Love Me

Love Me is one of those great movies that refuses to leave your brain. It raises so many interesting questions and answers none of them. You end up thinking about the concepts long after you see the movie.

So I give the movie two reviews.

UPON FIRST WATCHING: 🌠🌠🌠🌠🌠 (5/10) Interesting, but kinda weak... Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun are really good, but just where was this story going, and did it get there, and do we care?

AFTER 24 HOURS: 🌠🌠🌠🌠🌠🌠🌠🌠🌠🌠 (10/10) One of the most intriguing, thought provoking, emotionally exciting science fiction movies ever written!! Can AI evolve? Will individual devices become independent thinking beings?

And, with all of the wisdom, the writings, the creations, of the entire human civilization, would AI really use social media from which to learn? And, OMG, is that where future generations of people will learn about humanity?

I wouldn't call this science fiction. More like robot sexual fantasy. I had three hours to kill on a flight and thought I would fill the void with this movie. However, I found myself fast forwarding through much of it just to see where they were going with it and was less impressed the further I got along. They were trying to be Avant-garde, but it was just a ridiculous premise and poor storytelling and I don't see how anyone could relate much to the characters or find it interesting, unless you just want to see Kristen Stewart, who still managed to show she's a great actress despite what and who she had to work with (but you only get to actually see her towards the end). There are much better ways to play with discovering love, or the possibility of computers gaining sentience, or even to cross the two, as this movie tried to do but failed utterly at. In the end, it was much more interesting just staring out the plane's window.

I like both Kristen Stewart (more SEBERG and ADVENTURELAND than TWILIGHT) and Steven Yeun (THE WALKING DEAD), and I also love a good post-apocalyptic story, so that was enough for me to put this movie on reserve at the library. Unfortunately, the film is a bit of a misfire. I hate knocking a film for being too ambitious, but this romance between an AI buoy in the ocean and a satellite in space, which are both still functioning centuries after humans have gone extinct, doesn't quite pull off its ambitions. The two base their robot courtship on a social media influencer's posts about herself and her boyfriend, with the two taking on avatars of their long-dead human inspirations. There's a subtext about real-life versus phony online "lives" and, more importantly, about love and connection, that even in a lifeless world, two sentient machines still yearn for connection. The film lacked the emotional resonance it was aspiring to, but Stewart and Yuen are both likable and manage to make the film watchable, even if they are CGI avatars for too much of the film. Even though I won't recommend LOVE ME, I'll be curious to see what writer/directors Andrew & Sam Zuchero do in the future.

Google lifespan of solar panels and it shows 25 to 35 years. Even if the panels are super futuristic panels, it still wouldn't last as long as it would in the movie.

Metal degradation alone wouldn't make sense, which is around 150years. Again way shorter than the timeline of the movie.

I haven't even touch on the lifespan of electronics. Even if it's super futuristic, the battery still have a lifespan.

All this is to say the timeline in the movie makes no sense!

The entire premise of the movie is deeply flawed. It's about earth and not a galaxy far far away or a fantasy land with magic and wands to wave away the contemporary impossibles.

Watched this at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.

With a really interesting concept, the movie offers some genuinely interesting concepts and ideas, yet, feels a little messy. The filmmakers clearly have a creative concept about the approach of love relationships and technology. To which the narrative, while does get a little unfocused on some of the themes and structures, does provide some interesting components to engage with. The performances from Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun are really good as Stewart and Yeun have really good chemistry between one another.

There are some good uses of computer effects, editing style and color presentations. There are uses of animation throughout and honestly, the animation looks fine but it does feel like something from a cheap mobile app design which was a little distracting. There are some good dialogue moments but some moments feeling a little too fake. Some of the editing choices were a little annoying.

For sure, the movie is definitely creative and while I wished the movie was a little more focused on some of the themes and certain aspects did feel too slow, I still was invested because of Stewart and Yeun's strong chemistry and the filmmakers being able to create something that is different.