11. Her: Best Picture

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzV6mXIOVl4&w=584&h=390]

Her finally starting screening for critics and festival audiences, where its winning rave reviews for its unconventional love story. Spike Jonze’s work too often goes unrecognized by the Academy (with a lone director nom for Being John Malkovich, a tour-de-force) and as a first-time writer, he continues to surprise with the depth of his gifts. This is the kind of love story that makes you believe in cinematic romance again — about learning how to love and to open yourself up again. For a movie about technology taking over our lives, its message is oddly humanist.