Her

For the 4th and final time, we're re-reviewing a movie we discussed 10 years ago. Some films age badly, while some become more relevant. Her is extremely relevant! We didn't have any idea just how addicted to devices our culture would get when this movie came out in late-2013. We're a society of people who are lost in their phones, so the science fiction in Spike Jonze's Oscar-winning story might soon become science fact. In the futuristic Her, Joaquin Phoenix is a lonely writer living in Los Angeles who falls in love with a computer program. Scarlett Johansson provides the friendly voice of "Samantha", and, as tremendous as Phoenix is, this voice-only performance is one of the best things Scar-Jo has ever done. We talked about the morality of our relationship to A.I. and what's real and what's not about a program like Samantha. We also got into whether or not this heartfelt film is the usually-funny Jonze being almost autobiographical in a touching way. In any case, the 550th edition of Have You Ever Seen really likes the man's movie, so fire up our chat and see if you agree. Well, Actually: just to be clear, when Ryan says "he's better off", the intention is to suggest that even though Theodore is heartbroken that Samantha left, he's better off having known her at all. It's not to imply he's better off WITHOUT her. Also, Spielberg's regular producing partner in recent years is Kristie (not Amy) Macosko Krieger. We are sponsored by Sparkplug Coffee. They give Have You Ever Seen listeners a onetime 20% discount. Just use our "HYES" promo code ("sparkplug.coffee/hyes"). You can make your voice heard by hitting us up with some tweet-exes (@moviefiend51 and @bevellisellis) or by throwing an email our way ([email protected]). Also, look for this podcast on YouTube (@hyesellis) and comment, rate, review and subscribe there, just as you can on your podcast app.