Kristen Stewart And Steven Yeun Elevate The Robotic Sci-fi Romance Love Me

When it comes to how they navigate Hollywood, Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun might be soulmates. They both catapulted to fame thanks to massive, culture-defining genre properties (Twilight, The Walking Dead) only to eschew a traditional movie star path for something more eclectic. Stewart flocked to the atmospheric worlds of French director Olivier Assayas and broke ground in the first major lesbian Christmas rom-com. Yeun teamed up with auteurs like Boots Riley and Lee Chang-dong before making history as the first Asian-American Best Actor nominee for Minari. (Stewart earned her own Oscar nomination for Spencer the next year.) It’s no small thing that they were both drawn to the post-apocalyptic sci-fi romance Love Me, the debut feature from writing/directing duo Sam and Andy Zuchero. 

The stars’ involvement alone is a testament to the originality behind this high-concept exploration of the human condition as told through a billion-year-spanning love story between two robots. And while the movie’s breadth-over-depth approach might have been more powerful as a short film, Love Me still delivers a unique blend of charm and existentialism across its 92-minute runtime.

Very much a film in three acts, the opening takes its cues from WALL-E, with an even more harrowing depiction of our near-future. Earth is flooded, life is gone, and all that remains of our legacy are two “smart” machines: a solitary scientific buoy bobbing in the ocean and an orbiting “helper” satellite with the entire digital footprint of humanity in its archives. It turns out the internet really is forever and our viral videos, YouTube vlogs, and sponsored Instagram posts are going to outlive us all (god forbid). And since the ambassadorial satellite will only engage with lifeforms, the lonely little buoy decides to become one, borrowing the voice and mannerisms of Deja (Stewart), a 2016-era lifestyle vlogger who made inane self-help videos with her boyfriend Liam (Yeun, who also voices the satellite). 

The WALL-E stuff is the sweetest, strongest portion of the film. Like two middle schoolers just figuring out how to flirt, the machines slowly, awkwardly form a friendship based on their limited understanding of social media norms and meme humor. Though they’re depicted as little more than hunks of metal floating in their respective spheres, it’s hard not to immediately fall for their robotic meet-cute. In fact, the Zucheros pull off the neat trick of anthropomorphizing the buoy (who names herself Me) and the satellite (who gets dubbed Iam) so that their connection feels far more alive than the performative online love story captured in Deja and Liam’s videos. 

Unfortunately, much of that charm fades away in the second act, as Me decides to recreate Deja and Liam’s love story in a more literal way by inviting Iam to join her in a shared digital space rendered in clunky metaverse animation only Mark Zuckerberg could love. It’s a visual choice that works well for some initial comedy but becomes off-putting and distancing the longer it plays out. Even more frustratingly, the second act reduces the wistful existentialism of the opening to a much more mundane conflict. In Me’s desire to recreate what she’s seen online, she winds up embodying a vapid, image-obsessed influencer who craves a picture-perfect on-camera life, even as Iam longs for a more genuine connection—a struggle that feels both oddly gendered and disappointingly limited for such a bonkers sci-fi premise. 

What buoys (no pun intended) the script is the lovely work from Yeun and Stewart, who take great care in charting the subtle evolution of their respective AI programs. While Me could just be a nagging girlfriend, Stewart fills her with a palpable sense of anxiety that shades in the dimensions of her obsessive behavior. And where Iam could just be the straight man, Yeun puts his understated comedy skills to fantastic use in several laugh-out-loud moments. (Just his imitation of a perpetually upbeat automated voice line is hilarious.) Me and Iam’s relationship struggles may not be particularly deep—much of Love Me boils down to the importance of living authentically—but they’re at least poignantly performed. 

It helps that the final act takes the film to even wilder, weirder places, which further disguises the weakness of the script. There’s an Alex-Garland-by-way-of-Wes-Anderson quality to where this story eventually ends up. And what Love Me lacks in depth it makes up for in inventiveness. The questions the film asks about human nature and romantic relationships are nothing new for the sci-fi genre (or the rom-com one). But the way it asks those questions zings with welcome touches of originality. Coupled with those compelling central performances, the boldness of the Zucheros’ worldbuilding makes Love Me a debut worth liking and following.  

Director: Sam Zuchero, Andy Zuchero

Writer: Sam Zuchero, Andy Zuchero

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Steven Yeun

Release Date: January 31, 2025