ME Short Film Review
As reflexive, personal, and ambiguous as any animated feature made this decade, Don Hertzfeldt’s 22-minute return, titled ME, is an exploration into the ways society tries to shield ourselves from the atrocities that happen on a global scale, as well as a more personally mining tale of living for others as much as you live for yourself. Or at least that’s how I see it.
Because Hertzfeldt‘s latest short can be interpreted many different ways – both in terms of plot and theme. But I’ll do my best to reiterate what I’m thinking takes place. A sentient blob that takes the shape of a peanut builds a world-famous machine that changes the way we live. The machine’s purpose is left for our interpretation, but it seems as though it allows the being to reconnect with a younger version of themselves. The being begins to use the machine more and more often, and the same is the case when the machine is available for the entirety of the world to use.
The beings begin to retreat into their own little huts. Now having burrowed into their lifestyles, communication (and advancement) becomes less frequent, and the cracks in our world become deeper and deeper. Technology has not necessarily taken over, but our dependence on technology as grown greater. The peanut-like beings shrivel up, and the disconnect between themselves (as well as us with them as characters) is more defined.
From there, ME diverges into multiple different sections involving many distinct, abstract characters as quirky as the beings are. One is big eyeball birthed by the wife of our main character, while another is a sentient main program with a giant brain for a head that runs superimposed over numerous lifelike backgrounds. It all swells to numerous musical ques and vivid images, allowing the viewer to gleam as much or as little as they can from the warning Hertzfeldt seems to be making.
And ME is rather abstract and breakneck for a 22-minute short animated film. Luckily, Don Hertzfeldt’s ability to pair music with image stands among the best to ever work in this line of filmmaking. The score is ludicrous and diverse, paired with an intense visual style with sharp beat-like throbs of black lines that look like tears through the frame, to a color palette that is equally lush and pale in different segments. It’s constantly redefining itself as the plot moves along, while keeping that unnerving and gut-wrenching feeling that Hertzfeldt effortlessly delivers time and time again.
While short, ME is an exceptional work from one of the great masters of animated moviemaking. Don Hertzfeldt amazes and confuses you with a movie that crams 90 minutes of material into 22. It’s one of my favorite things I’ve seen this year because it’s as timely and timeless as an audacious movie about bean beings, eyeballs, and nervous systems can be.
Score: 7/10
- Crew: Don Hertzfeldt
- Genre: Animation, Drama, Musical, Science Fiction
- Runtime: 22 minutes
- Rated: NR
- Release Date: October 12, 2024
- Read about ME (2024) on IMDb
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