Her
Her
2013
Written and directed by Spike Jonze
Life is a fraud. Her brings us the tale of a man who falls in love with his computer operating system. But it’s more than some weirdo making out with his iPod, Her is a rare film that explores the modern increase in social isolation and loneliness that no one talks about. Spike Jonze brings his brand of exploring humanity to the near future to look at the state of relationships today, and layers everything with a mix of genuine and hoax that transcends the real.
Theodore Twombly is a lonely writer, recently divorced from his wife, though he’s never signed the papers to finalize it. Theodore’s job has him composing personal letters to people from other people, advertised as handwritten but actually printed by a machine. The entire enterprise is a fake personalization and fake product. Theodore has written for some of the clients for so long he knows their quirks and puts touches in the letters that reference other letters. In essence he has a pseudo-personal relationship with these people, despite never really meeting them or having any contact outside of instructions from work. It isn’t a real relationship, he’s just given access to enough of their relationship to craft a forgery.
Honestly, I am personally horrified at the concept of handwritten letters created by a third party. The entire concept is a whole new layer of deceit and lack of genuine personal connection. I’d be insulted if I was given a letter through that company. Theodore is more connected to the people he writes about than they are to each other, and than he is to anyone else except his friend Amy.
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Categories: Good, Movie Reviews Tags: Amy Adams, Joaquin Phoenix, Kristen Wiig, Rooney Mara, Scarlett Johansson, Spike Jonze
The Avengers (Review)
The Avengers
2012
Written by Zak Penn and Joss Whedon
Based on characters created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Directed by Joss Whedon
ATTENTION: THIS REVIEW HAS SPOILERS for everyone, so don’t read this if you haven’t seen it or care about being spoiled and all that jazz. Because there is really no way to get into the meat of the issue without discussing everything. And just to keep people from getting too upset, I’ll throw everything under the Roll Call so you have to click a button to read it….
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Ghost World (Review)
Ghost World
2000
| Thora Birch as Enid |
| Scarlett Johansson as Rebecca |
| Steve Buscemi as Seymour |
Enid (Thora Birch) and Rebecca (Scarlett Johanson) have just graduated high school, though Enid must make up an art class in summer school. The girls wittle away their time, not choosing to head to college. At a cafe, they notice customers that look like “Satanists” and they decide to follow them. While trailing, they run across the ’50’s diner Wowsville, an authentic ’50s restaurant with rap music and a waiter they call Weird Al due to his name being Al and his hair resembling Weird Al’s. While eating there, they read the personals of the paper, and run across a “Missed Connections” ad where a guy is wanting to meet up with a blonde he helped find a contact lens for. They decide to give him a call and pretend to be the girl, and to have him meet her at Wowsville. They then bug their friend Josh to hang out with them at the diner when the man shows up. He does, is named Seymour and is played by Steve Buscemi, orders a vanilla shake, and waits, only to be disappointed. The girls follow him back to his place. Later they try to find out what apartment he lives in, and see him in part of a garage sale the apartment complex is running. There Enid discusses records with him for a bit, finding our his name is Seymore, and purchases one before they leave. The girls describe him as clueless, but Enid thinks that makes him almost attractive. Eventually Enid listens to the record and really likes the song Devil Got My Woman, and returns to discuss it with Seymour. Seymour invites her to a party where a lot of record collectors like him will be, and Enid eventually goes, dragging Rebecca along, who is hit on by David Cross, much to her disdain. Enid talks to Seymore who is a collector, and Enid decides she will get him a girlfriend. While out girlfriend shopping, Enid gets Seymour to take her into an adult store, where she gets a catwoman headpiece. We find out Rebecca is working at a Starbucks ripoff complete with annoying customers.
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Categories: Good, Movie Reviews Tags: Scarlett Johansson, Steve Buscemi, Thora Birch
