Her 2013 by Spike Jonze
To get the rating out of the way, I want to say that I sat with this movie for a long time and I’m thinking it’s a nine (?????????) out of 10 (??), but also I wanna watch a video essay about it because I know that it plays into the divorce of the director from Sofia Coppola, another renowned director. Generally, though, as of now this movie doesn’t stick out to me like crazy although it was very good. I think Joaquim Phoenix delivers a standout performance in this, per usual, and Scarlett is wonderful as well.
It was a very profound and emotionally intelligent film for the plot being about a man dating Chat GPT. I like the idea of calling out a man for being incapable of dealing with another human being and their emotions. I like that he was quick to embrace the relationship because it seemed just as real as his past relationships. Because his feelings were real, not because of her. He felt the same weight behind her existence, needs, and emotions as he did for any human being that he loved. You know you have some internal fixing to do when you “fall in love” with an Operating System. That thing is not real and she literally exists because you paid for her and ‘she’ molded to your specifications with the goal to advance your life. If it takes an Amazon Alexa to tell you she can’t keep living in your story, that really says something about you and the way you view and treat others.
At the same time you feel for him because we don’t truly know how he treated his ex wife, which I wish we did, and because he is a genuine person just doing his best. And who treats his friends with care and empathy so maybe, it’s just these romantic relationships that are the problem. But I leave the movie wondering why that’s the case. Anyway, this movie unpacks a lot but I wish they unpacked even more because I love the manic pixie dream girl phenomena exploration and the thought process behind the men that subject women to such hurt because of it.