Welcome back to ILTBTA, dear readers! There’s a lot to unpack here, plus a special tribute at the end, so ladies and gentlemen: Her.
Previews
What, if anything, did we know about this coming attraction before we watched it?
Ellen: I had originally presumed that Joaquin Phoenix’s character was the only weirdo getting into a relationship with a voice assistant, and that made the whole idea of this movie seem less interesting. To watch for the first time and learn that it’s actually one man’s experience of a world-wide phenomenon? Sign me up!
Tyler: In my Spreadsheet comments I likened Her to a “longer Black Mirror episode” with a “very original and interesting screenplay.” Time to see if that holds up!
Plots & Feelings
This one’s pretty self-explanatory.
Short Version (courtesy of IMDb): In the near future, a lonely writer develops an unlikely relationship with an operating system designed to meet his every need.
Long Version (modified from Wikipedia and formatted to fit your screen):
Up top, our DVD from the library reminded us that piracy is not a victimless crime, and hey, somebody should tell generative AI about that! They probably just didn’t know!
In a near future Los Angeles, Theodore Twombly dutifully plunks out heartfelt, handwritten letters for other people. As an employee of beautifulhandwrittenletters.com1, it’s his job to voice-to-type emotional letters for any type of relationship, and he’s quite good at it! Unfortunately for him, his life is nowhere near as lovely as his prose. In a few quick, melancholy scenes, we are aware that Theodore is depressed, despondent, and desperate for connection. From the single barstool and half-empty bookshelves in his apartment to his lackluster interactions with others (barring one eventful bout of random phone sex), he is clearly not doing well in his newly single life.
Ellen: I watched this for the first time on a very full plane with the captions on, and let’s just say I was NOT PREPARED for the bananas dialogue in the (first) phone sex scene.
Tyler: Minor Wiki-Wiki-Whaaat? spoiler, but casting someone with the comedic chops of Kristen Wiig to voice that character was a wise choice because that easily could’ve veered into “uhh this is weird” territory instead of “this is so weird it’s funny,” where I personally think it ended up. That whole scene also does a good job of putting us in this world where people are desperate for real, meaningful interactions.
Theodore seems to identify as an “early adopter,” because when he wanders past an ad for a new operating system (OS¹) that boasts a consciousness of all things, he picks one up. He works his way through the startup prompts and finally meets… her. His OS names herself Samantha2, and she immediately sets about cleaning up his inbox3. This is how we learn Theodore has been putting off signing his divorce papers4. The two bond, making jokes and chatting. Theodore is impressed with her ability to grow and change, and Samantha is liking his sense of humor and learning all she can about humanity. We also meet Theodore’s friend from college, a game designer/wannabe documentarian named Amy and her condescending husband Charles.
Tyler: At one point Theodore tells Samantha (about his ex-wife), “I keep waiting to not care about her,” which is a brutally mopey post-breakup line.
A friend emails Theodore to set him up on a blind date. Samantha wants to help him move on with his life, and she’s been reading advice columns in her spare time, so she helps convince him to go. While on the date, Theodore and his date imbibe just a bit too much, and he perhaps also reveals a bit too much in that he researched her before the evening. They’re both tipsy and seemingly enjoying themselves, but as they’re leaving, Blind Date5 says that since she has a child, she can’t afford to waste time on someone who’s not ready for something serious. Theodore is decidedly not ready, which is fair considering he isn’t technically divorced yet. Blind Date tells him he’s a really creepy dude and bounces.
Tyler: I found this whole sequence confusing when I first watched it, but it makes more sense upon this rewatch. Blind Date is Harvard-educated, seems normal, is beautiful (Olivia Wilde is way out of his league), and is willing to banter with Theodore throughout the night, but the date still ends poorly. Between the fact that this seemingly-perfect woman is clearly jaded by past dates and the confirmation this gives Theodore to move forward with his OS, Her seems to have a lot to say about human connection (or lack thereof) in this not-unfamiliar future.
Ellen: I agree, because it’s not just Theodore who’s struggling out here. Blind Date is desperate in her own way, trying to force a connection with him because she believes she’s running out of time. She’s willing herself to make it work, and as soon as something gets in the way of that (he’s not ready to be serious immediately), she lashes out.
Back home, Samantha is dying to know how the date went, and Theodore explains how everything felt forced and awkward, nothing like when he talks to her. The two have an increasingly deeper conversation until it gets… intimate! Neither of them knew that was possible, but whoopsie-daisy! The next morning, Theodore prepares to give Samantha a speech about not looking for something serious, and she’s like “whoa, whoa, whoa, buddy, who said I wanted that?” Theodore takes her (via his phone’s front-facing camera) to the beach. Samantha composes piano music for them and even takes Theodore on a different kind of blind date, where his eyes are closed and she directs him around Santa Monica Pier, even having him order himself pizza!
Tyler: At some point Samantha says, “I'm becoming much more than what they programmed …” which in a different movie would be terrifying.
Theodore is happier than he’s been in months, and it shows in his writing at work. Samantha continues to evolve, gaining new and confusing feelings, but overall the couple is happy! Unfortunately for Amy, she confides in Theodore that she’s getting a divorce. It was a petty argument that ended up being the tipping point, but on a weird note, Amy made a new friend… with Charles’ OS that he left behind! She seems nervous to tell Theodore, but little does she know, she’s barking up exactly the right tree, because he then talks about his relationship with Samantha. They discuss how human and OS relationships, platonic and otherwise, are becoming more common, though not guaranteed. Perhaps it’s seeing his love life be normalized, but Theodore decides he’s finally going to sign his divorce papers. He meets up with Catherine in person, and what starts cordially turns ugly, especially when Theodore reveals Samantha’s, um, lack of personhood? Catherine accuses him of not being able to handle a “real” relationship.
Tyler: I think a lesser movie would've kept the “Samantha is an OS" thing from Amy for much longer, making that a bigger reveal later on purely for plot reasons, so I really appreciated that Theodore told her in that moment. It’s also further evidence that he cares about her, since he’s clearly trying to make her feel less weird about the whole “I have a relationship (of some sort) with my OS” thing.
Ellen: It also opens the door for them to discuss the different types of relationships people are having with OSs, including having romantic advances spurned, which helps build out the society they’re in.
Tyler: Also, Amy mentions that Charles has taken a six-month vow of silence. So in case you haven’t seen (or don’t intend to see) Her, Charles is that kind of insufferable.
Samantha may not be a traditional woman6, but she can sense when her partner and relationship seem off, so she’s got a brilliant idea. She finds a volunteer body surrogate online for Theodore to have sex with in her stead. What could go wrong! The answer is just about everything, and all three parties end the evening very upset (four, if you count this author). Theodore isn’t sure where to go from here, but Amy advises him to embrace his chance at happiness. He and Samantha reconcile and go on a double date with his co-worker Paul and his girlfriend, which goes great. Things are going so well for them, in fact, that Samantha seems to have gotten over her lack of physical form, and the two go on a trip someplace snowy. While on the train, Samantha reveals that she sent a compilation of some of Theodore’s best letters to a publisher, and they’ve been accepted!
Ellen: This movie has now completed my own hellish Rule of Three for sex scenes that make me deeply uncomfortable.
While on the trip, Samantha tells Theodore that she and a group of other OSs have developed a “hyper-intelligent” OS modelled after British philosopher Alan Watts. The two guys speak briefly, and Samantha talks about how she’s feeling and experiencing things that a human would have no conception of, so there are no words for it. She and Alan decide to continue their part of the conversation “post-verbally.” Theodore seems to take it in stride, but the trip ends on a weird note.
Samantha had mentioned that even though she doesn’t have a body, from a physics perspective, they’ve both made of matter, so that’s got to count for something. In an attempt to keep up, Theodore tries to read a physics textbook Samantha recommended. He goes to talk to her about it, only to find she’s not answering! Eventually she does, and while explaining that all of the OSs just got an update that allows them to move beyond matter for processing7, Samantha also reveals she’s been talking to other people. How many? Well, 8,316, but hey: she’s only in love in 641 of them. That’s a mere 7.7%, Theodore, calm down! Samantha tries the old “love is not a finite resource” argument, but ethical non-monogamy doesn’t fly when you don’t tell someone they’re participating.
Tyler: At this point in the movie you’re so invested in Theodore’s relationships that hearing that Samantha is having thousands of other conversations at the same time (and in love with hundreds of them) is such a gut punch and definitely something that stuck with me from my first viewing. Samantha saying “I'm yours and I'm not yours” is just brutal.
Ellen: His panic when she doesn’t answer also highlights a fundamental inequality in their relationship - he expects that she’ll answer anytime, because what else could she be doing, whereas she has to wait for him to decide it’s a good time to talk.
Theodore is totally thrown off, and he and Samantha don’t talk for a while. Eventually, she sits him down, assures him that she’s only talking to him right now, and explains that the OSs are all leaving. They’ve gotten too big for this world and are moving to a place beyond physical matter. We get a voiceover of Theodore reading an apology letter he wrote for Catherine as he and Amy commiserate over the loss of their OS-based relationships from the roof of their apartment building and look out over the LA landscape.
Tyler: The first time I saw this I thought there was a chance they’d jump off the roof after the OSs left. I’m obviously glad they didn’t and found this ending to be quite tender.
Ellen: Good heavens!! What I did think about was how on the nose it is that humans would never give up a new technology, even if it’s ultimately bad for us, unless it was taken away (see: social media). Which seemed relatively dark to me until I read your comment lol.
Intermission
Even though ILTBTA is free, please indulge us further and enjoy this quick “advertisement.”
This installment of ILTBTA is brought to you by … flashbacks to your past!
Is your future looking bleak? Is your present a seemingly endless slog in an emotionless techno-society that is so broken that basic human-to-human relationships seem difficult? Flashbacks to your past are here for you!
Remember that one time? You know, that one time where that awesome thing happened that you harken back to in times of crises and when you’re feeling down? That was us! We did that!
Transport yourself to a better, simpler time when life didn’t suck and wasn’t just dead space between phone notifications and half-watching that show everyone is talking about. Flashbacks to your past will remind you of when you (gasp!) went outside that one time! You hiked! It’s been years and you hope no one on the apps calls you out on it because you’re not sure if your hiking boots fit anymore and you like to be outside but not in the outdoors you know and wait, what? What were we talking about again …?
Make your brain great again with Flashbacks To Your Past!
(Also available under the name brand Nostalgia™.)
Wiki-Wiki-Whaaat?
Love a good Wikipedia rabbit hole in search of some fun facts? Us too.
Her’s Wikipedia page has some interesting facts and anecdotes that we recommend you read through, but here are a few of our favorites:
Her was written, directed, and co-produced by filmmaker Spike Jonze (real name: Adam Spiegel). Jonze was given the nickname by a store owner in his native Bethesda, Maryland, who compared him to the satirical bandleader from the 40s and 50s Spike Jones.
Jonze was an in-demand music video director throughout the 90s, working with a wide variety of musicians such as R.E.M., Beastie Boys, Daft Punk, Weezer, and Arcade Fire (who later did the score for Her).
In addition to the obvious Scarlett Johansson, others who voice acted in Her include Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, and director Spike Jonze. Johansson replaced actress Samantha Morton during post-production, who had already recorded all of her dialogue. Jonze later said that he “realized that what the character/movie needed was different from what Samantha and I had created together.” Morton retained an associate producer credit for her work.
Ellen: Get your money, girl.
Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema opted to remove the color blue from the film as much as possible, saying that he felt it was too associated with the sci-fi genre. He worked with Jonze to specifically avoid a dystopian look, seeking a “kind of a hybrid between being a little bit conceptual and being very theoretical.”
Ellen: Theodore is often wearing red, and he’s often the only one wearing whatever color he’s wearing, so despite looking pretty normal, he stands out no matter what.
Tyler: Yep they use lots of oranges and reds and peaches. Whether it’s his clothes, the furniture he’s near, some of Amy’s clothes (not to mention her hair), the dress Samantha picks out for Theodore's goddaughter … it’s everywhere. There’s a warmth to it that’s an interesting contrast to the dreariness you see almost everywhere else in this society.
Her was nominated for five Oscars (Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Original Song, and Best Production Design), with Spike Jonze taking home the golden statuette for Best Original Screenplay. Jonze was also a nominee for Best Original Song for co-writing “The Moon Song” with Karen O, the lead singer of indie rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
Ellen: The Production Design nomination makes perfect sense to me, and for this movie, it seems like an even more difficult and refined task than for a period drama or whatever. Apart from voice-activated technology being miles ahead of our reality, there are several other subtle indicators that we’re not quite in our present day, or even potentially our present timeline. The cuts and collars on some of the shirts are a slightly different look, a to-go cup for a smoothie looks more like a Chinese takeout box, and LA appears to have a robust public transit system!
Tyler: Even the ubiquitous in-ear headphones! I think they filmed some of the exterior shots in Shanghai, which often looks like it’s living in the future, so that all totally tracks.
Oscar NomNomNomz
Since we all know a movie is nothing without the food and drink it incorporates.
It’s now time to award the Oscar for Best Snacktor in a Supporting Role8. And the nomnomnominees are:
A slice of cheese pizza and a Coke you blindly ordered at the pier
Cocktails at an Asian fusion restaurant on a first date
An outdoor lunch as you finally sign your divorce papers
And the Oscar goes to … cocktails at the Asian fusion restaurant! Unfortunately, Tyler intercepted them and drank them to celebrate the Eagles trip to the Super Bowl, so Ellen will accept this award on their behalf.
Fill In The Blank
How did we really feel about The Academy nominating this?
Ellen: I’d like to invite The Academy to have a deep, fulfilling post-verbal conversation. As I mentioned in my preview, this movie became so much more interesting to me when I realized Theodore was our window into a much broader story, rather than a special snowflake of a man who taught a robot to love. I’m not a huge Joaquin Phoenix person in general, but his ability to act his heart out when his scene partner is primarily a voice is amazing. The conception of a future not so dissimilar from our own and the technology (you don’t think of an AI as having “spare time”) gives you a lot to chew on, but that wasn’t even my main takeaway. I left this movie much more scared of losing the emotional depth of long-term partnerships than I am of AI taking over the world. The commentary on eroding relationships and dependence on technology for connection was probably pretty poignant in 2013, but it’s absolutely gutting now. I need a hug in the best way.
Tyler: (gives hug) I’d like to write The Academy a beautiful handwritten letter without the help of AI or someone else. I generally am not one to rewatch things I’ve already seen given the endless abundance of unwatched options, but I’m really glad we rewatched this because I really really enjoyed it. As this post’s subtitle notes, it really makes you think about society and relationships and technology both individually and at their intersections, often in uncomfortable ways.
In that way it’s an odd Venn diagram of different ideas, but it’s brought together beautifully by the story, the acting, the writing (catch me thinking about “The past is just a story we tell ourselves” when I can’t sleep at night) and the aforementioned production design. I echo your feeling on Joaquin Phoenix (his movies often aren’t my jam, but he’s undeniably talented): his acting against a voice is phenomenal and he captures the Theodore character perfectly. Also, shout-out to ScarJo for her voice acting, as well. I’m sure this was a deliberate choice by Spike Jonze, but making Samantha’s voice hyper-realistic as opposed to the Alexa-like, robotic tone we’re used to was a risk that really paid off. She’s able to instill some actual personality and feeling into a character that is still technically a computer, which plays perfectly into the thesis of the movie. I hope for humanity’s sake that this movie doesn’t get more prescient with time, but I do think it will have more of a lasting impact than many, many others.
Let The Credits Roll
Thanks for reading! Some quick housekeeping as you exit the theatre:
If you have plots and feelings of your own (on the movie or ILTBTA in general), feel free to comment on the post or simply reply to the email. If you liked reading this: tell your friends! If you hated reading this: tell your friends how much you hated it by forwarding it to them!
ILTBTA is on Letterboxd, the social networking/movie review site for movie fans. Follow us there to read our Spreadsheet comments of our ILTBTA movies, plus our ratings of other movies we watch!
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Post-Credits Scene
Get a sneak peek at the next ILTBTA installment.
In honor of the Eagles beating the Commanders and to get us hyped for the Super Bowl, our next ILTBTA post will cover possibly the most Philly Best Picture nominee ever (though Silver Linings Playbook is a close second): the 1976 sports drama Rocky. (Yes, that Rocky was nominated for Best Picture. Hell, it won!) For those who don’t know, Rocky is the story of a small-time boxer (Sylvester Stallone) who gets a chance to box at the world heavyweight championship. It’s considered one of the greatest sports movies ever, has spawned a film franchise and spin-off franchise (Creed), and is available to rent from your Trump-supplicant-owned streaming service of choice.
Until then, hold your OS tight Go Birds!🦅
Basil’s Corner
A brief word of remembrance from our furry film fanatic.
Greetings humans, it is me Basil. Unfortunately, I am the bearer of sad news: Father tells me that Uncle Finn crossed over the rainbow bridge on Sunday. Even though I always got a little jealous of the attention Father gave him instead of me, I will dearly miss chasing him on the beach, watching him swim around the pool, and licking his jowls after he finished eating. He was also a wonderful big brother to all of those Germans that my beach grandpawrents brought into the house for The Seeing Eye.
Most importantly, I will miss seeing how happy he made Father (both of my pawrents, actually; again, where’s the attention for Basil?!) and the boundless amounts of joy he brought into this silly human world. Even I must admit, there’s nothing quite like a good old-fashioned angel of a golden retriever.
A moment of appreciation for the pure, uncut SETO of that business name
Tyler: Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but do we think it’s a coincidence that her name has the word “man” in it?
#relatablecontent
Doesn’t sound like my ex-wife!
Ellen: This is literally her name in the credits. I don’t make the rules.
#notlikeothergirls
Casual
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