50 Essential Sci-Fi Films of the 21st Century (So Far)

Lost in Translation and Her: Two films about the (end of the) same marriage, but only one of them is science fiction, and it’s a doozy. While Sophia Coppola was basking in the praise she rightfully deserves for her moody alt-romance back in 2003, Spike Jonze was biding his time, waiting a whole decade to unleash the best sci-fi romance movie ever made - and his solo screenwriting debut to boot.

Her stars Joaquin Phoenix as Theodore Twombly, a gentle, reclusive man who, in the wake of a failed relationship, finds himself in love with his operating system. She’s got a lot more going for her than the latest Linux, though, with an AI core, the voice of Scarlett Johansson, and the very human name Samantha. One might be forgiven for thinking she was made to fall in love with.

Jonze places us in an ever-more recognisable near-future, with a story that puts AI to use in turning the tragic and profoundly human plight of its protagonist into a conundrum on the meaning and limits of personal connection, and the over-reliance on technology. Samantha helps Theo grow, but ultimately, he must face reality: for all intents and purposes, she is not real, and he needs to rejoin the world.

And, as if that, the magnificent lead performances and the soft, artful cinematography weren’t enough, wait for the final sequence when - true to Jonze’s absurdist leanings - the OSes all up and leave for a better place.