American Hustle

Can't say I loved it as much as others have but I liked it. Seems like all the pieces are there for greatness but never quite got there. Some great acting as others have mentioned. Bale is all kinds of awesome. And good God, Amy Adams. She is awesome and.. hoo boy... scorching hot would be an understatement. Wasn't as impressed with JLaw. OK but nothing special. On a sidenote - my wife complained about the constant barrage of f-bombs. While that stuff doesn't generally bother me - and didn't here - she has a point. A lot of movies - this one included - replace actual quality dialogue with f-bombs and it's annoying. Anyway, 7/10.

Her

Joaquin Phoenix plays Theodore, a profoundly depressed man living in a near-future version of LA. He buys an operating system with true AI that takes on a female persona, voiced by Scarlett Johansson. They develop a relationship and he eventually falls in love with her. This is an incredible movie with Phoenix expertly portraying the sadness and loneliness of his character and the joys he experiences when the relationship blossoms. This is also a weird movie with some incredibly strange scenes. Theo's relationship is not seen as all that unusual and others have the same type with their own devices. Can't say enough about the performance from Phoenix - quite possibly the best acting I've ever seen. Just incredible. And the added bonus of Amy Adams, a top, top favorite of mine. This was far and away my favorite movie of 2013/14 and is easily in my top 10 all-time. 10/10.