Friday, August 13, 2010

Spike Jonze short “I’m Here”

 



“I’m Here” is an unbelievably stirring short film by Spike Jonze. Set in L.A, it follows the story of two robots as they meet and fall very much in love. The directing is amazing, the story moves nicely, and it is completely absorbing to say the least. It seems that since directing Where the Wild Things Are, Spike Jonze has really been resoundingly successful in creating masterpieces that exude raw and tender emotions and artfully tug at our heartstrings. Needless to say, I was really quite touched by this. It was sentimental without being trite and sincere without being precious.

It was uncanny in its ability to transmit the excitement of new love, the willingness to sacrifice, and the simplistic joy of merely being in the presence of someone that you adore. I suppose it was because he used anthropomorphized robots with highly expressive eyes. As a result, we naturally imbue the characters with more compassion and feeling than were they simply human. Our greatest hopes, loves, and emotions are immediately projected upon these characters as we seek to make them more humanistic. I suppose the genius of this film is that each scene and action functions like a literal metaphor. The robot can get hurt or feel an emotion, but because it is a robot it is simply acting metaphorically as a human. However, because we have anthropomorphized the robots, we no longer see it as a metaphor and it hits us at a greater emotional depth as it bypasses cognitive thinking and moves directly to our emotional core.

Simply put, this is the most deliriously romantic film I’ve seen in a long time and I wish I had watched it with a particular someone (you know who you are).

Watch it online now at I’mHereTheMovie.

As an added bonus, the soundtrack to this is amazing. Of Montreal has an actual cameo in this film and appears on the soundtrack alongside Girls, Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Flea, Annimal Collective, and LA local ASKA. It’s not surprising that this soundtrack kicks a lot of ass considering that Where the Wild Things are featured an amazing score written specially by Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The official release for the soundtrack is October 5th, but in the meantime check out this lovely track by ASKA which is featured prominently in the film.

Aska (With The Lost Trees) - "There Are Many Of Us" by Some Kind of Awesome

No comments:

Post a Comment