Wolf of Wall Street

This is an odd film. I'm not really going to get into the controversy of whether or not the film is glorifying its protagonists, Vince over at filmdrunk has a good take on all that. To me the movie was all surface, entertaining surface, but surface none the less. I wasn't really sure how I was supposed to feel about the protagonists (other than that they were incredibly lucky morons), and the stated point, from Scorcese, that the film is all about class and the financial system, was lost on me. I think the biggest problem is the movie just glossed over how they were actually so successful (we were just supposed to assume they were master salesman, what given what was shown wasn't that convincing) and what the actual effect on their victims were. We're told a about how much they stole, but it didn't have much gravity to it. Really it just came off as a a lot of spectacle, without much of a point. It is really funny at times, and well-executed, but its not a classic by any stretch of the imagination.

Also three hours is way too long for this story. Two hours would have been plenty (you can now say 'shut up grandpa').

Her (with a cameo by American Hustle and Inside Llewyn Davis)

Lets knock the cameos out first. American Hustle is a lot of fun and worth seeing (and I'm still impressed how Jennifer Lawrence is able to convincingly play so much older than she looks), and Inside Llewyn Davis is yet another Coen Brother's film that I respect more than I enjoyed. Take that for what its worth.

Her, on the other hand, may be one of the most impressive films I've seen in awhile. This is due to the degree of difficulty it has to overcome. Basically its the story of a man who falls in love with his operating system that's not only believable, but not creepy, without feeling forced. Its the kind of high concept that would be an absolute disaster in the wrong hands, but writer/director Spike Jonze pulls it off. I was so impressed with the execution that I didn't even worry about the film's flaws.* The two main performances are also key to the film's success. Joaquin Phoenix manages to believably play someone who's socially awkward without coming off as a loser, and Scarlet Johannsen uses just her voice to create a fully realized 'character' that you can sort of understand how someone could be attracted to 'her' (the meta-question is if we didn't subconciously know what Johannsen looked like would it be as believable? Whoa dude, deep, I'm so high right now.).

Its also a really clever piece of science fiction, not calling attention to itself, but still painting a nice portrait of what the relatively near future might look like. In particular we are apparently no longer subject to the tyranny of belts:

Every guy wore these pants in ever scene. I approve, belts are for suckers. Anyway, check Her out if you get a chance. Its not perfect, but its incredibly satisfying.

*I'll relegate them to a footnote. A lot of Phoenix's character's writing is kind of trite, and some of the big speeches border on college english major level insights. Also I'm not sure they quite stick the ending.  Still these are just quibbles.