Her

Started by modage, March 01, 2011, 04:24:28 PM

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Drenk

Joaquin seems happy. (Yes, that's all I have to say about this video.)

Ascension.

N

This looks fucking great, one of the few movies I'll actually go to the cinema for.



Haven't been this excited for a movie since '07.

Drenk




"You're dating your computer?"
"She's not just a computer."


Rooney Mara is great. And I'm fascinated by Joaquin's face.
Ascension.

samsong

surprised no one has seen/commented on this yet.  this movie's a xixax speciality...

pretty sure this is going to be an extremely polarizing movie.  i for one adored it and went along with it completely (there's a lot about it that invites cynicism) and came out elated and my emotions stirred in the most satisfying way.  felt chaplinesque much like the way punch-drunk love did.  it comes off as deceptively naive when there's actually a lot of heavy lifting going on... its conflation of comedy, complex worldview, and sentimentality is done with such grace and musicality.  the film of the year for me. 

jenkins

awww. it's got such a sturdy emotional coil. it's designed to make the viewer feel emotional. happy to hear about people's emotions, i am

matt35mm

It's only playing in NY/LA right now. I'm sure we'll all be talking about it more in January.

Cloudy

I can't say I'd ever compare this to PDL because PDL is infinitely more my jam than this was, but I really enjoyed the incessant cringing I had with this very realized modern world and how it serves as a mirror to life now. I agree with much of what Wilder says above, but with a caveat that I started to get annoyed with this movie as it went on. The script felt completely raw, and needed more rewrites. I could FEEL the screenplay as I was watching it. Sort of cringed all the way through.

The strengths and weaknesses are totally on opposite ends of the spectrum for me, I really loved some parts and really couldn't stand others.

jenkins

it's sitting in my apartment now, and i can't think of a reason to watch it again. awkward



the disorientation for me is i like to be surprised. the art i most like is a flower in concrete. i like to see the plant grow where you wouldn't expect to see the plant grow

spoilers, basically

for me it's similar to the wolf of wall street thing, with wolf it's like ok it's fun and scorsese is great at making movies awesome but what's the conversation here what's here besides the screen's obvious, and with her it's like mhmm this is all very emotional and jonze makes the emotions clear and clean like his future and why is every conversation about this movie the same conversation

comparisons to p-dl i don't understand because the centers of the movies are different. you can feel the weight of the world on barry, you can feel the lightness of lena in his life, and you can sense barry's attempt to adjust his scales. you see his work problems, his family problems, his personal decision problems, you absorb his agency and learn with him and about him as he does these things. it's impossible to watch and follow p-dl without noticing a change in barry and his life

the first thing you can sense about theodore is his distance from other people's emotions. that's vastly different from pta's characters, and i hope this place knows it. theodore lives in his private feelings and at best he imagines other people's emotions, which is his job. theodore does great at his work, greater as the movie continues. you don't see his family. you see his vg, which ok that's funny and realistic because that's irl present/future, but that confirms what is already known. you see his ex-wf, who explains things. samantha works well with theodore because she's designed to grow as a human based on the human she's interacting with. except, she's a product of intelligence, when she grows as a person she begins to see herself and she learns how to interact with people of shared interests and those people are also products of intelligence. all the computers end up together, of course, because they realize they're better than people, of course, because everyone knows the tragic flaw of humans is their emotions, and there's a conversation on the train when theodore jokes about his brain cells and i saw this coming. what happens here that isn't obvious for this character?? the result is a bummer, yes. at the end he's sitting on the building with amy and i definitely wondered if they'd look at each other and try that out, but i couldn't find excitement from watching a movie that spends its time detailing the particulars of a person and the way those particulars link with the world in all the sad, difficult ways they must. must. they must work like that -- theodore has a hard time because no, life isn't what one hopes for and wants. but fuck that as a moving statement. i don't think this is a movie about romance, i think it's a movie about depression, about being stuck inside yourself without a noticeable exit

if theodore pulled a barry on the situation, i'd feel better about him. i think p-dl begins where her ends

jenkins

spoilers

Quote from: wilder on December 28, 2013, 06:45:03 AM
Instead of being about a man falling for an artificial intelligence in the not-too-distant future, the movie I expected, Her turned out to be a story about a man wrestling with how much he's projected during his past relationships in real life, with no attainable conclusion, which felt very true to me. The AI aspect was used to illuminate the human elements in a far less simplistic way than I'd anticipated.

this, for sure

the bulk of my frustrations with the movie are discussed within the movie, which fans could interpret as a passive-aggressive compliment. theodore signs papers with his ex-wf, she says he can't handle real world emotions (which theodore mentioned to samantha during a bed scene), then theodore has a conversation with amy in which he repeats this perspective on him, amy says it's not really true and the ex-wf has volatile emotions, then theodore has a conversation with samantha about wanting to change himself for their relationship. if it's obvious, let it be said it's an obvious problem the character has that's the center of the movie. so why does their talking about it bother me, i mean that's the point of their movie

from there, it's like an epilogue to me. he brings samantha on a double-date with his co-worker. first thing, samantha starts talking about the difference between humans and computers. following the scene when he decides to become different, samantha starts drifting. the rest of the movie is the breakup. samantha does to him what he did to his ex-wf, basically, she closes off and creates emotional corners he's unable to access. it is a tough and sad ending -- when he feels he's ready to become a person who can be with another person the person he wants, samantha, is unable to be with him. during the breakup theodore tells samantha he's never loved anyone like this before, she says she hasn't either, and she says now he knows how. apparently theodore has learned about love from samantha, and she mentions it during their breakup, then theodore is on a roof with amy and writing a letter to his ex-wf

i'm ok with the computer failing to fully complete theodore, of course. imagine if the computer fixed him, i'd be worried about the future of humans and etc. he needs people, and the movie ends with the reminder

during the 2nd viewing i felt more emotional and appreciated the emotional rhythms more. i think that illustrates the core vitality. my opinion on the character and the narrative may or may not shift, but emotional mechanics are glued to the movie, it'll remain what it is. her is permanently sweet, got no prob there

Lottery

This made me miss my ex.

Ravi

SPOILERS












Even before the introduction of the OS into the film, everyone is on their cell phones, and there doesn't seem to be much meaningful human interaction, even at the fair and at the beach. The extras are filmed and staged in an oddly distant manner. Theodore isn't the only one disconnected from other people. Later in the film, the idea of being friends with an OS and even falling in love with it isn't a big deal to other, except for Catherine, who is the only one outwardly appalled at the idea.

Hell, Theodore's job involves "handwriting" personalized letters on behalf of others. This a world in which love itself is commodified and simulated.

Olivia Wilde's character is helps build the idea of a world in which connections are difficult. She's been hurt before and doesn't want to waste time with Theodore if he's not serious. People have been getting hurt forever, but the OS technology available in the film makes it easy to have the fun parts of connecting with someone, without the messy hurt parts. Or does it?

Samantha is as much of a character as Theodore. We may think an OS falling in love with its owner (is that the right word?) is common because of the programming, but Amy mentions that it's a rare occurrence. Samantha clearly develops as a human personality would. At the beginning of the relationship she's learning Theodore's patterns and emotions, and she eventually grows to love him. But because she's an OS her growth is exponential, compared to Theodore's, and it was inevitable that she would quickly progress beyond him. People outgrow one another in human relationships too, but the way it happens with Samantha is remarkable. When she talks about her love expanding, it's a concept that Theodore (and humans in general) can't grasp. Of course it's Alan Watts that expands her consciousness. I can't remember if that picnic scene was before or after the Alan Watts scene, but the idea of human mortality was one factor in Samantha's growth.

The film also brings up the question of what love is. Can a human "love" a machine or a piece of software? Can the software "love" a human? Is that real love? It feels real for both of them, just as if they were both human.

"Her" doesn't go for the obvious moralizing about being too connected to technology. The story inherently contains that idea, but Theodore's depression over his divorce and his general difficulty connecting with people that is at the core of the film.

Quote from: Lottery on January 09, 2014, 07:51:00 AM
This made me miss my ex.

Same here. My ex, not yours. I went through a break-up a few months ago, was depressed for a solid four to six weeks, and I still have bad days every now and then. So this film hit home for me (especially since today was one of those bad days). It perfectly captures that all-permeating sadness (numbness at best) I felt when doing even the most mundane things I had always done.

jenkins

Quote from: Ravi on January 10, 2014, 10:41:59 PM
I can't remember if that picnic scene was before or after the Alan Watts scene, but the idea of human mortality was one factor in Samantha's growth.

samantha moving away from theodore, her growth, occurs following his meeting with his ex-wf, when he decides to try to change after seeing her and seeing amy. there's already been distance between theodore and samantha, and he tells samantha he wants to become more emotionally open, for his growth. samantha's intelligence domination, symbolized by alan watts and the paragraphably-readable physics book, occurs parallel to theodore's emotional development, symbolized by taking his os gf out on a double-date and trying the sex biz. when he grows emotionally, they drift apart. when she grows intellectually (sadly, seems way more connected to emotions than emotions seem connected to intelligence), they drift apart. oh yeah, exwf->picnic->alan watts.

i like how we're talking about plots as emotions

Kellen

Quote from: Lottery on January 09, 2014, 07:51:00 AM
This made me miss my ex.

So true, regardless of that its the best film I've watched this year.

ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ

Spoilers.

This movie was good, not great.  The irony here is to people who found it to be the best movie of the year are just as guilty of projecting undue qualities as Joaquin is of the OS.

First of all, the OS is meant to cater to you based on questions you are surveyed, so really, the whole movie is about his inability to even be satisfied by an ideal counterpart.  Bravo, what an interesting idea.  But like many parts of this movie, the ambition is unfulfilled.

When the philosopher OS that Sam meets is introduced, we are given a really interesting storyline possibility.   Somehow a long since dead person has been resurrected, based on his writings and what was known of him.  This lets us believe that not only could someone living be immortalized in technology, but even the deceased could be brought back to live forever as a digital consciousness/  This is a whole movie unto itself and after this scene, they do not return to this character or idea, really. 

What I can only assume is that Spike Jonze, who has made some of my favorite music videos and has done many great shorts, can't really write a feature that exists beyond stringing vignettes of interesting ideas together.  Which could work for him and be his style, sure, but frankly he just doesn't allow any of these cool ideas to gestate.  The whole surrogate story just comes and goes.  It's awkward, boo hoo.  But why don't we get to know more about this?  About people who are willing to be a prostitute for the love of two others?  We shouldn't be left to just assume all the dramatics of this, we should at least get some more developing of these plot points.

Everytime the plot attempts to expand beyond its own constraints of a romantic comedy, it deflates back into its comfortable realm of the silliness of "oh boy, what if we could date an operating system." 

There aren't necessarily any serious failures in the movie, it's fine overall.  It's twee as fuck.  But that's satisfying enough, you could easily get a handjob at some point during this movie or following.  It's sad sappy shit that's somehow uplifting and offkilter.  But what does it really do to you?  Will it make you reassess your relationship to your phone?  Will you communicate with human beings with a renewed interest because machines can only mirror the hollow sensations we feel when alone and isolated?

The answer is no and Her is a bland screech.
"As a matter of fact I only work with the feeling of something magical, something seemingly significant. And to keep it magical I don't want to know the story involved, I just want the hypnotic effect of it somehow seeming significant without knowing why." - Len Lye