On its floor, Love Me may appear to be a romance. It begins with a protagonist craving for love so intensely that she fashions herself — and her relationship along with her beau — upon a few influencers on-line. To her, regimented date nights of Blue Apron meals, Buddies binge-watching, and onesie pajamas resembling animals are the trail to bliss. However the jolting shock of this tender drama, which world premiered at Sundance 2024, is that it isn’t about romantic love as a lot as it’s about studying to like your self. Even for those who’re a sentient robotic.
In Love Me, Kristen Stewart stars as an AI buoy that’s programmed to replace itself because the world round it calls for. However the world round her is bereft of natural lifeforms, and she or he has developed to be self-aware however desperately lonely. That’s, till she spots an orbiting satellite tv for pc (voiced by Steven Yeun), designed to share the uploaded wealth of human data to anybody who asks. At first, their exchanges are transient, awkward, and — sure — robotic. However by means of her need to attach, the buoy begins to outline herself — naming herself “Me” and masquerading as a “lifeform” — and pulls the satellite tv for pc, who she dubs Iam (pronounced I’m), alongside along with her.
What appears to be a classy, star-studded spin on Wall-E steadily and poignantly evolves right into a story of discovering your self regardless of the all-too-human social pressures to be one thing else. Set lengthy after people are nothing however a reminiscence, Love Me is a bittersweet however stunning movie that’s resoundingly humane.
Love Me explores the agony and ecstasy of social media.
A buoy and a satellite tv for pc have a look at one another in “Love Me.”
Credit score: Bleecker Avenue
Proper now, we stay in a world through which our actuality is filtered by means of social media algorithms, influencers, and limitless advertisements aiming to promote you that you’re not sufficient. (However you can be, for those who spent cash on [insert quick-fix product here]). That is the human world that Me finds as she explores the relics of the web by means of Iam’s server. She thrills over movies of infants laughing, however is especially drawn to Deja (Kristen Stewart in a live-action efficiency), a beautiful influencer with lengthy blonde hair, and her nice and picture-perfect boyfriend, Liam (Steven Yeun).
Of all of the walks of life and all of the representations of humanity she will discover, that is Me’s superb, which she pursues by manipulating Iam into following her lead. Greater than the forgotten robots of a long-dead human civilization, they grow to be animated avatars of their very own making…modeled after long-dead life-style gurus. Collectively, they construct a digital residence, full with a kitchen stocked with ice cream, a sofa for cuddling, and a hoop mild to seize each joyful efficiency of romance. However troubles come up as Iam begins to understand he is appearing and never feeling. As he pursues authenticity by breaking their date night time routine, Me feels betrayed, and their relationship is threatened. Can Me develop past being a Deja wannabe? Who will she grow to be subsequent? Will rising isolate her from Iam or carry them nearer collectively?
Mashable High Tales
Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun excel from animation to live-action performances.
Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun play Me and Iam in “Love Me.”
Credit score: Bleecker Avenue
Crafted by The Zucheros, co-writers/administrators/companions Sam and Andy Zuchero, Love Me‘s development is charmingly chaotic, leaning on YouTube nature documentaries, self-help sermons, and viral movies as a shorthand of human expertise. This reflection may nicely make up to date audiences cringe in familiarity, seeing live-action people being a dizzying mixture of charming, earnest, and aggravating. However as Me urges Iam into becoming a member of her in a digital world of their very own making, the aesthetic progresses to a CG animation. There, Me’s insecurities are hidden behind a candy Pixar-like avatar. Even Iam’s dismay that he cannot really feel being tickled is softened by this visible aesthetic of heat colours and spherical shapes.
The couple will evolve into live-action performances, which not solely offers Stewart and Yeun a novel continuation of their portrayals, but additionally the problem of distinguishing Me and Iam from Deja and Liam. Basically, as they try to be genuine over imitations, they grow to be extra actual of their look. And in each beat, they’re achingly open. Kristen’s voice within the first act goes from robotic to timidly curious to boldly flirtatious. Yeun shifts from a well-known Siri mixture of politeness and frankness to a bouncy pleasure, then tense uncertainty, and into full-on TikTok meltdown mode. As their characters shift from jaunty animated avatars to rigorously crafted human kinds — full with flaws — the performances carry a brand new emotional weight, as each really feel out the shift in tone.
Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun as Deja and Liam.
Credit score: Bleecker Avenue
Props to the Zucheros; nonetheless, who refuse to desert the weirdness of their premise or on-line courtship. A satisfying steamy but surreal intercourse scene creates a novel house for his or her self-actualizing characters to discover their needs and our bodies. Moments like this, the place their heroes’ self-expression is a messy bramble of concepts, colliding imitation with their very own impulses, units Love Me other than a sea of candy however superficial rom-coms. At each alternative, the Zucheros devotedly embrace the messiness, not solely of romantic love, however of loving your self. Love Me is a celebration of that course of.
An oddly hopeful film set in on a useless Earth, Love Me is about how even a robotic may wade by means of the mess of societal expectations, web white noise, and persistent self-doubt, and be capable of obtain the actually radical — self-acceptance. That the trail to such a healthful message is plagued by particles of the most effective and worst of the web (together with an audio clip of a sure president), is an important a part of the message. Maybe we too could be like Me, a flower blooming from a crack within the concrete, a buoy discovering bliss on the finish of the world.
Love Me opens in theaters Jan. 31.
