LOVE ME – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

LOVE ME – Review by Justina Walford

January 29, 2025January 28, 2025 Justina Walford AI, Kristen Stewart, LOVE ME, Sam Zuchero, scifi, Steven Yeun, Zazu Myers

Well, I guess this is me now. I’m a 54-year-old woman who knew a world before computers and is now writing a review about a romantic drama involving a buoy and a satellite, talking to a friend about AI being used to talk to dead people, and lovingly asking Alexa to remind me to take out the trash. If you told me I would see all the science fiction I read as a child become reality, I would be giddy with excitement for adulthood. I’m sometimes as giddy as younger me would be, but more often I’m baffled. How do I fit into this world where sentience is a gray area? So on that note, let’s review Love Me, Sam Zuchero’s directorial debut about a buoy looking at a satellite, asking him to love her. And please, let’s not get too existential here. It’s just chunks of metal falling in love…without the existence of humanity. I liked Love Me, I didn’t love it. But it’s exploring two very profound concepts we, as a society are urgently grappling with: the end of humanity and the realization that sentience is not exclusive to the human experience. And for that, it is an important watch.

Festivals

Sundance FF 2024: Previewing Femme-Helmed Films, Part One – Leslie Combemale reports

January 7, 2024January 19, 2024 Leslie Combemale anna boden, FREAKY TALES, I SAW THE TV GLOW, Jane Schoenbrun, june squibb, Kristin Stewart, LOVE LIES BLEEDING, LOVE ME, Megan Park, Nora Fingscheidt, Richard Roundtree, rose glass, ryan fleck, saoirse ronan, sundance 2024 preview, Sundance Film Fest 2024, Thelma

January is generally known as the repository for the studios’ least promising releases. January is also the MONTH OF SUNDANCE, where promising film projects are introduced to the public for the first time and some go on to acclaim, winning multiple awards. The rising cost of attendance, the difficulty in getting films accepted (over 14,000 apply, about 100 get a premiere), and the ever-lowering percentage of films picked up for distribution are valid challenges for fest attendees, critics, and filmmakers. However, Sundance still one of the best games in town for female filmmakers and filmmakers of color. Of the first 82 narrative and documentary features announced by the fest, 47% were directed by filmmakers who identify as women, and 45% who identify as people of color.