'Non-Stop'

As shown in the February 12, 2014 edition of the 'Monroe County Reporter':

Alcohol.  A teddy bear.  A "magic" ribbon.  A window seat.  Free Wi-Fi.  Business-Class.  TSA.  A gun.  A cup-holder.  A co-pilot.  A lawyer.  An air marshal.  All of these, including more, are symbols of security in the movie "Non-Stop" for the passengers on board the plane. 

For the millions of dollars the movie made over the weekend, Liam Neeson ("Taken", "The Unkown") is becoming our sense of security for perpetual casting in a movie thriller.  We cannot get enough of the presence he brings to the screen as a man we hope to never meet in a fight.

As the movie unravels so does its characters' sense of control.  Bill Marks (Liam Neeson) is a U.S. federal air marshal whose reputation as an alcoholic precedes him.  When the plane he boards on duty is midway over the Atlantic Ocean, he begins to receive text messages on his secure phone from an anonymous person on the plane that one passenger will be killed every twenty minutes unless 150 million dollars is transferred into a specified bank account.  How he tries to take control of the situation quickly turns into havoc as he becomes branded as the terrorist.

This movie is a great movie to watch only if we give up our own sense of control in thinking this movie is anything more than a movie thriller.  There is potential for this film to be more than just a mere thriller, but it would have met its audience like extended periods of turbulence; it would have been an unpleasant interruption.   One of the passengers in the film declares that feelings of control are an illusion.  It is this feeling of disillusionment which makes this movie suspenseful.  The enemy is somewhere on the plane and we do not know for sure who it is.  Is it any wonder then why we like movies like this?  Movies like this remove us from our world of fear and take us to a world where we know the enemy will eventually be exposed.

All of this is to say "Non-Stop" is a round-trip flight back to our world where we are faced with the terror of our own insecurities.  

Her

As shown in the February 5, 2014 edition of the 'Monroe County Reporter':

There is something about living away from a big city that is good for our anxiety.  The greatest traffic problems we may encounter traveling through Monroe County are when the livestock escape, when a Norfolk Southern rail car is parked perpendicular to ours, or when we are bumper-to-bumper in the school pick-up lines.  What I love most about living in Monroe County is its rural hometown feel.  A friendly exchange with a familiar face is not unusual, whether it be taking my family's trash to one of the County's Recycle Centers, a visit to Dan Pitts Stadium on a Fall Friday to see the Mary Persons Bulldogs play football and clarinet, or simply driving through the square.  It seems the closer we are to a metropolis, the more strangers we meet and fail to greet.  The anxiety is proportional to the traffic congestion, and technology is more visible as a way to cope with our boredom and the struggle to relate to one another.

Spike Jonze's latest film "Her" is an exploration of this theme.  Jonze ("Being John Malkovich", "Adaptation") in his first sole writing role, imagines and portrays the city of Los Angeles in the not-so-distant future, where social media's evolution into artificial intelligence is designed to not only meet our organizational needs but our relational needs as well.  Like the "cookies" hidden in our smart phone or internet browser that are programmed to predict our next keystroke or destination, this provocative sci-fi dramedy navigates its audience through a dialogue about the meaning of genuine relationship.

Jonze chooses to tell this story using the character named Theodore Twombly, played by Joaquin Phoenix ("Walk the Line", "Gladiator").  Twombly is a man full of regret who feels powerless to reconcile his disastrous marriage with his childhood sweetheart.  Twombly works for BeautifulHandwrittenLetters.com, a company whose business it is to write  letters for people who do not have the time nor the language to name their own feelings.  Though conceivable, it is amazing how much technology in his environment is automated and speech driven.  Twombly seems comfortable in the sorrow of his loneliness.  In transit he opens an e-mail on his mobile device to view pornography and in his apartment he resorts to phone sex and video games.  The only real person in the flesh Theodore has for community is his neighbor Amy, played by Amy Adams ("Junebug", "Man of Steel").

It is no wonder then, that when Theodore decides to purchase the newly-advertised, artificially intelligent operating system called 'OS,' that he embarks upon a new false intimacy.  Thus begins the haunting "what if" scenario Jonze has masterfully envisioned: "What if humans tried to have a real relationship with their computer?"  Throughout the film, Jonze's "Her" pays special tribute to the power of words.  Theodore, like other consumers in the film, eventually begins to date his OS, whose only presence is the sound of a female voice named Samantha (portrayed by Scarlett Johansson).

Certainly, much more can be written about the various themes this film evokes; however I am most left with this conviction to share: Even though we do not live in a big city, technology still has its grip on us.  Because the population density is less, the stakes are higher for human connection.  We see each other on a regular basis, which can create an anxiety of its own right.   No matter what happens to the progress of Monroe County, may its people always find ways to relate to each other.