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Her spike jonze broll11/30/2023 ![]() The term was invented to designate quirky ladies who exist only to redeem otherwise miserable men, and has since become a catch-all for dissatisfaction about poorly developed female characters and storylines. In other words, Her immediately heads into Manic Pixie Dream Girl (MPDG) territory - that awful space we've talked about before. By night, he's a miserable loner facing his first divorce as he cues up "melancholy" songs and plays a video game featuring a tiny, sexist turd of a character. By day, he's an emotional surrogate: A freelance writer for strangers who can't find the words to craft emotional letters for their loved ones. She asks for permission to access Theodore's files, and when he expresses surprise at having a rather human conversation with his computer, she retorts: "You're not! You're having it with me." Her "intuition," as she calls it, allows her to evolve with every action as she quickly differentiates herself from a usual OS. Thanks to the AFI Fest presented by Audi for the screening.Theodore is instantly invigorated by the voice's seeming humanity and actions. Her opens on a limited basis December 18 then expands January 10. It works on nearly every single level and I'm dying to see it again, just to let its ideas wash over me one more time. That said, Her is the kind of philosophically complex yet narratively straightforward film audiences can enjoy and scholars can study. Her is fantastic, but stumbles every so slightly. Total closure is obviously not the point in such an ambitious work, but there's something to be said for a film that can stick the landing. ![]() The one, tiny gripe I have about Her is that Jonze raises so many questions, and elicits so many different emotions, it's hard for the film to cohesively bring them all together. Supporting turns from Amy Adams and Rooney Mara help propel his journey, and Johansson's voice work never makes Theodore's decision seem creepy. Unlike some of his recent work, though, here he's sweet, bringing a vulnerable humanity to the character. The film always feels natural, sweet and relatable.Ĭredit for that also goes to the actors. Such thoughts are brought to light with the kind of levity and originality we've come to expect from Jonze they never feel preachy or obvious. What starts as a boy-meets-computer love story evolves to question the nature of humanity and a person's capacity for emotion, and whether an artificial intelligence can have those traits. But in Jonze's hands, and in the context of this sprawling and familiar, but definitely futuristicworld, the ideas are easier to digest and ponder.Įventually, some of these questions become bigger and the movie grows with them. Do you tell your friends you're dating a computer? How do you have sex? Can you have sex? How smart is this thing? Do you take it on dates? All these questions and more are considered by Jonze's brilliant script, which is filled with the kind of philosophical thought usually reserved for much smaller, less flashy movies. (Jonze gets around this by making computers tiny and accessorized with ear pieces users can wear while walking around.) So when Theodore, who is in the midst of a divorce, meets Samantha, the two become quick friends. It can learn, feel, and adapt, yet never assumes physical form. So, for example, at start-up, the system reads a book in 2 hundredths of a second and names itself Samantha. ![]() Theodore buys OS 1, a brand-new computer operating system that is artificially intelligent. Her is set in a futuristic, over-populated Los Angeles. ![]()
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