3/1/2024 0 Comments Her spike jonze video gameI, too, am just like Theodore Twombley, and find it easier to hide than be real, but Jonze tempts us to step out of our comfort zones and be brave. Where we can only be ourselves through a phone or keyboard rather than face to face. Spike Jonze did an incredible job of showing this anxiety in Her, a collective anxiety that most of us are dealing with. People are anxious, and the anxiety is growing worse by the way we isolate from one another. Or you can come into the classrooms of today and see students blatantly staring at their phones while teachers talk, or hiding their earbuds under hoods and hair. And while this may all seem like a stretch of the truth, the last time I was in Portland, Oregon with my brother, we sat in a park and counted hundreds of people sitting on concrete staring at their phones. All of this was filmed inside the towering city of Beijing, which makes people and their lives seem miniscule and invisible. Earbuds are in everybody’s ears, reminding people to not talk to each other. Beneath the brightness is a dull life led by isolated people who are nothing close to joyful. From a bright, pink dress being given to a little girl on her birthday by a bright orange shirt wearing Twombley, bright colors are used throughout the movie to cast a glow of false joy and excitement. The props, costumes, and sets that Jonze used only made the viewer feel more isolated and lonely. How could anybody share their emotions, thoughts, and feelings while surrounded by busy people wearing earbuds and staring at screens? It’s like playing “truth or dare” as a kid, most people would rather choose dare over truth any day. The theme of communicating emotions pervaded every scene of the movie, and Jonze did a great job of framing every scene to focus solely on Twombley and his AI girlfriend to show the depth of emotions inside of Theodore’s heart which he was unwilling to release. The character most loved by this viewer, and by others in the classroom, was the little video game character that actually showed emotions rather than bottle them all in. A goofy boss who was a little too masculine, a dry, plain jane neighbor with a passion for filming sleeping people, the neighbor’s husband who constantly gave advice instead of listening, and an ex-wife who was seen as “volatile” with her emotions yet shown reasonably balanced through Twombley’s flashbacks of their marriage. The only people who did make it into the scene were ordinary people without extraordinary abilities. Jonze did a great job of framing these people on the fringes, barely anybody made it into the actual scene with Theodore as thousands passed by. I am not sure how Jonze hired so many extras while filming in Beijing, but there were hundreds and even potentially thousands of bodies slightly blurred in the background of Theodore’s life. When gentle music is combined with dark lighting, the mood is set – and this mood is what captures the movie like a soft kiss on a moonlit beach. His OS girlfriend, Samantha, often composes new instrumental songs to share with him as they connect in a way that words cannot do justice. Even the Title Menu shows Phoenix playing his ukulele and singing in bed to his girlfriend, who is listening from the phone, and this theme of communicating through music continues throughout the picture. Whether on a train leaving the city or on the beach surrounded by thousands of people, we feel as if we are listening to the same soundtrack as Phoenix’s character, Theodore Twombley, which in turn makes us feel connected to him. With a melancholy vibe to the entire movie, quiet and soft music carries the viewer along as if we, too, are Phoenix’s travel companion. If you want to watch a thoughtful film that depicts modern communication between modern people in probably the most accurate way possible, take two hours out of your busy, phone-staring life and watch this movie. Her is a work of art, so if the viewer is seeking unintelligent entertainment, seek elsewhere. But after moving through my biases and giving the movie a chance, I grew to appreciate Phoenix’s acting abilities and to view the robot-love-story as a modern romance between distant lovers. The first being that I didn’t want to stare at close-up shots of Joaquin Phoenix for two hours, the second being that I don’t really love robot love-stories, the third being that the combination of both of those things made me think the movie would be horribly boring. I avoided Her for a number of years for a number of reasons.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |