“Her” plays like a glossy “How to Make an Indie Film” tutorial video its emotions all telegraphed to please. Instead of following through on his ambitious premise and offering some sort of erudite statement on the pitfalls of our love affair with technology, Jonze is content to settle in on Theodore’s love life with exceedingly distant results. The talent involved is tremendous, the world-building is rapturous (the future has never seemed so tender and warm), Jonze is a more-than-capable director - so, why did this movie leave me so cold? The answer is simple: beneath the film’s appealing production design and moments of brilliance is a stone-cold interior as manufactured as “Samantha.” I saw this movie a month or two ago, and, after loving all of Jonze’s previous directorial efforts, it seemed poised to become a new favorite. And if this all sounds like a fascinating commentary on our troubling relationship with technology, well, it isn’t. Spike Jonze’s future-romance focuses on the relationship between Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) and “Samantha,” his new operating system (voiced by Scarlett Johansson) - a high-concept if there ever was one. SAM: “Her” is one of the most lauded films of the year, and so it comes as no surprise it’s been nominated for Best Picture (among other things). “But I thought it was a pretty sweet moment in the film.This post kicks off a series of articles leading up to the Oscar ceremony on March 2. I got butterflies in my stomach, you know? I got self-conscious about it that’s my character,” says the indie rocker. “If anything, my lyrical contribution was ‘More of the sweet, less of the bitter.’”Īlthough Jonze had given her the script soon after he finished it (“for her notes”), Karen O didn’t see the scene with their song until the premiere. helped a lot because it brought it to that place you’re talking about, being in that world a million miles from everyone else rather than a million miles from each other.” Karen O agrees: “Initially, it was a little too bittersweet, and you wanted to warm it up a little bit. I think it was in that little balance that we went back and forth on the lyrics a lot, just through emails.” “At the same time, there was a little bit of foreshadowing … a bittersweet that she was going off into space. The lyric, they’re ‘a million miles away’ on the moon together, a million miles from everyone else - that feeling of falling in love and being with somebody in their own world - it’s something only they share … I loved that. What Karen does well is she can home in on a feeling inside her and channel it through her music. Jonze says of the composition, “I thought it was perfect. “It’s such a memorable moment and he’s playing on the ukulele it was definitely sort of a nod to that.” “I think my main reference was that scene from ‘The Jerk,’ where Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters sang ‘Tonight You Belong to Me,’” she says. Karen O has said she wrote and recorded the delicate ukulele song at her dining room table. Jonze asked the indie rocker, who also collaborated on his 2009 film “Where the Wild Things Are,” to compose a song for a tender scene in which Theodore and Samantha improvise a tune together. It seemed kind of up your alley, really,” she says. I didn’t think you were crazy for having that idea. Karen O laughs when Jonze asks if she remembers when he first shared the concept with her: “I don’t remember when, but it didn’t shock me. It’s ultimately sort of closing my eyes and trying to home in on a feeling that is important to me, and following that feeling wherever it leads me.” “I’m fortunately removed from that kind of development process,” says Jonze.
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