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.
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.
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