Sundance review: 'Love Me' is an oddball dellight, a science-fiction take on robot love and the all-too-human glitches in the software
Can a grand visual experiment also be emotionally moving? In the case of “Love Me,” a swoon-worthy romance between pixels, yes, yes, a thousand times, yes.
The filmmaking team of Sam and Andy Zuchero start with the formation of the Earth, then fast-forward rapidly through to an indeterminate number of years from now — when humanity is extinct. (The brief loud blip of the Anthropocene epoch generates the movie’s first laugh.) When the ice breaks, it releases a “smart buoy” that seeks to communicate with a satellite circling the planet, offering to help any lifeform that approaches ‘the planet formerly known as Earth.” (The satellite also carries a variation of the plaque that was carried on Pioneer 10 and 11, showing what humans looked like.)
The buoy tries to signal the satellite, which at first isn’t interested because a buoy isn’t a lifeform. So the buoy, getting some access to the satellite’s memory banks of humanity’s collected knowledge, figures out how to lie, and claim to be a lifeform. The buoy uses as its model the vast amounts of social media posts it collects — and finds as its model a vapid Instagram influencer named Deja (played by Kristen Stewart), who posted constantly about her post-perfect romance with Liam (Steven Yeun).
Once they connect, the buoy, who takes the name Me, tries to turn itself and the satellite — called Iam — into computer-generated versions of Deja and Liam. They repeat the same “date night” Instagram post, wearing adult onesie pajamas, cooking quesadillas (from a Blue Apron box) and cuddling up with “Friends” reruns. But even as software just learning about human romance, they can’t shake the feeling that something’s phony about the whole thing.
The Zucheros deploy a delightfully manic visual vocabulary — with rapid-fire cutting of the two main characters as mechanical objects, computer avatars and fully lifelike human forms — that has echoes of “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” with stronger science-fiction elements. The romance between Me and Iam plays out a bit like the robot love of “Wall-E,” with more introspection and self-doubt.
The Zucheros’ visual wit is matched by strong performances by Stewart and Yeun, who gracefully capture the idea that computers who learned about relationships from humans would inevitably end up with relationships as screwed up as the ones humans have. “Love Me” in the end, is a sweet, intelligent story of a satellite, standing in front of a buoy, asking it to love it.
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“Love Me”
★★★1/2
Screening in the U.S. Dramatic competition of the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Not rated, but probably R for sexual situations and language. Running time: 92 minutes.
Screens again: Saturday, January 20, 9:30 a.m., Prospector Square Theatre, Park City; Sunday, January 21, Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, Salt Lake City; Wednesday, January 24, 8:45 p.m., Redstone Cinemas 2, Park City; Friday, January 26, 7:45 p.m., Library Center Theatre, Park City. Also available online via the Sundance portal, Thursday-Sunday, January 25-28.