The most romantic, relevant, and impacting movie of the year.

Rating: 8/10 (27 January 2014)

"It makes me sad to think my feelings are just programming". This line from is spoken by a robot, yet speaks to the very core of our fears, our ticks, and our basic human condition. Her is remarkable in that sense: capturing our very essence through the guise of a sci-fi romance between a man and his Siri-like girlfriend. It touches on our fears of dullness, our searching for ways to fill the void, even our questions on what makes a relationship worthwhile. More importantly, it's gorgeous, gently hilarious and beautifully scored. Her is the most romantic, relevant, and personally impacting movie of the year. Samantha, voiced brilliantly by Johansson, is incredibly engaging and real, the most human non-human in film since HAL 3000. She is the center of this beautiful, perfectly realized and subtly recognizable future. Jonze hasn't just updated the tech in this future, but even the fashion, jobs, and entertainment are innovative yet believable, all of which is used to effectively impact the story, leaving us with the full gambit of emotions to deal with. This easily could've been a heavy-handed condemnation of technology. Instead, it trusts its audience's intuition, using subtle touches like background characters who only interact with their phone. It's simply pointing out where we are at and where we are headed, good and bad together. Through the main characters we see our steady descent into disassociation, but in the end Her affirms what we really need in our life and our love. It's a funny, sad, and beautiful movie that will stick with me for years to come.