“Her”

Rated R for language, sexual content and brief graphic nudity

In the near future, people can have personal letters written by professional letter writers in the sender’s handwriting, no less. Reality is virtual and virtual is reality. We can live in a glittering city of millions with glass walls but be as isolated as if entombed in a cell buried deep below the surface of humanity.  

When a timid, gentle, sentimental soul — dweedishly named Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) — is left by his wife, he envelopes himself in seclusion, companioned only by a computer game. The only meaningful conversations he has are with the lumpy male office receptionist, a neighbor couple, and a foul mouth virtual character in the aforementioned game. And then he signs up for an operating system that offers a dating opportunity: a female voice (Scarlett Johansson) with an artificial intelligence named Samantha. She is everything a hurt man would want: sympathetic, pliant and eager to please — except she has no body so the sex has to be virtual. And writer/director Spike Jonze depicts that “fix” with as much taste as one can, considering. But there are shortfalls to this relationship and we go down that trail, more or less, as you would expect. This is a bittersweet love story wherein the sense of loss and sadness never leaves the screen.

Let us be clear: this is a must see film but it isn’t exactly a date movie. It is a mature romantic film that isn’t romantic at all. The sense of lost-love and loneliness haunts this film from beginning to end. Anyone with a life behind them with past romantic wreckage can’t help but think of the past and empathize for Theodore. New technology gives us many advantages but creates devastating disadvantages, and this is as much a philosophical film as it is a love story. Mr. Phoenix and the voice of Ms. Johansson have more chemistry than Monsanto … and although the film borders — even exalts in the weird — it is very much compelling. One can’t help coming away without wishing for a Samantha and yet still grateful for not ever meeting … Her.

Her earns four out of five bow ties.

“Inside Llewyn Davis”

The Coen Brothers bring us another eccentric riff on life’s journey with “Inside Llewyn Davis.” Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) is a jerk in a world of jerks and oddballs. Awkwardness prevails. Davis is a folk singer in 1961. Part of a duo that has broken up due to a tragic incident, Davis is now adrift. He is a loser, a downer, and nothing but bad luck for all who surround him … but he can sing. Sadly he is not good enough for anybody but us in the audience, while we may appreciate him nobody else sees much in his talent.  Like folk music, he gets no respect. Davis has no money, no home, and nobody that loves him; but, then again, he doesn’t love or respect anybody either. Wait, I lied. One couple provides solace, love and respect. But he repays them with rudeness and even loses their beloved cat.

And so he goes on an odyssey from Greenwich Village to Chicago. Along the way he meets a washed up jazz musician played by John Goodman and his scraggly valet.  And then his quest ends in disappointment; his return is steeped in pathos. The person with whom I duo is, at about this point in the film, considering cutting her throat from depression. (She doesn’t do tragedies well. “She” prefers to play Ophelia while all other roles be filled with handmaidens, servants and court jesters; she hates competition.)

Any resemblance to the Coens’s “O Brother Where Art Thou” is purely intentional. And the “Odyssey” parallels abound as well — again. What was that cat’s name?

If you do not like folk music, forget it. If this old era of coffee houses, cigarettes, Jack Kerouac and Peter, Paul, and Mary repel you, stay far away. But this is a very, very literate movie in ways more than just the music.  And at the very end of the film — as Llewyn meets the mysterious stranger in the alley — the young lad taking the stage is a musician who evolves folk music as no one has since Woody Guthrie. It is not very apparent, this musical and literary wit. I am afraid that much will be lost by many who see it. But I appreciated Llewyn Davis. After all, I still have my Peter, Paul and Mary albums. I think I will pop one up on the turntable right now.

For my readers, I grant “Inside Llewyn Davis” three and a half bow ties out of five. For me, I give it four out of five and can’t wait to download the CD.

One more plug: Greene County Friends Dinner: Jan. 24. Call the library 706-453-7276 for tickets. I am the featured speaker. I will talk movies and bow ties. I am trying to break all attendance records. If you can’t do it for the Friends or the Greene County Library, do it for me.