Her

Her no longer feels like a distant futuristic fantasy but more like a reflection of the AI-driven world we're beginning to inhabit. Spike Jonze imagined a lonely man forming a profound emotional bond with Samantha, an AI operating system full of charm, wit, and empathy. Today, chatbots and voice assistants echo that vision: AI like ChatGPT can converse naturally, offer guidance, and even mimic human emotion, creating connections that feel surprisingly real. This blurs the line between companionship and simulation, showing that Jonze's imagined world is closer than we might think - though we're still in the early stages.

Yet, unlike Samantha, modern AI lacks true self-awareness and genuine emotional growth. Tools like ChatGPT, with expressive voices, can charm and engage users, but they respond to prompts rather than forming authentic relationships. Her functions as both a mirror and a warning: AI can ease loneliness and simulate intimacy, but the film reminds us that the most meaningful connections remain human - messy, imperfect, and irreplaceable. Watching it today is both eerie and prescient, highlighting how the future Jonze envisioned is unfolding faster than expected.

Her remains one of the most essential "tech romance" films of the past decade, not just for its storytelling but for its philosophical and emotional foresight. With modern AI like ChatGPT, we're not merely imagining Jonze's world; parts of it are happening in real time. This isn't just entertainment - it's a living experiment, and its implications for society, identity, and human connection are only beginning to emerge.

This is the best film I have seen all year, and I saw just about every good film to hit theaters in 2013. I think it's because it is so representational of what it's like to be human.

There are so many things that make this movie special, but I'll just mention a few.

1. The score is INCREDIBLE. The music paired with the beautiful sound design make you FEEL the movie. Sure, you see everything on the screen, which is already beautiful, but then that music hits you and the emotions just start to run. I laughed, I cried, my brain got all tingly. It was an emotional roller coaster, and the score assisted in that so well.

2. The script. I knew how this movie was going to end 30 minutes in. And unlike most who would then say that it's predictable and not worth watching, I consider that awesome, because it means that the script is tight enough to tell a good story with a believable arc. Every scene in this movie is straight up powerful! Like it will fill your heart with sadness and happiness and pain and guilt and confusion. And then rinse and repeat. For 2 hours. It moves through all of the most complex and interesting questions that we should be asking ourselves about what it means to be a human being. About what it means to be alive. This film is about all that life is. And after the screening, as well as during, I found myself questioning things in my own life that either don't make sense or don't have to make sense. Like love and thoughts and emotions. They're all so natural and yet none of us truly understand how they work. In my opinion, moreso than any other film this year, Her has the perfect mix of complex ideas, story, and character development. One of the best scripts ever written.

3. Cinematography. My personal favorite shot to see and use is the extreme close up. And that shot was all over this movie. The reason I love it so much and believe it works so well is because it allows you to see the emotions of the character so plainly. Like their face is right in your face, so you just have to look at it. And that's where Joaquin shines. He delivers such a powerful and emotional performance and the close ups are there to capture it all. They also make great use of the natural backlighting of Shanghai, and the colors all fuse to make it a really pretty movie. I'd say the cinematography is on par with Drive and/or Lost in Translation in terms of the style. It looks like every shot was photographed with the intent to make it the most beautiful shot in the film. And I admire the DP's work. He did a really great job.

More than anything though, this film just made me feel. Everything about it was so beautiful. I didn't want it to end. I felt like the film was controlling me - playing with my mind as if it were a joystick. And that's just something you don't get every day. Very rarely am I awe- stricken by a movie, and this film made my jaw drop. It is without a doubt the best film of the year, and upon just one viewing, one of my top 5 favorite movies of all time.

While I enjoy this movie for what it is, I simply have to disagree with all of those who portray this movie as some beautiful love story. This movie is about love, but it is not a love story. Without giving away any spoilers, if you want to understand the movie pay attention to the very last act of the main character when the movie ends. The movie is about relationships and how difficult human relationships especially can be. However in the end because we are human those are the only relationships we can truly have - are with each other - and the hurt and vulnerability and sometimes pain that come with them is simply something we have to accept. And no matter how much you love or care for a person sometimes it just doesn't work out. However that does not mean that you did not love or care for that person and to a certain extent will always. This is what the main character realizes and comes to understand at the end of the movie.

Another movie that i say "i should've watched before". Intense romantic drama. Fascinating portrait of loneliness in a post-digital world. Amazingly original screenplay, concept, musics, especially colors and performance from Joaquin Phoenix. This made me stay with myself after the credits have finished, i found myself reflecting on my own life and relationships.

"It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity." Albert Einstein

No better romance is on the screen in 2013 than Spike Jonze's insightful Her. It's about a writer in the future, Theodore, who falls in love with his new operating system (gravelly, sexy voice of Scarlett Johansson), just as he is reluctantly divorcing Catherine (Rooney Mara). The always complicated paths of love make sense as we witness the Platonic relationship develop, sans flesh and sans insanity that usually comes with that flesh.

Her is a simple film that offers a view of love I never thought could come from a machine and its software. Although critics will cite the theme as a screed against the distancing of technology and our growing isolation from each other, and they will be right, I offer the sub theme that only when we strip ourselves of sensual bonds can we see the purity of emotional love, an essence of which Plato would have approved. Yes, although technology is mediating our lives at a rapid pace, we fall back to a personal drive to love and be loved that is physical in its best form but understood best if we can distance ourselves from that physicality.

This delightfully intimate and non-violent film from acclaimed absurdist director Spike Jonze is more emotionally involving than even Enough Said (one of 2013's best romances) because the interaction between the software and the man is all verbal, no glimpse of the gorgeous Johansson allowed. Although this intuitive OS does allow mind sex, even that activity is abstract, allowing us to realize how connecting with a live human is in the mind still and one of life's great gifts, orgasm or not.

Her allows us to witness the evolution of love separate from the encumbrances of physicality. Released from the bonds of appearance, voice is the seducer, not in rude sexual nuance but rather in the care that comes from love of the mind, not the body.

K.K. Barrett's production design, Austin Gorg's art direction, and Gene Serdena's set decoration are memorable: full of comfortable light, much glass overlooking the city, and modern but warm furniture both in LA and Singapore. These artists understand that the fusion of technology and art is not a battle but a collaboration that further helps us understand the intricate workings of human emotion.

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Arthur C. Clarke