It’s interesting when movies try to predict the near future, especially when you come back ten years later to see what they got right and what they got wrong. Spike Jonze’s “Her” (⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐) came out in 2013 and painted a picture of a spooky brave new world right around the corner, where pant waists were higher, people dated their operating systems, and we all were lonelier than ever. The film was eerily prescient in some ways — it predicted Siri and our current debate over AI — and now seems dated in others. The hero’s job at BeautifulHandwrittenLetters.com? In 2023, that would be outsourced to ChatGPT. Still, there’s a lot to talk about with the movie I put atop my Ten Best list in 2013 — like, a lot — so I was glad my friend and critical colleague Amy Nicholson picked “Her” as her choice for a 21st century film classic. Amy’s good smart fun, and the conversation went in all sorts of directions: How to production-design a believable day after tomorrow, why “Her” is a great L.A. movie (and an even better future-L.A. movie), the diplomatic art of interviewing Joaquin Phoenix, “Garfield Minus Garfield,” and the near-perfect 1968 Kinks single, “Days.”
If you’d like to watch (or re-watch) “Her” before or after listening to the podcast, the movie’s a three-dollar rental at Amazon, Apple TV, YouTube, and elsewhere. If you’d like to watch Amy’s and my conversation as well as listen to it, the YouTube version is below. I hope you enjoy.
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Classics of the New Millennium: "Her" with guest critic Amy Nicholson