I'm Here

I'm Here Is a short film about a computer/robot living in a discriminative world of which humans are dominant, we follow the main character Sheldon a lonely Bookkeeper robot fall in love with a 'Live-wire' girl robot who does not conform to the human societies expectations of robots. Throughout the short we get and insight of what its like for the robots and this helps us to empathise with them. I believe in itself the discrimination of the robots does not differ much from the discrimination that has and still is being seen in the real world. Overall I found the short film 'I'm here' very touching and heart warming. I believe that the director wanted to send out a strong message about love and friendship. I perceived the message that without those you love the world can be a lonely place, and therefore you should give an 'arm and a leg' to keep them close.

Retro robots in the future, same as here and now, but robots stomp about. A quiet, lonesome, librarian robot fixates on a sleeker fem-bot with some questionable robot friends, enters into a one-sided relationship, gives too much, the end. It's the kind of film that doesn't matter, it's slight, it's light, it's quite simple. But give it the half hour it asks, invest a bit of time and let it flow past you, and it's a sweet slice of everyday life. The ups and downs and all the angles of relationships. Filmed in a washed-out sunny California vibe, it's not a technical effort, but it does have an extended pop video feel. Subtle animation give life to the robots, and for all the lack of reality, the characters are believable, and sympathetic.

Spike Jonze is a director known for over-the-top high concept music videos and yet his films are always so emotional and subtle.

Many scenes in this film moved me yet I can't put my finger on why. It captures the loneliness of a big city, but how just a few friends and a sweetheart can cure that empty feeling. Everything is kept so simple as to be universal.

The look of the robots is very retro and ironic. They look older than the computer I am writing this on by maintaining the boxy gray look of a computer from the late 90s. In many ways this short seems to take place in LA during the 90s. Everything seems dated.

I won't say much about the relationship at the center of the story but I do wonder if it is meant to be dysfunctional or not. Let's just say it reaches a very one-sided place in terms of giving more than you get in a relationship. The ending is moving but also a bit creepy when you consider the reality of what has been sacrificed to save a casual lover.

Selfless sacrifice in the android community given the warm, soft focused, fuzzy treatment in a well realised near future world.

Even with just a few minutes, the director establishes very well the way robots live, the lonely, sad and complicated life they live, and the way they relate to each other and to the world around them. I confess I didn't expect it to be so touching. Even not "appearing" on the scene (the actors are covered by some kind of mask that imitates a safe or PC tower) the body language and the dialogues are both very good.

Apparently, for Sheldon all that matters is Francesca's well-being.

I understand that this is perhaps the director trying to demonstrate what love would be in the vision of the machines, but I still think that Sheldon missed a bit of self-respect. I´m aware that maybe I'm here judging too much based on my condition as a human being.

Another thing that I noticed, at no time does the girl's life appear, I mean, what she does, who she lives with, but we started the film seeing that Andrew Garfield's character has routines, rides the bus, works in the library, that makes we relate better to him than to her.

He was clearly in love with the girl, liked and valued her more than he did to himself. At some point I caught myself thinking that maybe she wouldn't show up to pick him up at work for whatever reason. Something that indeed happens at the end, but the reason is much more dramatic. I recommend you watch it and see if you agree with me or not.