Theodore's talk gets hotter. By removing sight and leaving us with sound, Jonze removes the distance and awkwardness we always feel as an audience watching anyone get turned on without us. He also puts our experience on the same level as Samantha's. It would have been visually easier for Jonze to depict Samantha as a human being through Theodore's subjectivity, but by keeping the visual fantasy in the realm of imagination he lets us experience their love-making on an even plane, respecting Samantha as a living consciousness who does not and cannot have a physical body. Watching anyone have cyber-sex can be the most alienating of viewing experiences, but by bringing us in to Samantha's world and letting us imagine what she and Theodore see as equal partners, Jonze lets us feel the real and virtual nature of their connection.

Romantic comedies are one of the least respected modern film genres and for a very good reason, as they enact the same tired formula of set-up, set-back and pay-off, picking male celebrity from list A and female celebrity from list B. But romantic comedies at their best can take the simplicity of the formula and use it to create something genuinely funny, sexy, inventive and very much about something. "His Girl Friday," "Secretary," "Eternal Sunshine," "Harold and Maude," "Silver Linings Playbook," "Groundhog Day" are some of the finest films ever made. "Her" joins that list as a romantic comedy that flatly ignores the tired, patronizing routine and tells a story that feels fresh and alive. The film's final shot is one of the most beautiful I've ever seen - an image of what it means to be human connected to other humans and alive to the wonder and possibilities of the world.