Spike Jonze’s Her to Close This Year’s NYFF

The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced today that director Spike Jonze’s fourth feature film, entitled Her, will have its US premiere as the Closing Night Gala Selection of the 51^st New York Film Festival. It’s a bit of a return to where it all began with Jonze as his debut film, Being John Malkovich, had its premiere at the 1999 New York Festival as well. He would later go on to be nominated for a Best Director Academy Award for that film, and would direct two other feature films with 2002’s Adaptation and 2009’s seriously underrated big screen adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are.

In the press release announcing the film’s inclusion, Jonze said, “I’m very excited that it’s a premiere in the city. The New York Film Festival is where we premiered our first movie and that’s really special. It was our first U.S. premiere of Being John Malkovich and we had all our friends there and it feels so nice to come back to NYFF.”

“Written and directed by Jonze, HER is set in Los Angeles, in the near future and follows Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix), a complex, soulful man who makes his living writing touching, personal letters for other people. Heartbroken after the end of a long relationship, he becomes intrigued with a new, advanced operating system, which promises to be an intuitive and unique entity in its own right. Upon initiating it, he is delighted to meet “Samantha,” a bright, female voice (Scarlett Johansson), who is insightful, sensitive and surprisingly funny. As her needs and desires grow in tandem with his own, their friendship deepens into an eventual love for each other. “

There has been a slightly mixed reaction following the trailer’s debut online a few days ago with detractors complaining that it looks like another staid example of modern ennui with a twist—also that it looks like an updated twee version of 1984’s Electric Dreams—but I’m totally on board. Kent Jones’ quote in the release saying, “To discuss even a little bit of the plot is to deprive first-time viewers of the opportunity of discovering it themselves,” and Jonze’s own admission in an interview with the Film Society where he says, “I think of how much of my daily interaction is with and through technology… and it’s an emotional experience too. You know, you get a buzz when getting texts: oh, someone’s thinking about me,” have piqued my interest for this exciting new film billed as “A Spike Jonze love story.”

The film is set for a limited release on November 20 after this year’s NYFF, scheduled for September 27–October 13.