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Showing posts from March, 2014

Theodore and the Modern Man: Spike Jonze's 'Her'

Spike Jonze’s Her may just be the year’s most relevant movie yet. The reasons? I can’t recall a recent movie that has managed to portray life in the 21 st -century and its trademark loneliness so accurately. Jonze has created a futuristic city that’s very much like every metropolis in the world today: gorgeous skyscrapers, heaving crowds, superior technological advancement. Every individual is connected to the digital heart of the city, and lives are lived not out in the open, but in between the electric pulses of an invisible world. In the ether there are Operating Systems that talk to lonely human beings who seek companionship. Theodore (a disarming Joaquin Phoenix), an isolated writer, buys an OS which sounds suspiciously like Scarlett Johansson, and in time falls in love with her. She calls herself Samantha, has desires and hopes just like a woman of flesh and bone. For Theodore the line between reality and virtual reality is quickly and irreversibly blurred.