I'm Here review

This one's a bit of a surprise, as it's not a theatrically released film, nor is it a disc release film. It's exclusive to the web, and to 5,000 viewers each day, but it's beautiful. But, what is it?

I'm Here is a thirty-minute short film from director Spike Jonze (Where The Wild Things Are, Being John Malkovich), released and presented by Absolut Vodka, but despite that, the product never appears in the film, nor is it mentioned, so really you can take the film for what it is and not look at it as a commercial.

You can watch the film right now (hopefully) at http://www.imheremovie.com/ I say hopefully, because the way the film works is that it will only be screened for 5,000 people per day, and only at certain times. For instance when I tried earlier today there was a two hour wait, so I didn't bother. But when I tried later, it was just a 30 minute wait, so I just kept reloading the page until the time was up. And thankfully, once you get in, you'll never be kicked out until you close the page or reload, so you're able to have multiple viewings.



The film is a love story about two robots, Sheldon and Francesca, who live in Los Angeles. The robotic beings aren't very well accepted in society, so when the two first lock eyes, it's love at first sight. As I said earlier, the film is only thirty minutes, so it'd be unfair for me to give it all away. But I found it to be like a hipster version of WALL-E, but filmed in the same style and tone as Where The Wild Things Are. And considering I loved WALL-E, and found the filming style of Wild Things to be the only part I really liked, I'm Here really turns out to be quite the nice piece of modern cinema, both visually and emotionally.

What I really loved about the film, is that despite the fact that it stars robots, which are actually just the actors in costume with computer generated facial expressions (much like Wild Things' fur suits), it never once came across as unbelievable, because visually it was just accepted as real. It's so rare these days to see something science fiction like this, without tons of back-story and explanation given as to how they exist. Perhaps it was due to the 30-minute time frame, but regardless it wouldn't have been necessary.

I'm Here is a beautiful short film, and I just hope it gets a disc/digital release eventually, because I'd love to see to see it get more exposure than just here on my laptop in a web-browser. Do yourself a favor, and watch this movie.

Overall Score: 9.5/10

As a just because. Because I thank Absolut for giving this film a home for almost everyone to enjoy, free of charge. Because I'm glad Spike Jonze made a film that wasn't a big budget pseudo-adaptation of a beloved children's book, after having already done so. And because he made a science fiction film that deals with very human emotions, despite it being about robots. Loved it, because sometimes you just have to reward people for doing something different and getting it right.