This weekend, Spike Jonze's Her was given a wide release in the US, and the film has been very highly received from critics and audiences alike,
myself included. Her is Spike Jonze's fourth feature-length film and his first since 2009's Where The Wild Things Are. His first two films, Adaptation and Being John Malkovich, were highly celebrated when they were first released with much of the credit given to the screenwriter of those films, Charlie Kaufman. With his last two films, however, Jonze has really shown what a strong voice he has as a director. And if you look at his overall resume, you can see that the talent has been there from the beginning when he started out directing music videos. Jonze may take a long time between film projects (four feature-length films in fourteen years), but in the '90s, he was one of the most prolific music video directors around. He helped pioneer a medium that currently seems to be dying a very slow and painful death. Along with filmmakers such as David Fincher, Mark Romanek, and Michel Gondry, Spike Jonze helped turn music videos into an artform. What made Spike Jonze so special was that, when he started out, his work was much scrappier and more lo-fi than his contemporaries. He had incredible versatility as a filmmaker and has worked with artists from all genres (like Sonic Youth, Weezer, Beastie Boys, Notorious BIG, and Fatboy Slim). Most importantly, he's also made great music videos for lesser known artists who otherwise may not have received as much play on MTV. By the end of the '90s, he had done pretty much everything you could possibly do with the medium. So, let's take a look at some of the greatest ones he's made in the past and be sure to check out Her whenever it plays at a theatre near you.