Day: October 13, 2013

In one of his Oscar-season analysis pieces, Variety‘s Tim Gray wonders if 60-something Oscar voters will relate to the futuristic love story in Spike Jonze‘s Her. Pointing to “rumors” about Academy voters not being able to follow or sustain interest in The Social Network because “they didn’t know what Facebook was,” Gray (who doesn’t precisely state that he’s seen Jonze’s film, but let’s assume he has) seems to be accepting a working hypothesis that Her won’t play with anyone who isn’t savvy with computers or smart phones.

There’s nothing to that assessment. All you have to do is accept that the lead protagonist, a lonely writer played by Joaquin Phoenix, could fall in love with an extremely bright and emotionally responsive female voice and personality (played by Scarlett Johansson), especially with Phoenix feeling melancholy over a recent divorce. There’s nothing more to it than that.

Gray then says that “Warner Bros.’ big assignment is to get Academy members to see it, since voters have limited time and don’t always embrace high-concept films.” Except Her isn’t a high concept film about technology or…you know, anything that could be considered challenging or exotic in a conceptual sense. Her is a very delicate and straightforward film about love, longing and intimacy. That’s it — that’s all it is. The tech element is relatively minimal.

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My second viewing of Steve McQueen‘s 12 Years A Slave (Fox Searchlight, 10.18) will happen tomorrow night at the DGA. Brilliant as it is, I was asking myself after my first viewing in Telluride whether I’d want to see it twice. It’s not an easy sit, but the discipline and directness that informs every frame is undeniable. My first thought was “this is a masterpiece.” One reason I’m going is to gauge audience reactions during the after-party. Screenwriter John Ridley (also the director-writer of All Is By My Side, the Jimi Hendrix biopic) spoke to HuffPost Live’s Ricky Camilleri a few days ago. Ridley, you can sense immediately, is quite the diplomat.

Earlier today Variety‘s Steven Gaydos reported about a “surprise” Skype interview between Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, the subject of Bill Condon‘s The Fifth Estate (10.18), and roughly 50 Hollywood Foreign Press Association members. Here’s the HPFA web page that recites the basics. But where’s the YouTube capturing? Where’s the transcript? Where’s the audio mp3 file? Where’s the actual q & a content of what was said between HFPA journalists and Assange? Here,, by the way, is an account of sternly-worded letters exchanged between Assange and Fifth Estate star Benedict Cumberbatch.

Burton and Taylor, the 90-minute BBC America drama that premiered last summer in England and will air on Wednesday, 10.16, played last night at the Hamptons Film Festival. Helena Bonham Carter, who plays Elizabeth Taylor on the downslide, made an appearance at the screening. The film is basically about (a) the volatile, twice-married-and-divorced couple (Taylor, Richard Burton) costarring in a stage presentation of Noel Coward‘s Private Lives in ’83 — a near-debacle and (b) the ravages of booze upon Taylor, if only by implication. Nobody is trashing the film. It seems to have played well enough. A friend admired Dominic West‘s performance as Burton. Definitely better than Lindsay Lohan‘s Liz and Dick, everyone is saying.

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Spike Jonze‘s Her (Warner Bros., 12.18) is one of the most delicate, emotionally supple, fully-in-touch-with-the-zeitgeist movies about love, longing and vulnerability that I’ve ever seen. Some will claim it’s the best film of Jonze’s career, although others will argue that Adaptation and Being John Malkovich are still the champs. The problem is that it doesn’t quite pay off at the end of the third act. Almost but not quite. But the first 90% to 95% is a mature, profound, probing, open-hearted exploration of all the standard phases of a love affair, including the always difficult transition when lovers get past the glorious Phase One and into the complicated who-are-we?, where-is-this-going? stuff. Except — this is significant — the affair involves only one flesh-and-blood person.

Her is about a nice, slightly dweeby, sensitive writer named Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix), hurting from a recent divorce, who falls in love with (no joke) a highly brilliant operating system — OS1. A just-released, heuristically programmed, extra-intelligent software with a female voice and a name (Samantha) and a striking ability to emotionally respond and adapt and dig in. A “woman” who’s extremely turned on, who’s hungry to feel and learn and explore and grow.

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