Her

Spike Jonze hasn’t made a film since his delightfully warped adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are, written with Dave Eggers. But he’s back this year with Her, billed as a love story between a lonely writer named Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) and a new interactive operating system specific to the user (voiced by Scarlett Johansson), in a plot that will inevitably be simplified to "a man falling in love with Siri." It also has strains of S1m0ne and Ruby Sparks, albeit with a bit more sincerity.

Phoenix is supported by his The Master co-star Amy Adams , Rooney Mara, and Olivia Wilde. The music includes Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Skeletons” and Aphex Twin’s “Avril 14th” (another Sofia Coppola connection, since she used it in Marie Antoinette), but the focus is squarely on Phoenix as he develops a romantic relationship without another person ever being present. Produced by Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures—which has a busy 2013 awards season ahead with new films from Wong Kar Wai, Bennett Miller, and David O. Russell—Her is slated for a late November release.