Me and You and Everyone We Know
A Review of Miranda July's Debut Indie Now Available on DVD
Written and directed by Miranda July, who also assumes a starring role, Me and You and Everyone We Know was a 2005 winner at Sundance and Cannes.
Me and You and Everyone We Know (Official, IMDb) is a brave and honest story that attempts to make each of us take notice of ourselves, the lonely world we've constructed, and the heroic struggle of our desire to live and love.
Christine (July) drives the elderly by day; by night she's an artist, whose art is more therapy than paint on canvas as she role plays the perfect relationship to a video camera. Sappy? Yes. But there is an honesty here that we'll connect with.
Richard (John Hawkes), a mall shoe salesman, begins our story in the final moments of his marriage. We know right away that there is something different about Richard; in an attempt to seal the split with a ceremony so that his two sons will remember that they were once a family, Richard lights his hand on fire-a scene that is simultaneously horrific and beautiful.
Me and You and Everyone We Know has going for it in sheer heart, it lacks in plot. This is a boy-meets-girl, boys-loses-girls, boy-wins-girl-back story. Trouble is: there is never a doubt that these two will find love. July doesn't go for heightened drama by having her subplots collide with her main storyline, which, incidentally, is setup quite nicely. Instead, she presents her theme of loneliness and shows us her various characters trapped in there own unique circumstances. But don't let this turn you away; July makes up for her thin plot with deeply textured characters and dark subplots.
July's script is chockfull of memorable lines and images that tightly cling to her story's theme of loneliness and love, like how life is too short for foot pain; and how a goldfish in a bag survives being thrown from one moving car to another, only to finally fall to its death.
Me and You and Everyone We Know is a great pick for date night on the couch with wine and Chinese takeout; it'll help you remember what moments are important.
The Goods:
- Winner: Sundance, Cannes, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Newport, and Los Angeles Film Festivals
- The signs in the window are both troubling and hilarious
- "Email wouldn't exist if it weren't for AIDS"
- Prepping for the Jimmy Ha-Ha
- the soundtrack is minimalist, but memorable
Production Companies
- FilmFour
- IFC Films
Distributors
- IFC Films
