alexeykorovin
This short movie is about sacrifice. One of the main characters (a robot) sacrifices himself literally by giving away parts of his (its?) body to repair the other, female robot he loves. A cute story with a wonderful message. It's low-budget, true. The heads of the robots are dirty like old computers from the 90s you would find on a junkyard. The word of the future doesn't differ much from today, except there are retro-style robots everywhere doing menial jobs. Still, this kind of "low-budget"- ness feels cool in its own way. I even think that if such a movie would be done as a 1.5-hour film with celebrity actors and a big budget, it would probably turn out not as good as it's now. This is definitely a piece of art and well worth the watch!
Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de)
You have to make up your mind for yourself. I personally found it a really tragic short film. The main character, a strange metallic statue with something that resembles a PC tower as his head leads an isolated lonely life, until, one day, he runs into a sweet robot lady and her gang of friends. From that moment on, he keeps spending more time with the group and finally seems to succeed in bringing more diversity into his life. However, things quickly take a turn for the worse when the lady of his choice keeps having accidents of increased severity. Every accident, she causes irreparable damage to the extent that she's soon losing her arms, legs and even torso and our hero (played by "Spider-Man" Andrew Garfield) keeps sacrificing his body-parts, so she can keep living a sort-of normal life. Is that what true love looks like?As a whole, I'd recommend the short film, although I believe they could have at least cut 5 minutes from it. Around halfway in, the premise and developments are clear and it's basically just him stepping in repeatedly whenever something happened to the girl. The only real highlight of the second half of the film is the final shot with her in the wheelchair. Nonetheless, it's one of Spike Jonze's best works.
vogonify
A shy, young man goes through his mundane life without companionship. Until he learns to dream.Spike Jonze has made some bizarre-looking movies to say normal-sounding things. I'm Here is one such with a basic premise so basic, you wonder if the facade he uses is just a gimmick for drawing an audience. But his imagery takes you beyond petty suspicions and introduces some remarkable, relate-able characters. In fact, it almost makes you feel that that was the only way to make the film. It is a truly commendable quality of this short.This is a wonderful effort and takes just 30 minutes to say effectively what many full-length features fail to in two hours. A must watch .
Norm Richardson
Retro robots in the future, same as here and now, but robots stomp about. A quiet, lonesome, librarian robot fixates on a sleeker fem-bot with some questionable robot friends, enters into a one-sided relationship, gives too much, the end. It's the kind of film that doesn't matter, it's slight, it's light, it's quite simple. But give it the half hour it asks, invest a bit of time and let it flow past you, and it's a sweet slice of everyday life. The ups and downs and all the angles of relationships. Filmed in a washed-out sunny California vibe, it's not a technical effort, but it does have an extended pop video feel. Subtle animation give life to the robots, and for all the lack of reality, the characters are believable, and sympathetic.
AD
