Love Me isn’t getting any love from the ratings at IMDb (5.1) and RottenTomatoes critics(47%) or the users (62%). I think people are being a little too harsh. Anyone who has faced any form of body-image issues, or can empathize with those who have, will find this movie deeply profound.
This movie isn’t meant to parody a group of people; it’s meant to be allegorical and help people recognize and cope with being who they are instead of who they think they should be.
The World’s Most Indispensable Movie App
The RunPee app tells you the best times to
run & pee during a movie
so you don't miss the best scenes.
Download the RunPee app.
100% free (donation supported)
The movie switches between animated and live-action. Kristen Stewart performs as Me/Deja, an ocean buoy that becomes a social-media influencer. Steven Yeun plays Iam/Liam a satellite and Deja’s counterpart/partner. If that sounds about as strange as anything you’ve read today then… It is. But the movie totally makes it make sense, which illustrates the genius of the creators. Don’t worry, I’m not spoiling anything that isn’t revealed in the movie’s first five minutes, which opens with a Contact-like sequence that ends hilariously—but you have to watch closely as the Earth spins.
Buoys are, by necessity, squat and bottom-heavy and do not easily translate into the ideal human form. Deja, as an ocean buoy, sees her reflection and is aware of her shape before she becomes aware of the human form. After perusing endless social-media content, she adopts the identity of a specific human, played by Kristen Stewart. Essentially, an advanced ocean buoy becomes self-aware, gets an image of what it/she looks like, and is then exposed to a trash heap of social-media content where it chooses to identify as Deja, a social-media influencer with all the charisma of sytrophome. How the movie portrays this sequence is funny and creative.
Acting
Early in the movie, Kristen Stewart is asked chiefly to voice act and does a terrific job. Toward the end, there’s more live action, and Stewart has a few dramatic scenes. After one particularly dramatic scene, I took a breath and was about to say to my wife, “Wow, that was great acting,” but my wife spoke first and said, “Kristen Stewart really can’t act.” I kept my comment to myself so we could finish the movie. But it perfectly illustrates how two people can watch the same scene and come away with entirely different interpretations.
Steven Yeun’s character didn’t have quite the same demands, and so his acting didn’t stand out as much, but he did a fine job. No complaints here. And my wife never stopped to criticize him, so there’s that. 🙂
What people are saying
about the RunPee app.
Movie Watching Must Have!!
I go feral for this app. I love it so much and I wish everyone knew about it and used it. It is incredibly useful and I would be devastated if this app ever disappeared. Things I love: 1) the pee times! It’s so handy to know the best time to go and then read the synopsis of what’s happening while I’m gone. I never have to worry about missing the good bits! 2) knowing if there is a post-credits scene or not. This might be my fav feature because I would have missed out on some pretty critical scenes if it weren’t for RunPee. 3) the movie review and viewer rankings. This info has made me watch some movies that I normally wouldn’t and it’s nice seeing things outside of my usual scope. 4) that it’s a small family run business. I love shopping small and it really does feel like I’m part of the RunPee family! If you reach out to them, Dan will personally respond to you and he is so warm and helpful. GET THIS APP AND THEN SUBSCRIBE! It is absolutely worth it and you’ll be using it again and again!
View all reviews
Apple App Store | Google Play Store
Download RunPee app
Visual Storytelling
We are fortunate to live in a time where visual storytellers have matured to the point that they can give emotional depth to an ocean buoy that can only look up and down and change the diameter of its camera aperture. You could watch this movie with the sound muted and still follow all of the nuances of the plot and character development.
Writers/Directors
I would love to talk to Sam and Andrew Zuchero about this story’s evolution through their creative process. My impression is that it evolved a great deal over time. There is a lot of pushback from moviegoers about the quality of movies today. My take is that production values have never been higher. Today, we have the technology to film practically anything imaginable, and the budget is rapidly decreasing. However, the stories that form the bedrock of movies are still hit and miss. We all watch many movies that look good on the surface, but the story seems lacking. And often it’s hard to pinpoint what is lacking. I believe too many scripts get turned into movies before they are fully baked. Sometimes it feels like the script just needed a few more revisions, some clarifications, and tightening of the dialogue, and then it could be the foundation for a good movie.
This is a script that feels like it was revised and crafted until the Zucheros could find nothing more they could improve on, and then they turned it into a film. I’m not saying this is among the greatest movies ever made, but it feels like it reaches its own intensic potential. There’s nothing left they could have added to make it better, but there’s a lot that could have made it worse.
Grade: A+
And if you want to dive a little deeper, here’s another short five-minute interview with Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun, followed by five minutes with the creators.
Streaming
This is streaming on a host of platforms for purchase. We watched it on GoogleTV for $5.99.
If you liked this
If you appreciate Love Me‘s thoughtful exploration of identity through science fiction, you might enjoy Spike Jonze’s Her, which similarly examines love and connection through technology. Alex Garland’s Ex Machina offers another perspective on artificial consciousness and humanity, while Charlie Kaufman’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind shares Love Me‘s emotional depth and creative visual approach. For those drawn to the film’s animated elements, adult animation like Undone (Amazon Prime) explores similar existential themes with visual creativity.
Leave a Reply