Released in 2013, is set in the “near future” of 2025. Since that near future is now here, I was intrigued to see how the film holds up today.
Written and directed by Spike Jonze, the melancholic, soulful sci-fi film stars Joaquin Phoenix (pictured above) as a lonely and soon-to-be divorced writer who falls in love with his operating system, voiced by Scarlett Johansson.
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There are many eerily prescient minor details: expansive urban public spaces, earbud culture, men with high-waisted trousers and moustaches. But what stands out most is a nuanced and insightful take on our relationship with technology.
The film is particularly acute with its exploration of how AI companions are redefining and complicating our human relationships. In a world increasingly wary of tech advances and a tendency for sci-fi to lean into the bleak, what is surprising is the film’s relatively optimistic – or at least non-dystopian – view of this future.
