'Love Again' Reviews: "While Stewart and Yeun are great performers, their characters are too blank for their own good"

     On January 31, 2024, Bleecker Street releases 'Love Again', which has earned a mixed reception from critics, currently holding at 47% on Rotten Tomatoes. "In a story that spans billions of years, a buoy and a satellite meet online long after humanity's extinction. As they learn what life was like on Earth, they discover themselves and what it means to be alive and in love. In this groundbreaking first feature from directors Sam and Andy Zuchero, Love Me explores contemporary topics surrounding technology and identity, though at its heart is a simple, emotionally resonant tale of transformation. Thrillingly utilizing filmmaking techniques from live-action, practical animatronics, classic animation and game engines, and anchored in enthralling performances by Stewart and Yeun, Love Me culminates in the longest-spanning love story ever told." The ensemble cast includes Steven Yeun and Kristen Stewart. Read the full review round-up below.

    Louisa Moore of Screen Zealots says, "The film’s structure is a disaster, weaving together different time periods in a mess of virtual, surreal, and real world applications. The lovers are portrayed by Yeun and Stewart in different forms, from inanimate objects to computer simulations to humans. The best version of the pair is the very first, featuring quirky and fun banter that’s based in nerdy humor. The story gains momentum as the buoy and satellite connect through archived social media posts, but it falls apart as the Zucheros begin telling their story through animated avatars. Eventually, it all devolves into a semi-mindless sitcom that feels extremely disappointing after such a strong, eclectic start. After an exhausting clip show of filler material and bombarding the audience with unpleasant relationship arguments, the story finally trends upwards towards the end. Ultimately, it’s too late to save the disappointing “Love Me.” The creativity and inventiveness simply doesn’t work well enough."

   Lisa Trifone of Third Coast Review notes, "As interesting as the film's central question is, with a cast of two and not much more to do than watch the different iterations of the buoy and the satellite navel gaze their way through their rocky relationship, it does start to wear."

    Mae Abdulbaki of Screen Rant writes, "Much of Love Me plays out in animated form, which also lends itself to Stewart and Yeun’s underwhelming performances. The animated portion isn’t itself a problem, but the implementation is uninspired and lackluster, devoid of true feeling. That’s, in part, because the scenes grow tired and there’s a lack of ambition when it comes to moving from one point to another in the story. We get the point early on, but the writer-directors seem determined to hit us over the head with it before finally moving on. The culmination is haphazard at best, nor does it resonate emotionally. The concept is no doubt thought-provoking and, occasionally, even creative. But it’s hard to get behind the journey the AIs go on when it’s so detached, the film itself attempting to be a gripping narrative conveying heartfelt emotions that just don’t land. The beginning showed some promise, but you’ll be waiting for Love Me to be over long before it actually ends."

   Chris Evangelista of Slashfilm was less impressed, stating, "Stop me if you heard this one before: in a post-apocalyptic world, a lonely buoy and a friendly satellite fall in love. That admittedly bonkers scenario is at the core of Sam and Andy Zuchero's sweet but frustrating "Love Me." Dealing with the trappings and limitations of social media, "Love Me" uses its end-of-the-world scenario to stage an unlikely love story. After some cataclysmic event has wiped out all of humanity, a smart buoy named Me drifts alone through a recently thawed sea just outside of the ruins of New York. One day, a satellite named Iam floats overhead and catches her eye. The two strike up a conversation and Me decides to pass herself off as a "lifeform" in order to grow closer to Iam. To do so, she scrolls through the internet — still alive and kicking even after the apocalypse — and happens upon a sickeningly sweet series of videos from content creator Deja (Kristen Stewart) and her husband Liam (Steven Yeun). Using that relationship as a blueprint, Me and Iam enter a Sims-like world where their animated avatars attempt to spark love. But can love even exist between these two objects play-acting as humans? This is a great set-up, and Stewart and Yeun are more than game for the material. Unfortunately, "Love Me" begins to grow tiresome, spinning its wheels and devolving into a series of arguments between the characters as they struggle to learn who and what they really are. From a purely aesthetic level, the film is a winner — the opening sequences on post-apocalyptic Earth immediately recall Pixar's "WALL-E," while the digital animation used to render the characters into not-quite-flesh is fascinating. But "Love Me" can't quite find the right spark to deliver on its premise. While Stewart and Yeun are great performers, their characters are too blank for their own good — how could they not be? They're artificial. Quirky and occasionally charming, "Love Me" comes up short in the end."

Photo by Alice Voigt on Unsplash

'Hard Truths' Reviews: "Jean-Baptiste is breathtakingly good, and it’s so nice to have Leigh back on the dramatic scene. He’s essential to it"

         On December 6, 2024, 'Hard Truths' is scheduled for release by Bleecker Street, earning rave reviews and currently holding at 98% on Rotten Tomatoes. In the film, "Legendary filmmaker Mike Leigh returns to the contemporary world with a fierce, compassionate, and often darkly humorous study of family and the thorny ties that bind us. Reunited with Leigh for the first time since multiple Oscar-nominated Secrets and Lies, the astonishing Marianne Jean-Baptiste plays Pansy, a woman wracked by fear, tormented by afflictions, and prone to raging tirades against her husband, son, and anyone who looks her way. Meanwhile, her easygoing younger sister, played by Michele Austin (Another Year), is a single mother with a life as different from Pansy's as their clashing temperaments -- brimming with communal warmth from her salon clients and daughters alike. This expansive film from a master dramatist takes us into the intensities of kinship, duty, and the most enduring of human mysteries: that even through lifetimes of hurt and hardship, we still find ways to love those we call family." But what did the critics say? 

       Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com says, For the first half of “Hard Truths,” Pansy is a tornado of Karen-esque encounters as Pansy unrealistically yells at salespeople, cashiers, and anyone else who dares look at her wrong. It’s almost a counter to Leigh’s masterful “Happy-Go-Lucky”—call this one “Angry-Go-Lucky”—but then the curtain drops when Pansy’s sister insists they visit Mom’s grave on Mother’s Day. The following scenes allow Jean-Baptiste to dig into a deep emotional well that goes surprisingly unexpressed. This is a woman who won’t stop talking when she’s mad but cannot find the words to express her sadness. Pansy is a pretty awful human being to strangers and her family. Still, Leigh and Jean-Baptiste struggle to find compassion for someone with so much emotional baggage that all that can escape the weight of it all is anger. I understand the intent of the relatively vague ending—it’s no spoiler to say that Leigh is uninterested in a tidy emotional wrap-up—but I still don’t think it quite lands like the best of his films. However, that feeling could change on repeat viewing—the man’s works often reveal more the second and even third times around. And the streak continues; after all, Mike Leigh doesn’t make bad movies." Adding, "Jean-Baptiste is breathtakingly good, and it’s so nice to have Leigh back on the dramatic scene. He’s essential to it."

       Jon Frosch of Hollywood Reporter notes, "If the matter of why Pansy’s family puts up with her haunts Hard Truths like an unsolved mystery, Leigh allows glimmers of an answer by the time the film draws to a close: Pansy may be a nightmare, but in her howling, despondent way she’s also a life force. And in Jean-Baptiste’s brilliant turn, one detects the possibility — remote, yet distinct — that beneath all this woman’s fierceness and fury is a kind of fierce, furious love."

       Michael Sicinski of In Review Online writes, "Mike Leigh, one of cinema’s last great humanists, has chosen to remind us that bitterness consumes everything, and that it is impossible to love others until you find the strength to heal."

        Nadia Dalimonte of Next Best Picture praises the film, stating, "Jean-Baptiste is the magnificent core Leigh orbits around to reach the stars. Full of humor and sorrow, her vigorous performance prioritizes the character’s humanity in every scene. Rather than concern herself with trying to make the character “likable,” Jean-Baptiste fully embraces her temperament without apology. She deftly navigates from alienation and cynicism to regret and hopefulness (even if for a glimmer). What makes Jean-Baptiste’s performance especially compelling is her balance of the dichotomy in Pansy’s self-expression. She readily confronts the people, places, and things that trouble her. However, she has difficulty voicing why she feels the way she does. The pain of not knowing haunts her. Jean-Baptiste also exercises incredible comedic timing while not abandoning the tinges of sorrow that are part of her."

Photo by Elena Takmakova on Unsplash