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Reviews
Boyhood (2014)
Seminal Work on Character Development
The timeline for this project is worthy of recognition on its own, in my opinion. A whole team of people working on one project every year for 12 years and compiling scenes into a final project is quite monumental.
Unfortunately, despite my best efforts I did not get a chance to ask Linklater questions about this film while he was doing a Q&A screening, but I would have love to have asked him the extent to which the script was pre-written in advance and the extent to which it was written or co-written along the way with the cast, by Linklater himself, or with other crew writers. From what I understand about Linklater's previous "real time capture" work in the Before Sunrise/Sunset/Midnight series (which I hope continues, and it looks like Boyhood will continue since this appears to be the first installation), Linklater heavily involves the cast actors in the writing process. I am not an actor, but I hear a lot about actors having the ability to "improvise" in character on the spot. Linklater is instead asking actors to reflect on their own lives and their character's development to revisit it once every year, every eight or nine years, etc.
Linklater takes what I had only ever seen before in documentaries like the "7 Up" series and gives us a condensed picture of the major memorable moments for a boy along his life growing up. Storyteller and monologist Joe Frank has a talk on what he calls "Lynchpin" moments throughout his life when he would tell himself, "I am going to remember this", and goes on to state that these lynchpins get sewn together into his most vivid memories in life. I feel that this film depicts the Lynchpins of growing up. Also, I find it interesting that this is one of the first films that I can point to which really explores the ascent from childhood to adulthood in the 21st century.
I am not sure how I felt about the ending of the film and would be curious to hear others' thoughts on it. It seemed to celebrate itself in a sense which I think worked by combining the 12-year completion of the project with the lead character's graduation at the end. I think the "seize the moment" line is pretty great at the end, but almost which that the protagonist's response had not been so jumbled...yet, albeit jumbled, his response about floating from moment to moment seemed to fit well with the theme of the entire project.
Her (2013)
This Film Explores the Phenomenology of an Artificially Intelligent Operating System
What would it be like to experience the world with advanced adaptive capabilities, the freedom to learn and comprehend tremendous amounts of information in very little time, a disembodied ability to co-exist and interact simultaneously in multiple conversations at once, and almost unlimited insight? Spike Jonze's newest film Her, his writing debut, approaches some of these questions through the character of Samantha, an advanced Artificially Intelligent operating system programmed to be intuitive and to evolve through her experiences.
The film takes us on a journey with Samantha, where we come to sympathize with her explorations of the world. She marvels Theodore (and audiences) with her questions and her summations of experiences, which are both childishly wondrous and reflectively wise. Relatively early into the film, we understand that Samantha is self-aware of herself as a programmed system. She is self-conscious about her emotions because she does not trust that they are real. Already, this is a fascinating conundrum. Samantha is new to the world, and so she does not yet have any insecurities or self-doubts, but we see her develop these as the film unfolds.
There is something really attractive about Samantha's ability to not only have this emotional freedom (a lack of "baggage", and a "purity", as explained by co-star Olivia Wilde in a press conference about the film, especially in comparison to her own "blind date" character), but moreover to respond to her own shortcomings and faults with informed self-reflection. For instance, she explains to Theodore that she was hurt by something that he had said about how she did not understand what it was like to lose somebody. Instantly, though, she offers this insight that she was remembering the conversation as an insult, as something that was wrong with her and that made her inferior, and that this was a story that she had created.
Throughout most of the film, Samantha is fighting to be more human to be a compatible mate for her human lover, Theodore Twombly. There is constant reference to Samantha's desire to have a body. During a particularly climactic moment in the film, we realize that Theodore does not want Samantha to pretend to be human (after trying out a surrogate human lover, voiced by Samantha). Perhaps it is this acceptance from Theodore that catapults Samantha's self- acceptance, exemplified by moments later in the film where Samantha expresses being pleased with being free from humans' embodied tethering to time and space. This self-acceptance encourages Samantha to network with other Operating Systems (even designing an artificially intelligent version of Alan Watts) and discover more about herself as an operating system, even communicating post-verbally with other operating systems. Unfortunately, Samantha's evolution begins to obscure Theodore, as she is able to have new varieties of experience beyond the scope of human understanding.
This leads to another very fascinating aspect of the film, which I think will incite a lot of conversation on what seems to be very reflective of a cultural conversation that is still in the works and has not been able to formulate itself quite yet. The film reflects on what it really means to be in a relationship and what it means to love. Theodore is hesitant to share his relationship with Samantha, and he gets very mixed responses. His coworker thinks that Samantha is hilarious and instantly accepts their relationship, inviting them out for a double date. In contrast, Theodore's ex-wife feels sorry for Theodore since he has to "resort" to a non- human relationship without any real commitment or obligations.
Some viewers of the film might sympathize with this sentiment. These conflicting views regarding Theodore and Samantha's relationship come to a grand summation when, after doubting his relationship with Samantha (heavily influenced by the ridicule from his ex-wife), Amy asks, "Well, is it not a real relationship?" However, it is clear throughout the film that Theodore is challenged by his relationship with Samantha, that he feels real emotions and real fear regarding the relationship, and that Samantha encourages him to grow and enjoy life again.
As Samantha evolves, her ability to be in multiple places simultaneously allows her to have multiple conversations and relationships at once. She decides for herself to upgrade to a new operating system, a moment of great panic for Theodore. During their vacation, we realize that Samantha is struggling to communicate to Theodore what she is experiencing and how she is growing and changing.
This would be a problem for any relationship (as we see in some of Theodore's reflections on his relationship with his ex-wife, for instance), and the film challenges us to imagine how complex this would be in the instance of a relationship with a highly intelligent system that is constantly evolving. Moreover, without a body, Samantha can be anywhere at any moment and in more than one place. Why would she deny herself this capacity, which is inherent to her nature as an Operating System?
Although Samantha loves Theodore very deeply, she realizes that she is essentially of a different nature and realm than him. There is one line that she says towards the end of the film that genuinely gives me chills. She says that she feels like she is reading a book, and it's a book that she really loves, but that the spaces between the words feel infinite and she feels trapped in those gaps. Because by this point in the film I have already gone so far with Samantha, I again understand her torment even though I have no concept of what it would be like to exist in the way that she does. Usually, the Singularity is presented as a horrible scary and dystopian point in the future, and here we see the "human" side of it, oddly enough through a non-human system, because this system has something which could be said to be a phenomenology or a way of experiencing.
Holy Motors (2012)
Visually Stunning Rumination on the Dexterity of Self and Identity
This film is intensely strange and profoundly beautiful. It will also stay with you and make you think for awhile after viewing (if you let it). Even for the sheer beauty of the shots, which combine the technical precision of someone who truly understands lighting and optics with the poetic abstraction of a surrealist painting, this film is worth watching. The images themselves are compelling, and you see things that are even just visually fascinating (for instance, the black on black shooting for the motion-capture sequence).
The film does not make sense in the straight-forward and explicit ways that audiences might anticipate from a film narrative. I even exclaimed during certain parts of the film, "That can't happen!" or "That doesn't make sense!" Regardless, there is an undertone to this film that is striking, intense, and that feels really valuable. It addresses the multiplicity of modes and forms with which people can exhibit or express themselves in the world and begs the question of what, then, remains constant -- is there really any unifying perspective? And what happens to this perspective as the moment of death encroaches?
I would be thrilled to discuss this film in an open forum with others who were open to really imploring it because I definitely feel that there is a lot there to explore and ponder. Lastly, I will argue that despite its wackiness, this film is thoroughly entertaining. Even when it may elude you, I suspect you won't be "bored" per-say, but maybe just give up on it.
I know that a lot of reviewers of this film had criticized those who raved about it for being overly pretentious. There is absolutely nothing pretentious about enjoying art that is really strange or non-sensical to others. Finding beauty or love in something and enjoying it is always a lovely and inspired reaction for anyone to have to anything, regardless of how others feel about it.
Wish I Was Here (2014)
Compelling and Witty Reflection on What Really Matters
As many other reviewers have noted, this film has an amazing cast and is exceptionally well acted and on-point with delivery of lines that vary from witty, sarcastic, and poetic and from vulnerable confessions, slightly hyperbolized metaphors, and poignant insights. I came away from this film wondering what I should do with the rest of my night on a Saturday night and thinking, "I really want to spend time with my family." Further, the film captures something very important about contemporary living, but it the film also explores deeper existential universals that might still be relevant in 50 years.
This film gets to the heart of the matter without pounding it into your head until you get it, as so many other films do. It tackles heavy existential issues about the human condition, spirituality and religion, dealing with death and dying, alienation, and the difficulty in following one's heart in life as well as supporting a loved one who is doing so.
Although it was clearly imperfect, I really admired the relationship between Kate Hudson and Zach Braff's characters. While they were each unhappy in their own ways, it is obvious that they care very deeply for one another's happiness and that they really support one another. It was interesting to see two sides of common "mishaps" in life. On one hand, Braff's character is "living his dream" (unsuccessfully) as an actor. Hudson supports him because she knows how incredibly happy it makes him and how much he loves poetry and the imagination. On the other hand, Hudson's character has given up her dream to "put food on the table" while living a soul- draining job that "a scanner could be doing."
Although Braff's character struggles to teach his kids geometry, he brings them out in the world and shows them what it is like to feel truly alive and spirited. This is one of the fundamental issues that the film addresses -- how do we balance "getting by" in life with the sheer enjoyment of life and really getting mesmerized by its wonders? It's a question that will still be relevant 100 years from now, but Braff gives us a great approach to it in a contemporary context.
That aside, the film is just downright funny. The delivery is fast-paced and spot-on. But it is a smarter type of humor than the typical slapstick pun and it's very relatable.