Her (2013)

Jack and I loved this science fiction story of a lonely man in the near future who falls in love with his computer/smartphone's operating system (OS), and this morning the movie was Oscar-nominated for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay (by director Spike Jonze), Best Score (by William Butler and Owen Pallett, occasionally of Arcade Fire), and Best Original Song ("The Moon Song" by Karen O and Jonze). And not just the Oscars. Her has won (this strict grammarian feels weird writing "Her has won..." just as newspapers did in 1963 when the ads for the Hitchcock movie said "The Birds is coming!") Best Picture and Director at the National Board of Review, Best Screenplay Golden Globe, and many more.

Joaquin Phoenix (last blogged in The Master) shines as the vulnerable Theodore Twombly and Scarlett Johansson (most recently as the bombshell with the body that won't quit for in Don Jon, for which she's now nominated for a Gotham Award) brings remarkable depth to the OS Samantha, who has no body at all. Of course, no one would be bringing any depth to anything without Jonze's vision of an artificial intelligence so sensitive that it could inspire human love. I will not tell you how it ends, and I didn't see it coming at first, but as the story meandered in that direction, I thought, Oh! That makes sense.

Other players help fill the screen world of a future Los Angeles where lots of middle class people live downtown in high rises and take subways (that's a fantasy!) (it was shot in LA and Shanghai), including Amy Adams (Oscar-nominated and more for American Hustle), Rooney Mara (last in Ain't Them Bodies Saints), Chris Pratt (most recently in Delivery Man), Olivia Wilde (last in The Incredible Burt Wonderstone), Portia Doubleday (Youth in Revolt), and Kristen Wiig (most recently in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty) as the voice of SexyKitten. Oh yes, this is not for kids--it has some sex. And Jonze (last blogged in Where the Wild Things Are) himself does the voice of the foul-mouthed Alien Child video game character but takes another name in the credits. One thing I want to comment on is how Adams' frizzy hairdo reminded me of Cameron Diaz' in Being John Malkovich (1999), which Jonze directed from a script by Charlie Kaufman, another reality-bender.

I almost forgot. It's fascinating to note that Johansson was not originally cast as Samantha. In fact, Samantha Morton (profiled in The Messenger) recorded all of the dialogue, and later Jonze decided to re-cast it with Johansson and dubbed it all in.

My regular readers know I often track down the soundtrack to listen while I write. But I couldn't find any sites that weren't full of lyrics, which distract me. Here's the list of songs, with videos of some, and you can find the songs or the album elsewhere.

You don't need me to urge you to see this. The Academy already has, and rottentomatoes critics are averaging 93% and its audiences 87. It's a winner.