(It’s worth noting that, though distributed by Warner Bros., the movie was financed by the auteur-friendly Megan Ellison, who in the past few years has allowed creatively stubborn filmmakers like Paul Thomas Anderson and Kathryn Bigelow to make their movies with a minimum of interference.) Yet Jonze, who directed “Her” from his own screenplay, manages to do both here, the emo and the wild whimsy all kept in nice balance. At the same time, crafting too grounded a story could undermine what makes it a Jonze pic in the first place. In movies like “Adaptation” and “Being John Malkovich,” Jonze went madcap and meta in the third act, something that could derail a more delicate human story. Lonely after separating from his wife (Rooney Mara), he decides to download a new “operating system,” essentially an AI program-slash-companion named Samantha that, as it tells him via its human voice (Scarlett Johansson, replacing the previously cast Samantha Morton), has the power to evolve. The basics: Living in the not-terribly-distant future - video games and email are a lot more sophisticated, but they’re still video games and email - is Phoenix’s Theodore Twombly. The new movie lands on multiple levels and, not surprisingly, received a rapturous response Saturday night at the New York Film Festival, where it made its world premiere. That’s the question posed by “Her,” Jonze’s future-set, Joaquin Phoenix-starring story of love and technology - and answered with a resounding yes. But could he square all that with a gently told romance? In his videos and films, he’s offered up plenty of ideas, and made them look sharp to boot. NEW YORK - Over a two-decade directing career, Spike Jonze has often been about the big hook, visually and conceptually.
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