This article considers a cinematic subgenre of "longing to connect" narratives that explore the theme of romantic connection in the internet age. The release and success of Her (Spike Jonze) and Noah(Patrick Cederberg and Walter Woodman) contemporaneously in 2013, which both romance disembodiment, suggest a tipping point in the circulation of works that index attitudes about the complex affective structures of digital sociality. Pairing Lauren Berlant's notion of "cruel optimism" with Eva Ilouz's discussion of "emotional capitalism," this essay offers a comparative reading of Her and Noah alongside two earlier works, You've Got Mail and I Love Alaska, to interrogate cinema's potential, and potentially unique capability, to intervene in fantasies of computer-mediated love.

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2014
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