Oscars 2014: If We Picked The Nominees (Best Picture)

6. Her

Her, the second film that is also an Academy Award nominee for Best Picture, is one of the critics' favorites of the year and like The Wolf of Wall Street, is yet another film with flaws that excels despite its drawbacks. In director Spike Jonze's first solo writing attempt, Her tells the story of a man living in the not too distant future, Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix), who after an ugly separation from his wife, falls in love with the disembodied persona of his new operating system, Samantha (voiced by Scarlett Johansson). It's a novel and obviously contemporary premise, but the strength of the film is not so much its story, but its vision. Like Jonze's last effort, the adaptation of Maurice Sendak's famous children's book Where the Wild Things Are, Her is a bit too lyrical and precious at times. The film isn't as deep, insightful, or as touching as it thinks it is either, although a few moments, such as Samantha's realization of the limits of her existence, Theodore's blind date that ends on an incredibly sour note, and the montage sequence to Karen O.'s beautiful "The Moon Song" (nominated for Best Original Song), do reach the heights the film aims for. The real strength of the film though lies in its evocation of a very tangible future filled with seemingly benign, yet distressing, isolation. Perhaps the single smartest nomination of this year's Academy Awards was the Best Production Design nomination for K.K. Barrett and Gene Serdana's work on the film, and perhaps the single biggest omission by the Academy this year was the failure to nominate the fantastic cinematography of Hoyte Van Hoytema. Their tandem work is probably the biggest asset Her has, as the physical manifestation of their image of the future humanity has in store for itself helps the audience by into what would otherwise seem like a preposterous premise. The aesthetic vision created by Jonze, Hoytema, and team, filled with its soft reds, is one not of sleek ergonomics, the usual vision of any dystopian future, but instead reflects that of a society trying to reach some informal naturalism that never quite existed and certainly never will thanks to technological realities. It's the sad reconciliation of past, present, and future, leading to an inexplicable feeling of resigned disappointment that haunts the film throughout and sticks with the viewer long afterwards. Her may not quite be the sensational home-run that some have made it out to be, and Jonze's fairy tale-esque qualities still appear to be better suited when paired with the existential angst writings of Charlie Kaufman, but with perhaps the most underrated performance of the year from Joaquin Phoenix, a great score from the indelible Arcade Fire, and some of the most impressive production design in some time, Her is still quite the stand out.