HER
(2014, Blu-ray released May 13, 2014 – MSRP $35.99)
THE FILM:
- “Set in the Los Angeles of the slight future, Her follows Theodore Twombly, 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 entity in its own right, individual to each user. Upon initiating it, he is delighted to meet “Samantha,” a bright, female voice, 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.“
REVIEW:
Spike Jonze‘s film about a lonely man (Joaquin Phoenix) who builds a relationship with “Samantha” (the voice of Scarlett Johansson), a state-of-the-art computer OS, seems as much a commentary on his own life (echoing his ex-wife Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation in so many ways) as it is speculative fiction about the not-so-distant future of the human race. Her was nominated for five Academy Awards and picked up an Oscar for best original screenplay and deserves every accolade. It’s stellar, nuanced and subjective. Just the kind of film I love.
Warner’s Blu-ray rocks the transfer and encode here. The muted cinematography by Hoyte van Hoytema shines in this detailed and film-like transfer. With a rock-solid encode the disc looks just about perfect! The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is just as nuanced as the film itself and just as impressive, perfectly balancing dialogue, ambient sound and Arcade Fire‘s exceptional score.
The package of extras on the disc is comprised of three fairly artful featurettes, ranging from a look behind the scenes by filmmaker Lance Bangs, a discussion about the nature of love in our time (also by Bangs) and a montage of moments from the film. All too brief but all worth a watch.
SCREENSHOTS:
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(Note: All screenshots are created in the lossy jpg format which may cause additional compression artifacts and noise in the image.)
SPECIAL FEATURES:
- The Untitled Rick Howard Project
- How do you Share Your Life with Somebody
- Her: Love in The Modern Age
