HER

Directed by: Spike Jonze
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Scarlett Johansson
Running Time: 125 min

In the age of 2.0 everything is simplified, including relationship. Long gone the era of real life stalking preserved only for the creeps and mentally disturbed, now comes the era of digital crush and stalk.

How we show our self in the social media also plays a role in changing our lives. A short film titled Noah (which went viral) shows how facebook, skype and other social media platform change how we relate to each other. Now, what comes of love in this age of scroll and click?

Spike Jonze who disappoint me in Where the Wild Things Are shows a very intimate look on how a non human entity with artificial "humanity" can give a real feeling to a real human being. Joaquin Phoenix is Theodore Twombly, a 40 something divorced guy who lived in future Los Angeles (or Shanghai?). It is not clear which year but it does not matter since what matters is how Theodore finds love in a hopeless place even Rihanna can't find it. He finds it in Samantha (voiced beautifully by Scarlett Johansson) some sort of romantic Siri in iOs.

With her (pun intended), Theodore feels the love he longed. But Samantha isn't real. She has no body, she's just some artificial intelligence consisted of algorithms and stuff. No one can touch her. As their relationship develops, Samantha began to learns that human relationship is very complicated but rewarding.

Her deals with loneliness and the need to belong in someone, to lose yourself spiritually in the age where even talking to each other is very easy. The story is amazing, I really like it and the ending is one of the most bittersweet ending I have seen in a movie. Is it a grim satire? Yes. Is it romantic? Yes. I think it is grim and romantic at the same time.

BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR

Original Title: La Vie d'Adèle Chapitre 1 et 2

Directed by: Abdellatif Kechiche
Starring: Adèle Exarchopoulos, Aurelien Recoing, Lea Seydoux, Salim Kechiouche
Running time: 179 mins

Adèle, played by Exarchopoulos, is the main character of the story. She was a young woman in the beginning of this almost three hour drama and a mature one in the second part. A student in the beginning and a teacher in the end. Adèle is confused about her sexuality, she thought she likes men but in the end she realizes that only another woman can make her happy, inside and outside.

After a stroll at the gay bar, she get to know Emma (Lea Seydoux) an art student. They both light a spark and become lovers. First Adèle must face discrimination from her friends and her own feeling, but then as their relationship moves over a "stable" one the problem is not over. Emma's shining career and her dominating intelligence makes Adèle feels lonely and underachieved. The loneliness leads to events that will define her personality and future. The second part felt a bit like The Kids Are All Right (2010), surprisingly it is also about lesbian couples trying to be loyal to each other.

The duration is long, sometimes it is too long and the sex scenes is very graphic. I wonder must this one overly use the graphic sex scene? I think eight minutes for that is too long, what's the point if not to "incite" arousal? If it wants to show emotional connection or how lesbian couples can have "many" ways to satisfy each other, then a four minute scene is enough.

However the acting is amazing, it feels like natural and for the viewer we can sympathize with the characters. Emotionally absorbing, Blue takes the audience to learns that even for lesbian couples, it wasn't easy to stay in a stable relationship. 

This is not just "find the love of your life" or "find someone else if a relationship fails", this is a character study. It feels like they can never get the love they used to have after it all broke down into pieces. Isn't it sad and makes you think: am I going to have the love of my life? Or it has passed away and I will never get it back again?

AMERICAN HUSTLE

Directed by: David O. Russell

Starring: Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Jennifer Lawrence
Running time: 138 minutes

Rosalyn Rosenfeld: Life is ridiculous. And you know that I would never say anything bad about your father in front of you, but your father is a sick son-of-a bitch.
Danny Rosenfeld: Daddy's a sick son-of-a-bitch?
Rosalyn Rosenfeld: Don't repeat that... but yes.

I didn't remember the last time I enjoy a crime film, was it a long long time ago in a galaxy far far away? David O. Russell proves that he can take the mantle from Martin Scorsese by delivering us a "funny" crime story. Loosely based on the FBI ABSCAM operation of the late 1970s and early '80s, this one reunites Christian Bale and Amy Adams for The Fighter (2010); Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, and Robert De Niro for Silver Linings Playbook (2012).

The story is how an FBI agent, Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper) who employ to con artist Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale), with his girlfriend and partner-in-crime Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) to frame some government officials in New Jersey. They all have their own motives. Richie wanted to climb up the rank and be popular. Meanwhile Irving just wanted to escape the FBI by doing the job and Sydney is torn between Richie and Irving.

Irving himself has a wife, Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence), some sort of trophy wife but with an easygoing and sometimes erratic personality. The rest of the story is a thrill. Somehow I don't get it why the FBI wanted to hire con artists to do their job, don't they got people to do that? I can feel the aura of Goodfellas and some Coen brother's movies here. Blending black comedy and drama, David O. Russell direction is getting better.

As usual in the acting category Christian Bale triumphs. There is no sign of Bruce Wayne at all, he is a fat and nervous Irving Rosenfeld. As for Jennifer Lawrence, she shines here. The rest is okay, I relish upon the fact that Robert De Niro is here, although for some brief moment. Some of her lines made me chuckle. The twist by the end is very smart. It reminded me of Matchstick Men (2002) or Ocean's trilogy with a touch of Scorsese.