Her

I liked this film. It is set in a future LA, but the future alternates between "way future" and "that is almost now". The world is one where technology is ubiquitous, but still external (no nano-webbots implanted in your brain). We see how good decisions and good products that might be considered part of a utopian society can actually manifest as a dystopian personal life. In this context, Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) installs an AI operating system, initializes it as female (at which point it names itself Samantha), and begins a relationship. He (and Samantha) are happy and both Phoenix and Johansson do an excellent job expressing the joy of developing/discovering this relationship. So in many ways, this is a classic romantic comedy. But it is more sci fi, and exactly the part of sci fi I love. The writer leads us from "How does this new technology affect society, or relationship?" to "How is this crazy futuristic technology that much different than our current situation?" to "Is my current technology use affecting relationship? Am I in a dystopian present that I am unaware of?" to "How will we know when we have crossed that line?". So even while the technology is the core of this film, it is also only a mechanism pushing the viewer to think.
5 stars (out of 5)