Not Me (2018) User Reviews

Interesting if not groundbreaking

[Havan_IronOak · 8/10 · 16 April 2023]

At just under seven minutes, The short film Not Me, depicts a troubling scenario involving a randy guest and a young hotel room service waiter.

In the post #me-too age the kid showed remarkable presence of mind in recording part of the encounter which all too easily could have devolved into a he said / he said situation.

I'd say that it saddens me that people are becoming less and less civil and trustworthy but the realist in me knows that many people have always been this way. It's just that more people are being caught and that those in power all too often yield to the temptation to use that power over others.

While the short IS powerful, it's NOT terribly deep (and how could it be in less than seven minutes) It does hold one's attention and didn't have me glancing at the video progress bar as so many other shorts... even shorter ones have done.

That said... I was a bit surprised to see the introduction of a "wife" character at the end. It was unnecessary, added nothing to the story, and even made the main premise more unlikely.

a sketch

[Kirpianuscus · 14 July 2021]

A young hotel runner in a very delicate situation. Nice acting, well atmosphere, fair tension. And not more. The actors are the story itself and the drama is reduced at a nice sketch. So, decent. But not so surprising and far to be one of embarrasing situations in a hotel room about the power/ abuse of a client and a vulnerable, too honest runner.

An effectively told story

[ChrisMIN43211 · 9/10 · 24 July 2022]

The short film Not Me, in under seven minutes, puts forward an increasingly troubling scenario involving a hotel room service waiter and the guest he's serving.

Very well acted by the two main performers.

Profoundly unsatisfactory

[laduqesa · 3/10 · 11 June 2023]

We have yet another unworthy short having been nominated for awards and getting special prizes for merit. This really wasn't well acted and despite being based on a true story the conclusion left a sense of emptiness.

So, the bellboy was quick-witted, but not fast enough to earn himself some extra money. His behaviour was completely unprofessional and having regard to what had gone on before, sitting down with the guest could have been construed as a definite come on. What was he thinking? Or was he provoking an incident? I cast no aspersions on the real-life lad the film is based on, but the way this was dramatised doesn't do him any favours.

And then what happened? Was he sacked? The ending was just hurried and left one in the air. If it had been fiction, we could use our imagination, but for a true story, one wants to know. And the introduction of Steve's wife was a step too far. Knowing she was coming back to the room who would have risked what Steve did? I can't believe this happened in real life.

Not recommended at all.

Not too convincing

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 8 November 2020]

"Not Me" is an award-nominated American live action short film from 2018, so not a really new movie anymore, especially because it is from spring 2018 already, but also not an old film by any means. A pretty short film though as this one only runs fro under 7.5 minutes. The director and co-writer is Ian Lyndon and this is his first career effort in both fields. The other writer is Francesca Cappucci and she is equally inexperienced. Also as the producer. The question to me is rather, when looking at her body of work, if she has really acted in television episodes three decades ago. I am not sure at all honestly. Maybe it got mixed up and it was somebody with the same name. She does not look that old on the photos, but then again, it could also actually be her. Not too important. Let's not get carried away. I am still curious if I will ever come across one of the two again for another film. With this one here we have a film that is in the widest sense gay-themed. We have lead actor Rudy Pankow whose presence seems to stand for a slightly increased Moviemeter ranking as I came across another film from him the other day. He is tolerable, not too great. Also reminds me a bit of Chris Colfer from Glee physically. What a coincidence that he also seems to act mostly in gay-themed films. Still, this one here is not the usual. We have a guy working at a hotel and he is called by an obnoxious guest to bring some food. After the guy misbehaves early on, his attitude quickly changes as he apparently is attracted to the young hotel employee. When he gives nim no less than 200 bucks, things take a turn to the dark side quickly with the employee not realizing immediately. The guest tries to sexually assault the hotel employee (we don't know if he is gay too, probably not), but the tiny boy (compared to the other guy, not too realistic maybe) manages to knock him down and run away. Other employees arrive and the guest acts as if he got robbed. Luckily for out "hero" he has the evidence on tape. Well, that surely can't be legal and may also get him fired, even if it saves him and is the evidence that he is innocent. The title of the film includes the words we hear from the boy in the end implying he is not one who gets sexually assaulted. I am not sure I like the ending. It feels a bit exaggerated, but maybe that is only because I would have acted completely different in this specific situations. I can kinda understand the way the boy acted, even if I felt it was too overly dramatic for my taste. Everything before that is tolerable. The introduction may have been slightly too long for such a short film. Overall, not a terrible movie, but also not good enough for a positive recommendation in my opinion and the rating here on imdb seems way too high. So also the awwards recognition and/or festival consideration is a bit too much. I suggest you watch something else instead unless you know one of the two key actors in here. Thumbs down.