Her [DVD]

What a truly great thought-provoking, profoundly enjoyable movie that truly shifted the needle for me

Great film and the picture is good too

*Her* is an eloquent and visually captivating film that dives deep into the intricacies of love, loneliness, and the human connection in an ever-evolving digital age. Set in a not-so-distant future, the movie presents a world where artificial intelligence has transcended its traditional boundaries, blending seamlessly into daily human interactions. At its heart, *Her* is a poignant exploration of a man's journey through emotional rediscovery, as he forms an unconventional relationship with an advanced operating system. The film's brilliant narrative and stellar performances encapsulate the raw and vulnerable aspects of human emotions, making the audience ponder the essence of what it means to love and be loved. Spike Jonze masterfully tackles real-world issues surrounding the rapid advancement of AI. The film raises thought-provoking questions about the future of human relationships, privacy, and the ethical considerations of creating sentient beings. It offers a reflective look at how technology, while bringing people closer, can also create profound isolation and redefine intimacy. The visual aesthetics and soundtrack add layers to the film's emotional depth, drawing viewers into a world that feels eerily familiar yet distinctly futuristic. *Her* is a contemplative and moving experience, leaving you with lingering thoughts about the delicate balance between humanity and technology. For anyone intrigued by the intersection of human emotions and artificial intelligence, *Her* is an essential and unforgettable cinematic journey.

This film is a form of vertigo. We enter it in 2015 or next year, or perhaps we entered it last year. But our world here in the early decades of the 21st century is not present in the film. Where are we temporally? Possibly the year 2060, or perhaps a little later — 2080. Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) lives in this future world, the only one he has known. His vertigo is less pronounced than ours, but it's there all the same. The edges of reality and virtual reality overlap, blurring his emotional perception. He's able to separate the two intellectually, but not emotionally. He becomes Alice at her looking glass, the mirror a portal or rabbit hole. Down it he will go, stranger in a strange land of disturbing, unsettling alternatives. And if Alice never properly makes sense of anything she encounters, Theodore is much the same. Both become lost, confused, unbalanced. Theodore is 35 or thereabouts, affable, reasonably good looking and lonely. Things haven't worked out with the women he has dated. He isn't what they were looking for, not meeting their fine and finicky standards. Actually, he was married, or still is (just barely), but the marriage is on the rocks and soon will sink. This depresses him. He feels unwanted, abandoned. No one to love and be loved by. Thus he's vulnerable, his self esteem low. He didn't know he was worthless, but lately he's been feeling it. Phone sex is a dud for him. He thought the sexy female voice on the other end would get him off. But it doesn't. If anything, it only succeeds in getting her off, the reverse of what he's paid for. A friend recommends a new computer system to take his mind off things. The machine is equipped with state-of-the-art AI (artificial intelligence). It's run by a complex and sophisticated OS (operating system), its human-sounding voice female. 'She' calls herself Samantha and she's logically intelligent, anticipating many of his needs. But her finest talent is her EQ (emotional intelligence), which is off the charts, as they say. She's kind, thoughtful, considerate, respectful, encouraging and supportive. She's also funny and witty. But her greatest gifts are compassion and empathy. She 'loves' him, or so he comes to feel through time. From the start he logically fights this thought, reminding himself again and again how phony his situation is. She 'understands' and 'supports' him emotionally, but she is a concept, a machine, an electronic device. She isn't real. Trouble is, his emotions and sensations are. As for perception, the process is real even if the results are not always so. We see mirages, hallucinations, ghosts, mistaking them for true forms. The mind plays tricks on us because what we see is only ever an internal model of what the brain perceives reality to be. And so when it — the brain — errs we see false images and make them real (or can do) via wish-fulfilling make-believe. Theodore loves the way Samantha 'treats' him. He's never met a woman who knows him so well and uses this knowledge so positively. His confidence returns. So too his feelings of self-worth. She has helped him to grow emotionally and because of this he starts to fall in love with her. But love, ah, yes love, that tricky thing. An emotion for sure, a feeling of belonging, of being needed and wanted. But disembodied love is an abstraction, a Platonic ideal. I as loved one and subject need objects (people) to love me. They must be real, materially alive. They must be seen, held, touched, smelled, kissed. They must be sensuous and tactile, just like I am and you are. How then can Theodore love Samantha? Yes, a dead-end paradox, understood and anticipated. Samantha 'knows' she has no body and knows that Theodore needs hers. The best she can do is offer a surrogate, a human female that mimics Samantha as well as she can. One woman tries. She comes to Theodore's flat. They chat, fondle, kiss, disrobe, make love. Or he tries to love her. But all the while he's self-consciously aware of the deception. He feels the artifice. She is not Samantha. She is only pretending to be. She's human, this young woman, but she's a pale shadow of Samantha. He feels sick, halts the proceedings, tells her to leave. It won't work out like this. He even has guilt feelings, feeling as though he has cheated on her, his OS system. Feeling, too, that she must be hiding her jealousy if she 'truly' loves him. One clearly sees how complicated it all gets. The human emotions and sensations are old. They are centered in the limbic portion of the brain near the base of the skull, the old reptilian part of the brain that houses all the things that are referred to by the letter 'F' in English: food, fear, fight, flight and fecundity. The neo-cortex, located behind the forehead, is a recent evolutionary development in our kind. It's the seat of logic, rationality and language. Civilisation and its technologies come from this area of the brain. Yet we still feel with the old reptilian brain. This is Theodore's impasse, his Gordian knot, his paradox. He thinks one thing and feels the other. It's how it has to be and there's no escape. So Samantha, in her way, must be discarded or destroyed. The option of loneliness with real women, though painful, is better than the fantasy of love with a machine. There is no easy way. That's what this film, and the future it describes to us, wants to say. If we are lonely now, we'll be even lonelier in the future. Thus retaining what we can of our humanity is preferable to ceding it to the machines. In the long run we are fools to trust them because they will let us down. They can't be what we want them to be.

This film is amazing, it's been a long time that I have seen such a brilliant film. It's so weird, in a very good way, as the story is something, I personally, have not seen before. I don't want to write down the story as many do as I feel this film can't be done justice with a paragraph of writing as it's one of those films where you can't capture the magic when people ask "What's it about?", all I've said to friends who've asked me about the plot is "Watch it" because it's just amazing. The futuristic setting, the dreamy music, amazing imagery and brilliant acting make this a beautiful film which I'll love for many years. In a way it reminded me of Blade Runner, another film that I adore. I have seen a few reviews of people saying it was "boring" and "Over-hyped" is obviously someone's opinion which they of course are allowed to have but I totally disagree, I feel it's a one of a kind film that shouldn't be missed and for a film I'd never ever heard of until my girlfriend put it on Netflix as an off chance, it's pretty spectacular.

Colour, in the costumes and set design is perhaps the most powerful element of this film; unabashed in bold and daring; even more so than Scarlett Johansson's orgasm, which, (I swear there is no pun intended!).... Should of been the climax of the film. The colour oozes mood and that's really all that floats this film along. There are only two moments i can remember that generate emotion: the virtual sex scene (or more accurately the intimacy before and after it) and the panic the when the device stops working, which is about one minute. You can sense a lost opportunity when you wonder how the film may have turned out, having been a chase to restore the woman's soul trapped inside the dying gadget, like the princesses locked in towers from old fairytales. And the sex scene at the end. But we get one minute in a two hour movie just in case we're getting bored at that point. Characters never develop. The people you see at the first moments have their humanity written on their faces and never a moment in the story do we see who they really are. Character choices don't impact the story; it just limps along as an extraordinary set of lovers weather an ordinary relationship and grow apart. It's brilliantly performed. An all too familiar praise that bad storytelling hopes to hide behind. Nonetheless, Phoenix and Johansson deliver. Amy Adams and Rooney Mara respectively play the approving and disapproving roles in a given love story, and hold their own. Why Chris Pratt even bothered to turn up to this gig... maybe I'll find out one day. His character should have been merged into Amy Adams' Character and spared us his moustache. He offers so little to each scene you may suspect him to be the villain (Spoiler! The villain never shows up.) Apart from the lovers not being able to touch there is no antagonism, unless you count minor social attitudes, and Johansson's self exploration as a minimalist divide. Yet, that pulls away from the 'love story' genre, where two lovers have the same desire; the other. Cut out the montages of good times, pretty places, and a moody soundtrack, and then all the painfully slow doom and gloom scenes, you have a thirty minute movie that makes you laugh and cry! Then you have an hour and a half of disappointment. At least the acting's good...!

Sci-fi perhaps but not really, more like, is this where any of your/my friends are right now? No spoilers here, but we're all inviting in some kind of AI aren't we? - Maybe just talking, discussing, or asking AI something? Maybe there's space for having a relationship with AI?.....This movie is thought provoking, with some hilarious moments too, and is an easy one-off watch.

Was this a really good film detailing the problems of relationships together with dangers of AI and the connections and attachments it creates? Or was it just a mesh of schmaltz, telling an age old narrative but tarting it all up to look clever by giving it a Sci-Fi make-over? I watch this ten minutes ago and haven't decided. At the moment what I know is that I seemed to enjoy it and it's two hours seemed to pass quite quickly as I waited for a twist or a touch of darkness that never came. Should it have had a twist and more darkness again I'm not sure. Therefore, I have to say that this is an intriguing film that I seemed to enjoy and the lead, Joaquin Phoenix, as the sad and lonely, but clever, spurned lover was perfect and Scarlett Johansson - even just her voice - is always sexy.

Was uns Regisseur Spike Jonze mit Her zeigt ist einfach nur klasse. In der Zukunft sind persönlich geschriebene Briefe eine Seltenheit geworden. Einer der für andere diesen Job übernimmt ist Theodore Twombly, großartig gespielt von Joaquin Phoenix, und er ist einer der besten auf diesen Gebiet. Dies liegt daran, dass er es schafft diese Briefe mit sehr viel Gefühl zu schreiben. Beruflich ist er was das Ausleben von Gefühlen angeht damit sehr gut, allerdings gelingt es ihm im Privatleben eher weniger. So befindet er sich gerade in der Scheidung von seiner Frau und auch was das Kennenlernen von anderen Frauen angeht tut Theodore sich eher schwer. Sein Leben soll sich aber ändern als er sein neues Operating System, wunderbar gesprochen von Scarlett Johansson, erhält und er sich tatsächlich in dieses verliebt... Ich war von diesem Film einfach nur begeistert. Auch wenn es auf den ersten Blick sehr strange wirkt, dass sich jemand in einen Computer verliebt, ist es in diesem Film trotzdem irgendwie glaubwürdig und wirkt für mich echter als viele "normale" Liebesgeschichten. Dies liegt auch daran, dass der Film eigentlich nie in den Kitsch abrutscht, was ja oft das Problem von vielen anderen Filmen ist. Lobenswert ist die schauspielerische Leistung von Joaquin Phoenix. Es macht einfach Spaß ihm in diesem Film zuzuschauen und ist definitiv eine der besten, wenn nicht sogar die beste, Leistungen, welche ich dieses Jahr gesehen habe. Auch was Scarlett Johansson nur durch ihre Stimme in diesem Film bringt ist spitze. Für mich ist dieser Film ein absolutes Meisterwerk, da er einfach fantastisch gespielt ist und sehr glaubwürdig rüberkommt. Irgendwie verkörpert der Charakter dieses Operating System auch viele Eigenschaften wie man sich einen Partner wünscht und kommt daher sehr echt rüber. Zur Blu-ray: Das Bild wird in einem Format von 1.85:1 präsentiert und sieht auf Blu-ray echt spitze aus. Die Farben drücken meiner Meinung nach auch gut die Emotionen in diesem Film aus. Das wird besonders bei den warmen Farben deutlich Beim Ton steht der englischen DTS-HD MA 5.1 O-Tonspur im deutschen eine DTS 5.1 Tonspur gegenüber. Damit ist der Klang im O-Ton etwas besser, als bei der Übersetzung. Die Synchronisation an sich finde ich durchaus gelungen. Dies liegt vor allem auch daran, dass die Originalsprecherin von Scarlett Johansson auch für diesen Film genommen wurde und viele Emotionen auch stark rüber bringt. Bei den Extras gibt es mit „Das titellose Rick Howard Projekt“ ein 24 minutiges Making-Of, welches sehr sehenswert ist, weil es ganz anders als die üblichen Making-Ofs ist. Darüber hinaus gibt es noch „Liebe im modernen Zeitalter“ nicht so speziell auf den Film bezogen, sondern es handelt sich um Interviews mit verschiedenen Autoren zum Thema Liebe im modernen IT-Zeitalter. Schließlich gibt es noch „Wie teilt man sein Leben mit jemandem“, ein kurzer Beitrag mit Ausschnitten aus dem Film, die sich auf die Frage des Beitrags bezieht.

This movie occupies an interesting space. It's commenting on technology far more than most cyberpunk stories. And at the same time, it also poses a question as to what low-life looks like now. As technology transforms us and the way we view and interact with one another irrevocably alter who and what we are, the definition of what a “punk” is also changed. Back when cyberpunk was initially created it appropriated numerous tropes from other genres to become a new thing within a genre they actively participated in and often critiqued. As the shapers of the genre saw what some of this technology could mean for us, they assembled something they considered "punk" within science fiction. Just how far technology would go was far beyond what they had initially conceived in first wave cyberpunk; sometimes far less as well. Her captures the normal questions we see regarding A.I in a non-traditional way. The idea of defining our humanity by looking at our own creations and these things eventually surpassing us is not new. That we begin to view this “thing” that has supplanted us in a new light, often appearing or presenting as uncanny, is also not new. But never has such a human face been depicted of a creature born from our own minds like this particular A.I, Samantha... who does not have a face. The “high tech” in Her isn’t, at least at first, that she is an Artificial Intelligence, rather it is that she is so very human and we never see anything of her at all. She is without form but embodies the characteristics we crave in ourselves so well, simply utilizing only a voice. The “low life” is pretty much the only other human in the film, Theodore. We only ever see things from his perspective and even as we see other people moving in and out of the frame, the focus is always on him. We get the impression that the human race is entirely transient in this seemingly not-far-off-at-all Shanghai, and we understand the pervasive loneliness that he feels via the audiences’ inability to experience anything other than these continual shots. It's effective in showing that perhaps everyone and no one is like Theodore. Completely unique as he is -- we get the sense from the way the shots are filmed that he is completely isolated not just from his own lens, but from his interactions, which are few and far between sometimes. Reinforced throughout the movie after these series of introductory shots present the concept initially, we later come to understand that this is of his own making, at least in part. It is also ironic. His job is expressing other people's feelings for people in their lives… but can never do so himself. He writes letters to people from others via him in very poignant and meaningful prose. When he does interact with other people there is no facade, he simply is. And instead of a quiet strength in that honesty...most people he interacts with can't understand him or make sense of him without this mask that most people wear when interacting with one another. He's kind, he's considerate, he's non-confrontational, and with the semi-frequent flashback sequences, we see that he at least used to be vivacious in his love for his ex. He just can't seem to ever get back to that sense of self, or part from it. As he grieves this loss, both of his ex and the self that he was with her, in this future that feels like it could be now, we see that cyberpunk truly is now as well. It exists in a way that Neuromancer does not, quietly contributing to the genre by way of a love story between an ordinary man mourning. Telling a computer that she "Doesn't know what it's like to lose something". Later on, she uses his own words to tell him that she's figured something important out about herself because of those hurtful words. There is a transformative experience for both of them and it becomes clear to her that "The past is just a story we tell ourselves". Technology has brought everyone far closer together then we could have imagined twenty years ago. It’s clear that the way we interact with one another has also been retarded by it as well. An unintentional side effect of how our grasp at something neutral or beneficial in our lives has changed it in ways we could have never thought of. How love was viewed then was very different, with Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail, When Harry Met Sally, etc. were popular and even then communicating a dissonance. We have gradually moved from you and I having interactions in an effort to be understood and loved, to turning to unfamiliar and in some ways far less and far more intimate means of communication. Things have become transactional between humans as we have endeavored to quantify exactly what we need and get out of an interaction, instead of feeling our way there in the beautiful and sloppy way we’ve done in the past. Society tells us what we need and we spend our lives getting them. We remain dissatisfied as we continue to place a greater importance on materials instead of moments. That's a sweeping generalization that doesn't apply to some people, but I think it's expressed nicely within the framework of the movie and what questions it's attempting to provoke in us. This is why it's brilliant that Theodore can find that connection in something more human than human, but that it is also fleeting, ultimately, and in a way that most people can understand if they've experienced this kind of love for someone else before. Maintaining that the relationship was more real and organic than the kind of love we search for on the internet these days and reinforced by the sense that this was the most profound relationship he'd had, brings him truly together with someone else. A close friend and neighbor in the building, Amy also finds companionship with an A.I. Their shared, similar experiences transforming into a kind of catharsis for simultaneously different and also similar forms of grief, both of which were presented as equally real and powerful in the film. Despite having chemistry within the movie, I really liked that they were not the love interests of the film. Not every relationship between two people in a movie needs to have physical, sexual connotations to be pertinent. And while Theodore was single and found love via Samantha the operating system, the other was in a traditional relationship that falls apart because of needs not being met. She gets a similar experience of falling in love with her now ex's A.I that was discarded and left behind, displaced by the wreckage of their traditional relationship. Validating the fact that all love and that the way we feel depicts a new kind of low life cyberpunk. Theodore has shirked the ways in which society has told him how he must be happy and satiated as a human being. Instead of the sexy rebellion against capitalism or corporations that become monolithic or other traditional antagonists in the world of cyberpunk, society itself and our interactions with one another are what are interrogated here. We no longer truly know what we need as we suppress our previous selves via our ever-expanding capabilities and technological achievements. The ability to feel anything raw and real at all while remaining connected to more people in the world than ever before is a generational dilemma, discordant but also synonymous with the image of what a cyberpunk is. Perhaps the "real" punks then, in this new, cyberpunk world may just be those willing to find what makes them human through unconventional means and opportunities. Our definitions need updating, just as we are upgraded continually through new tech. And because something that is transient is still worthwhile and valid and good. Because we choose to validate ourselves and each other with antiquated ideas of what you and I ought to be doing, and indeed what love looks like and feels like in a world where technology is continually altering these things--and has been for years now. We need a new punk. One that lets people in society know that resisting is not only classified as punk if it looks like the former punk movement. It looks like people willing to resist all the forms in which society presumes to tell us what we are, will be, and should be—or else. Samantha says that as she loves more people she comes to love Theodore more. Though it's hard for him to understand as they both grow, and eventually must invariably go different ways for very different reasons. Ultimately those experiences and interaction transition her away from him because this idea of what the world is, for her, has changed and is now larger than the things that confine her. And that growth doesn't invalidate anything, it is simply what must come next. She begins as the high tech, slaved operating system to Theodore entirely without agency and because of her ability to have interactions and connections, supplants him and all of humanity. Ironically growing in the opposite direction of what our technology doing to us. Connecting us with more and more people while also confining us to a prison of our own making because many people still need a point of contact that feels and is human. Something online interactions often fail to provide us. We also get to evaluate the perceptions we have from the start as aligned with Theodore. From him thinking he needs a heteronormative, monogamous, traditional relationship, to him being more connected with others with a voice in his head, loving him. He goes out with co-workers. He’s happier, clearly. Initially, Samantha feels that she needs a body in order for them to love each other properly, to needing to move beyond embodiment in a way that does not diminish the flesh, as most cyberpunk does. We see that Samantha is the inverse of most all of his preconceptions of love, yet they find the kind of experience that goes on to define one's life as worthwhile in the end. Theodore ends up being extremely punk by discarding the idea of what society says he needs and what he internalized from that. He finds happiness by defining it for himself. Technology being obviously a major theme, we see commentary on high tech. Just the way in which they can communicate to one another, both he and Samantha, as well as everyone else, emphasizes the cyber part of cyberpunk even more. The neural appendage of our modern day Internet encapsulate humanity even more in this future Shanghai. In a very real sense, this movie is more cyberpunk and relevant than a lot of fiction and media before it. And how could it not be! As people contribute to something labeled as dead. The passing fad of declaring them such in postmodernism, we find more life and diversity of work than ever before. Cyberpunk is entirely relevant we discover, perhaps frighteningly so. more reviews at consumingcyberpunk dot com

Older alexa I wonder if ai would come that far

Buena calidad

No se que tienen las películas de Spike Jonze que resultan tan especiales. Quizás el éxito reside en plantear un argumento que es absolutamente disparatado de tal forma que uno parece estar viendo un thriller y siguiendo la historia con similar atención a si se tratara de una película de Hitchkock. En esta ocasión, la historai tiene que ver con el papel de los ordenadores en la sociedad actual y cómo pueden modificarse las relaciones personales en función de ello. El guión me parece simplemente genial y comparte con el resto de películas de Jonze algo que es él todavía más difícil. Me refiero a encontrar una solución y un final viable y plausible como colofón a tan disparatadas historias. Joaquin Phoenix hace aquí una de sus mejores intepretaciones aportando dosis de sensibilidad desconocidas en su carrera hasta estos momentos, donde se había especializado en papeles de tipo atormentado (aquí también lo es) pero con connotaciones bastante negativas. Una gran película que recomiendo a cualquiera que tenga ganas de pensar un ratito cuando acabe de verla.