A big part of the movie's charm is just how thoroughly Jonze has imagined and constructed this future Los Angeles, from its smoggy skies to its glittering skyscrapers to its efficient mass transit system...

...an intimate departure, maybe even a personal one. Four films into a sterling career, the director’s made his most beguiling, profoundly human work yet.

Jonze has made a sweet, smart, silly, serious film for our times, only set in the future.

Phoenix is as sweet and soulful as we always suspected he might be.