Come on now, I had to do it. It was a no brainer. Even though these two films have barely anything to do with each other. Pretty much nothing, in fact. Never mind, I’ll squeeze a post of this content nonetheless.
Plot:
Him – A sports training retreat goes hella wrong hella quickly. Her – Human lad fancies AI lass.
Director:
Him – Justin Tipping. You probably wouldn’t know that, judging by how much they push Jordan Peele as the producer of this joint, but I guess you’ve got to push the big names sometimes. Her – Spike Jonze. You know, the indie dude. ٩(◕‿◕)۶
Intensity:
I’m not sure why I’m using this as an indicator of quality here, but, hey, I thought I’d try something out. ( ๑‾̀◡‾́)σ”
Him – Pretty intense from the get-go, and it ramps up the stress fairly quickly. If you know the Ron Burgundy meme, then you know. (ᵒ̤̑ ₀̑ ᵒ̤̑) But yeah, pretty full on in terms of violence, and some very full-on gore in the final scene which probably made the film 18-rated. So in terms of physical intensity, yeah, it’s a lot. Her – Not much of that physical intensity on this side of the bench. Which is not a bad thing, ’cause this movie has a very different vibe. Mostly concerning a pretty unconventional relationship between a guy and his AI female-sounding interface kinda thing. Odd, but strangely engaging. ♫꒰･‿･๑꒱ Much more emotional intensity than physical intensity here. Which is nice, because that other kind of intensity could have turned it into a kind of sci-fi version of Lars and the Real Girl (LatRG is great btw, not knocking it. Big up chubby Gosling (๑´• .̫ •ू`๑)), which would’ve been a pretty different vibe.
Acting:
Him – I guess there’s a similarity between the two flicks in a narrative sense, since both are quite individual character studies. Tyriq Withers puts in a solid performance as Cameron Cade, a promising young sportsman who becomes increasingly desensitised by his coach’s radical training methods. Her – Juaquin Phoenix’s Theodore Twombly is about as goofy as his name suggests, but it’s a nice kind of goofy, y’know? A nerdy kind of goofy. He even wears GLASSES at multiple point. GLASSES. Major league, NERD, amirite? And nerds are cool. So that’s a plus. ꜀( ˊ̠˂˃ˋ̠ )꜆
Soundtrack:
Him – Interestingly neither film’s soundtrack really grabbed me. Not to say that either was terible persay, but you know, neither jumped out at me. Him has some pretty good, appropriately unsettling tunes and they work pretty well with the imagery on screen. Her – Admittedly, it’s been a while since I watched this. But I remember some nice indie tunes with a soft kind of atmosphere to them, and I remember liking it. That’s the best that I’m gonna do for now, k? (ง’̀-‘́)ง
Aesthetic:
Him – Yep, Him’s definitely got its own style. Not really ‘out there’ in terms of colour, but those x-ray shots are brutually effective when characters are fighting each other, and the last scene in particular’s got some great visuals. Her – I remember loving the colourful vibes of this particular flick. And the colour scheme surely had to be something that Jonze was very conscious of, because it was really distinctive and vibrant. Like, hella cool in a nerdy kind of ‘ooh, I gotta analyse this shit’ way. And I’m a big ol’ nerd, so that’s cool too. ೭੧(❛〜❛✿)੭೨
The gong’s gotta go to Her. As much as I enjoyed Him, I leant a lot more to the indie sensibilities of Jonze’s flick and I’m still a tad biased when it comes to the horror side of things. Hey, it is what it is. ꒰ღ˘‿˘ற꒱❤⃛