Cineplex Magazine December2013

GO ASK
A.L.I.C.E.
REQUIRED
READING
All you need to know about Ron Burgundy’s newly released
memoir, Let Me Off at the Top! My Classy Life & Other Musings,
is what Burgundy himself has said: “I don’t know if it’s the
greatest autobiography ever written. I’m too close to the
work. I will tell you this much: The first time I sat down and
read this thing... I cried like a goddamn baby. And you can
take that to the bank.” —MW
If you think Spike Jonze’s Her — in which Joaquin Phoenix
(above) falls for a computer operating system voiced by
Scarlett Johansson — is based on Apple’s Siri, think again.
In a panel discussion at the New York Film Festival
the director revealed it was the rudimentary A.L.I.C.E
(Artificial Linguistic Internet Computer Entity), also known
as Alicebot, that first inspired him to think about man/bot
love. That was about 10 years ago (though A.L.I.C.E. dates
back to the mid-’90s), and no surprise, A.L.I.C.E. was a very
clunky program compared to today’s artificial intelligence.
“I had this buzz of, ‘Wow, I’m talking to this thing, this
thing is listening to me,’” recalls Jonze, “and then quickly
it devolved into it was just parroting me, it wasn’t really
listening, it was just a clever program.”
You can still find A.L.I.C.E. at http://alice.pandorabots.com
and have your own frustrating conversation with “her.” —MW
Quote Unquote
There’s a reason he chose
me to play the part, because
I come across, I don’t know,
more intimidating than I
necessarily am.
—JOSH BROLIN ON WHY DIRECTOR
JASON REITMAN CAST HIM AS
LABOR DAY’S ESCAPED CON
16 | CINEPLEX MAGAZINE | DECEMBER 2013