Nearly everyone who sees it seems to agree that Her is one of the past year’s best and most charming movies, but even so, it’s a bit of a surprise to see how many Oscar nominations it earned. The biggest pleasant surprise has to be its inclusion in the Original Song category, with Karen O getting a nod for her “Moon Song,” one of the sweetest and most beautiful musical moments at the movies this year. Arcade Fire and Owen Pallett’s original score was also nominated, which gets the band one step closer to the coveted EGOT.
So it’s hard to be unsatisfied with how Her fared this year, but if it were up to me, I would have included Scarlett Johansson in the running for her wonderful performance as Samantha, even though I know she’s not technically eligible for whatever arbitrary reason. More disappointing is that Joaquin Phoenix didn’t make it in, because like Robert Redford, most of the movie relies on him occupying the frame and making Theodore Twombly the most endearing character of 2013. And Spike Jonze really deserves more recognition as a director, but he should win for Best Screenplay, so let’s not be too greedy.
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