Her – movie that will mark our generation

I was 16 when I first encountered work of Spike Jonze. In 1994 he directed two music videos with a great success and heavy circulation on MTV. Both of them were nostalgic walks down the memory lane. Those two videos were Weezer’s “Buddy Holly” and Beastie Boys “Sabotage”. Even I was not so familiar with television shows like Happy Days that was used as a main theme in Buddy Holly and Hawaii Five-O, S.W.A.T and Starsky and Hutch and other, in Sabotage, since those ’70s shows were never aired in my country, I was taken by the atmosphere and feeling that something quite different can be made, humorous, cherful and with retrospective view on happier days, simpler days, taken away from murky reality of living in Serbia in ’90s where I lived and still live. I recorded those two videos on my VCR and watch them over and over, never being even close to the domain of boredom. That was my first Spike Jonez marker, even I, at that age, give more credit to the bands then to the director. His name lingered in my memory until it reappeared with his surrealistic movie from 1999 (another murky year in Serbia) by the name “Being John Malkovich”. Again another marker and again same escapism. By that time I realized who he was and credit him fairly. Some ingenious videos appeared for artists like Bjork (Triumph of a Heart), Fatboy Slim (Praise you), The Chemical Brothers (Elektrobank)  and awesome Arcade fire video for the song “The Suburbs”. Also some movies worth watching like “Adaptation” and “Were the wild things are”, but it was not until past year that a real, third marker appeared, big as a mountain this time. A lot of things could be said for movie “Her” but by watching trailer you can not tell anything, specially that your can witness something exceptional. Seems just like a love story that is been told and retold numerous times with just one twist. It is not a woman in this love equation but operating system. But is much more than that. It does explore our technological dependence and our emotional involvement in omnipresent social networks, all that is expected but even this is unusual SF drama it strike you how familiar this story is, how much you can relate, how much you can identify yourself with it and how normal this love is, regardless the fact that one of the participant is operating system. And yes… this relationship is so real even there is no physical consummation. Sex is definitely not neglected subject, but this movie deals with subtle emotional issues and our need to be loved in this progressively alienated world. All element of one great love story are here: excitement, ecstasy, insecurities, sarcastic comments, excuses, unfulfilled expectations, loss, grief… This is an ode to transhumanism love. Not first of a kind, but best by far. Storyline flow in a manner of a very well crafted narration with images that will overwhelm you. The “thing” between Joaquin Phoenix, as a quite lovable, sweet guy and invisible Scarlett Johansson and her cracked sexy voice is worth admiration. Anyway, you should watch it and then judge it. My expectation are that this movie will gather cult following and be one of the markers of our generation. Promo photo by Courtesy of Warner Bros. Picture