{"id":21737,"date":"2024-01-28T14:32:52","date_gmt":"2024-01-28T19:32:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=21737"},"modified":"2024-01-28T14:32:52","modified_gmt":"2024-01-28T19:32:52","slug":"sundance-review-love-me-romance-at-the-end-of-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=21737","title":{"rendered":"Sundance Review \/ Love Me: Romance at the End of Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

What does it mean to be alive? That\u2019s the central question posed in the sci-fi drama <\/span>Love Me<\/i><\/b>, which is set thousands of years in the future long after Earth is no longer inhabited. A satellite launched by NASA to scan for lifeforms to welcome them to what used to be the planet locates a smart buoy floating in the water. After initially determining that the buoy is not a lifeform, she begins her own search and discovers that she would very much like to try. What ensues is a dreamlike story of two beings who are definitely not human living other people\u2019s lives and finding each other in the process.<\/span><\/p>\n

This premise is loaded with humor because of the nature of the clues we leave behind for whatever future entity comes upon the remnants of the earth. The buoy, who names herself Me, creates a social media profile based on a content creator named Deja (Kristen Stewart)<\/a>. She uses that to convince the satellite, who she names Iam, to join her in a simulated animated world where they spend each day going through the same routine that mimics one of Deja and her boyfriend Liam\u2019s(Steve Yeun<\/a>) videos. I am often asks why they\u2019re doing what they\u2019re doing and who they\u2019re talking to, and Me just says it\u2019s how life works, since she is, he believes, a life form.<\/span><\/p>\n

This film is most definitely a two-hander since Stewart and Yeun provide the voices for the buoy and satellite before they begin to appear in both live-action and animated form once they\u2019ve become Me and Iam. Both are capable actors with Sundance experience – Yeun was at the festival with <\/span>Minari<\/i><\/b> in 2020 and Stewart headlines <\/span>Love Lies Bleeding <\/i><\/b>this year – and have each chosen high-brow projects like <\/span>Beef<\/i><\/b> and <\/span>Spencer<\/i><\/b>, respectively, to elevate their reputations from the genre projects, <\/span>The Walking Dead<\/i><\/b> and <\/span>Twilight<\/i><\/b>, that originally made them famous.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Love
Sam Zuchero and Andy Zuchero, director of Love Me, an official selection of the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Much of their performances feels like they\u2019re simply reading off a script, because they are, as these entities that are most definitely not life forms are saying what they believe normal life forms say all the time. Hearing the subtle and gradual shifts from robotic tones to more sympathetic and emotional as they realize what it means to be human is an engaging process, and watching as both come to doubt aspects of the new lives they are inhabiting evokes contemplation of what it would be like to live long after the end of everyone else, just picking up pieces of what used to be and starting from there.<\/span><\/p>\n

As with any future-set science fiction that takes place after an extinction event, there is an element of depression that takes hold, since, whatever Me and Iam are able to glean about life and to build together, it\u2019s still not real and there\u2019s no one else to share it with aside from each other. Like <\/span>A.I. Artificial Intelligence<\/i><\/b>, the film, however melancholy it may be, is most worthwhile because it\u2019s about the joy of learning and becoming. If no one\u2019s left in the future, why shouldn\u2019t a buoy and a satellite be able to find love?<\/span><\/p>\n

This concept is undeniably interesting and the execution mostly works. It\u2019s most intriguing when it begins and gradually, as the truth comes to light and Me and Iam begin to engage with difficult questions of exactly who they are, it veers into more theoretical territory that isn\u2019t quite as gripping. But Stewart and Yeun both deliver memorable performances in the feature debut of filmmaking team Sam and Andy Zuchero. It asks complicated questions and begins to answer them in the most basic of ways, using the seemingly unsubstantive digital traces of society that might be all that\u2019s left after humanity is gone. It\u2019s entertaining and there\u2019s plenty to think about, even if the end result might leave audiences wanting a bit more.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Grade: B<\/b><\/p>\n

Check out more of Abe Friedtanzer\u2019s articles<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Love Me <\/i><\/b>makes its world premiere in the <\/span>U.S. Dramatic Competition<\/span><\/a> at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What does it mean to be alive? That\u2019s the central question posed in the sci-fi drama Love Me, which is set thousands of years in the future long after Earth is no longer inhabited. A satellite launched by NASA to scan for lifeforms to welcome them to what used to be the planet locates a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":21739,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[20210,2647,19316,8835,20209,8450,7180,643,20022,2235],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSundance Review \/ Love Me: Romance at the End of Time<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun star as a buoy and a satellite in the future-set romance Love Me, screening at Sundance.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=21737\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sundance Review \/ Love Me: Romance at the End of Time\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun star as a buoy and a satellite in the future-set romance Love Me, screening at Sundance.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=21737\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cinema Daily US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-01-28T19:32:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Love-Me.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1088\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"612\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Abe Friedtanzer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/movieswithabe\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Abe Friedtanzer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=21737\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=21737\",\"name\":\"Sundance Review \/ Love Me: Romance at the End of Time\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=21737#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=21737#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Love-Me.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-01-28T19:32:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-01-28T19:32:52+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6d4d1be5055fa0a21c6be5ee2b54ae10\"},\"description\":\"Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun star as a buoy and a satellite in the future-set romance Love Me, screening at Sundance.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=21737#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=21737\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=21737#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Love-Me.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Love-Me.jpg\",\"width\":1088,\"height\":612,\"caption\":\"Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun appear in Love Me by Sam Zuchero and Andy Zuchero, an official selection of the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. 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