Short Film Review Three: I'm Here
Short Film Review:
I see this as the moment in Jonze’s career where his visually
stylistic approach to film finally clicked for him, his music videos and
skateboard films all had the same similar charming D.I.Y look but he struggled to
get a signature look with his feature projects. Not that his feature films look
bad but Being John Malkovich (1999) and Adaptation (2003) lack any features
where someone could pick up on them, jump out their seat and say, “THIS IS A
SPIKE JONZE FILM!” Things started to come together in Where the Wild Things Are
(2009), we see Jonze’s trademark handheld shots fully come into play, his mostly
saturated yellow and brown color palettes and introspective dialogue.
Two years on that leads us to the film at hand, I’m
Here, which features all I previously mentioned perfected. You can pause the
film at almost any point, and it is instantly identifiable as Jonze’s and a stunning
portrait in itself.
This still is from one of the scenes not long after
Sheldon & Francesca begin living together. Sheldon returns home expecting
to see Fran but is greeted by string mice she made earlier and had decorated
the room with. The room is bland, with its beige walls, mossy green, grey
carpet and dim lamps. The random inclusion of these colorful mice sitting
socially and happily, I think symbolizes the new joy and sociability that Fran
has brought into his life, you can almost see Sheldon thinking this from his
forlorn expression on his face.
One of my favorite things about this short is how Jonze
makes you fall in love with these characters the way they fall in love with
each other. It feels fleeting and new (maybe because of the runtime), similar
to romantic relationships you first experience in your years of adolescence,
there’s an exciting anxiety to the whole thing which Jonze capitalizes on especially
in the last scene where Sheldon sacrifices his body for Fran after she falls
apart literally and figuratively once again. You are left guessing right up to
the last-minute weather Sheldon is okay where we get the haunting POV shot of
him opening his eyes on Fran with his body revealing her horrified expression and
we see her POV of Sheldon smiling back at her with just his head on a hospital
bed. The final shot of her in the wheelchair cradling his head outside the
hospital is stunning and strangely comforting.
Other standout scenes include the sprawling mosh pit
at the concert, the robot carpool, the robot house party, the scene here Fran
and Sheldon first charge up together, just so many great moments in such a nice
little compact short. My only complaint would be that I would have liked there
to have been a bit more revealed about how robots are treated as lesser than
the humans in this society, we obviously see glimpses of dead robots on the
street, abuse and slurs thrown at them, but it would have been interesting to
learn more about the history of it. But overall, still such a tight short!
4/5 Watched on Vimeo.
References:
"I guess it's related in that it's a love story, in LA,
but it's more about love in your early twenties and what love is to character
in that point of their life." - NYFF51: "Her" Press Conference |
Spike Jonze, Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Rooney Mara, Olivia Wilde 2013
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