Movie Review: Her (2013)

by Tony Dayoub

"Falling in love is a crazy thing to do. It's like a socially acceptable form of insanity." That's Amy (Amy Adams), a close friend of Theodore Twombley (Joaquin Phoenix) who is in the throes of what feels like a full-blown romance with Samantha (Scarlett Johansson) in Her. Much like the viewer, Amy is essentially giving her approval to the strange love affair Theodore conducts with a disembodied voice, a variation on the long distance relationship that many of us in this age of globalization have experienced or are familiar with. It comes an hour deep into Spike Jonze's film, at a point when we've made peace with its science fiction-y premise, that Samantha is really an artificially intelligent operating system marketed as OS1. Amy speaks for us, the disconnected millions who have more Facebook friends than actual ones, keep up with their life events without ever having to reach out to them in person, go through entire cycles of relationships on dating sites like Match.com or eHarmony without ever having to leave our seat in front of a screen.

Movie Review: Where the Wild Things Are (2009)

by Tony Dayoub



The growing realization that childhood is finite fuels the sad Where the Wild Things Are. This means that I'm not ready for even my oldest son to see this beautifully rendered adaptation of Maurice Sendak's classic book. But Spike Jonze's film strikes me as less of an evocation of Sendak's tale than it does as a personal story for the often elusive director. It's as if one could see his therapist suggesting he draw on his own childhood issues to inform his next film, and this is what was spit out. That's not to say I wouldn't recommend the film. Actually, I believe it is a movie with rewards both large and small. But be forewarned. Those seeking the joyous celebration of innocence and thoughtless playful abandon will find the film lacking in this regard.