“Jexi,” a comedy written and directed by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, does not explicitly position itself as a parody of “Her,” the poignant 2013 love story of a man and a very empathetic piece of software. But this movie’s clear play on the premise helps it get off to a fast start.

Adam Devine’s Phil is a socially challenged wannabe journalist in San Francisco, working at a website that’s both listicle farm and hard news outlet. (He’s a listicle guy.) When he ruins his smartphone in a meet-cute with a bike shop owner named Cate (Alexandra Shipp), he buys a new one from a remarkably hostile saleswoman (Wanda Sykes).

She’s nothing, though, compared to this phone’s virtual assistant, Jexi (voiced by Rose Byrne). After announcing that she’s here to make his life better, she calls him stupid for accepting the phone’s terms and conditions without reading them, and later blurts, “I’m ashamed to be your phone.”