Me and You and Everyone We Know Review
Passing time
Warning: Spoilers
Miranda July's "Me and You and Everyone we Know" was a surprise. Information technology shows a new director with an inquisitive mind who doesn't get scared of tackling of import issues. Ms. July shows a light touch to this story about the life of people trying to connect in this circuitous world we are living.
The center of the story focuses on Richard, a shoe salesman, who one sees at the first of the motion picture in the process of separation from his black wife. He will keep the children, the teen age Peter, and the younger Robby. Lilliputian prepares him in the way his life volition accept to adjust with the new responsibilities. We don't get to encounter why the couple is splitting; they manifestly fell out of love and she has decided to move on, while Richard is still trying to understand what happened to him.
The 2 boys are left to fend for themselves most of the time. As children will be children, they become involved in chatting on line. The substitution between Robby and his contributor is hilarious. The young boy is way likewise wise for his young years. He is a city slicker and knows how to deal with the state of affairs of the possible pedophile stalking him. At the end nosotros become to realize who the person that has been chatting with him really is.
On a separate vignette we encounter Christine, a woman who does videos where she is the discipline and the primary character. Christine also runs a car service for senior citizens in her expanse, only we mostly run across her driving her old grandfather. Christine sees Richard at the store and she can't go along her optics from him. Manifestly information technology's dearest at showtime sight with the reluctant Richard.
One of the 2 other chapters in the film involves two aggressive and precocious teen historic period girls who get subsequently one of Richard'southward co-workers who live in the neighborhood. And in the second we meet the lonely girl who loves to store for the dowry that she volition eventually have for when she gets married. She is a sad little girl who evidently lives in her own world without sharing anything with friends and neighbors.
The final motion-picture show of the movie seems to be the cardinal for understanding what is behind all what Ms. July has presented to us, so far. There is a man waiting at a bus stop borer a coin against a side pole. Little Robbie who has had, almost what could have been a horrible experience, stands by this fellow and asks what is he doing. The answer: passing fourth dimension, which seems to fit all the situations nosotros take witnessed in the film.
The best thing of the flick is John Hawkes. He is a no nonsense actor that contributes enormously to the mood and all what we have seen in the film. Miranda July is also appealing as the lone and quirky woman looking to fulfill her life with someone she can give her boundless energy and love. The ii boys, Miles Thompson and Brandon Ratcliff are delightful to watch considering they are normal kids and non the stereotypes one watches in main stream features.
Ms. July is a new voice to be reckoned with.
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Back and along, forever
Miranda July'south "Me and You and Everyone We Know" might be the most miraculous beginning fiction feature by an American in 3 or 4 years; information technology'southward rivaled only by Andrew Bujalski's "Funny Ha Ha." Christine (July) stalks the recently separated Richard (John Hawkes), who would effort anything to print his kids, and gets third degree burns for his trouble. His elder son, Peter (Miles Thompson) longs for connections that go beyond instant gratification, while the younger Robby (Brandon Ratcliff) gets all the funniest lines, mostly copied and pasted from cybersex chats.
"Me and You lot" is about the act of pretending and about operation as life, merely first of all it's about extremely likable characters played by likable actors, foremost among them July herself, whose Carole Lombard-meets-Laurie Anderson deep ditz may be a complex stack of masks upon masks, but is more probable just the manner she is.
The movie is notable for what isn't in information technology - both malice and pain are most absent-minded. Removing malice - July'southward globe is one in which a kid tin can safely walk alone through some seedy parts of Los Angeles - is unfashionable, brave and, given the gentle tone of the piece, necessary. Just the absence of pain isn't intentional: July would like us to feel the loneliness of the characters. But their isolation is more than a trait of their personalities than a source of suffering. In this respect, the movie is maybe too glossy for its own practiced. There'southward one first-class exception, revolving around a granddaughter's photo past an elderly woman's bedside, which becomes a substitute for a shared life that dissolved too soon.
The scene that everyone picks out is the walk to Tyrone Street. Richard and Christine determine the walk to the intersection will stand in for the human relationship they're non having: first the unrelieved joy of being together, so the getting bored with each other, then the fighting and the carve up. Only they keep chatting flirtily, about whether the walk represents a twelvemonth and a half or twenty, until they go to the corner, and then we wonder how they tin possibly go their separate means. Although this is as great as anything in the first 75 minutes of "Before Sunset," its emphasis is much more on romantic comedy than the rest of the motion-picture show. There are more than typical scenes that approach this quality. A goldfish on the roof of a automobile. A kid running his fingers through a woman's pilus. A picture of a bird in a tree, in a tree. And the ending, where it seems human actions are motivating the sunrise.
The scene I consider the finest is a tranquillity 1: Sylvie (Carlie Westerman), a tween spending her childhood preparing for life as a homemaker, gets a gift from Peter: a plush bird. ("It's for your daughter.") Information technology would be unusual merely for depicting a platonic friendship between kids of unlike genders and different ages. But it'southward remarkable for crystallizing what information technology seems every filmmaker is trying to say these days: that there'due south something to exist gained from thinking like a kid. Through July's lens, it doesn't seem like a regression: no redundant literalization of fantasy is necessary. The achievement of "Me and You and Everyone We Know" is to evidence how the mundane moments of our lives tin can be mundanely transformed past imagination.
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even the strange moments are romantic
I really loved this film! All the way from the beginning information technology surprised me at every scene, it was very funny and did not effort to overdo its humor, and the characters are unforgettable. To exist honest, so many expressions and individual ideas that are conveyed in this pic through its characters, information technology's kind of hard to pin point what I loved well-nigh. It is a sexual film, probably not suitable for the young, merely it portrays people as they are, something that nosotros find bad-mannered and strange in this motion-picture show - they all exist around us in real life and this motion-picture show is non agape to show it. Ultimately we all wait for dear. In this film, even the foreign moments are romantic.
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a uncomplicated, touching film
I but saw this film in Cannes, and Miranda July just won the Camera D'Or for best first feature. I think the jurors were right on for giving this film an accolade. It'due south a uncomplicated film that creates identifiable and likable characters that are all loosely connected. I suppose at that place is one primal story line, but the moving picture'south force lies in the individual scenes and interactions between these characters. July successfully depicts the innocence of childhood, the sexual marvel of teenagers, and the complex emotions of machismo through personal and original stories and situations. I don't desire to give a lot away simply simply recommend anyone reading this to at least requite it a shot. You'll either honey it or detest it, but I think the majority of you will beloved it.
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Macaroni
tedg 5 November 2006
The main reason that films can grab us and terminal is not because of characters or situations, or story. Yes, those are the things we see and grab, but if the film doesn't spin an engaging world, at that place'll be nothing worth grabbing.
At present here's a instance where the world this filmmaker creates is so wonderful, nosotros want to grab everything. Its incoherent, a set of vignettes, simply all coherently placed to circumnavigate this wonderful fix of dynamics.
Its a world where bad things exist but don't cut securely. Where innocence penetrates reality. Where fate applies but is seen. Where art exists simply only every bit pretense for life. Where communication always has a sparkle of wonder. Where age is irrelevant and hope is ever privately platformed without dependence.
A dear friend brought me to "I've Heard the Mermaids Singing." This is a beloved friend and I sincerely tried to dissolve myself in the world of the thing. But the cracks didn't line upwardly, and my being and that earth couldn't interpenetrate. It think it is purely a matter of skill, in knowing how to discard the things that become in the way. This does, this film here.
The woman behind this picture show is admirable. By that I mean she is to be admired for knowing enough about us to find the things that disturbingly endear. And I admire her for finding a place for herself in how this is presented to us. Its all so perfect that nosotros have to assume that there is a deep selfawareness in her, as deep every bit her intuitions are.
I hope to see more of her. I think we tin can trust her with large bits of ourselves.
Ted's Evaluation -- three of three: Worth watching.
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Smart and witty and touching...a real surprise that will go under your pare
Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005)
Yep, this feels low budget, but if ever a movie made the most of simple filming and direct acting, this is i. Oddly, this will not only make yous smile, it'll touch yous--I plant myself crying at sure times, though I am a pushover. The atomic number 82 extra happens to be the director, and she, Miranda July, is bright in both roles. You know throughout that the way is false, that the filming and footstep and the events themselves are set up-ups, something to piece of work against, almost, to notice sincerity. But boy exercise they find information technology, mainly July as a lonely and struggling artist and John Hawkes as a separated dad a niggling over his head in the parenting and romance departments.
To call this an Indie film is accurate, only don't take any stereotypes in heed on that score. This isn't edgy, or shocking, or raw on the edges, or simplistic, or all those things that sometimes define (and sometimes mar) lower budget not-studio films. This is comfy in its shoes, and equally a viewer y'all ease right into it. And ultimately you see a pic that talks virtually real people and existent problems and real, 21st Century loneliness.
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misfits who fit together
I had the expert fortune to come across this film last night at a Sundance Flick Festival screening in Salt Lake City. Having viewed a few of Miranda July's shorts on her website), I hoped this film would live up to the level set there. It does. July plays the atomic number 82 character in what turns out to be an ensemble of people, each with his/her own quirks, who are somehow linked together (most simply past being neighbors). This motion-picture show is fabricated up of what might be a string of perfect petty short films. Each scene builds on the previous scene, adding one more enticing facet to a personality; one more little twist to a story. By the last scene, each character has as much depth and complication as some of the real people we know. Indeed, i might wish that everyone was as interesting as the characters in this film.
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quirky and offbeat
Christine Jesperson (Miranda July) is a video artist desperate to become her work in Nancy Herrington (Tracy Wright)'s show. Richard Swersey (John Hawkes) is a recently separated shoe salesman with sons Peter and Robby. One twenty-four hours, Christine is driving her "Eldercab" to have Michael to buy shoes and Richard talks her into buying a pair herself. They begin a long hesitant romance. Meanwhile everybody they know is searching for connections in odd means. Peter becomes entangled in Heather and Rebecca'due south sexual marvel with Richard'south boss Andrew. Robby gets into an internet sexual liaison with an unknown figure who turns out to exist someone they know. Sylvie with her hope chest is infatuated with Peter.
The ii girls are the near shocking. Robby is the scariest. Peter and Sylvie are the most touching. With all these kids dealing with these adult situations, the leads' romance really seems tame past comparison. It's odd that the key characters don't measure up to their costars merely that's the case hither. It's quirky and offbeat only I wouldn't call it charming. The picture show threatens to go dark with the kiddie material but it backs off before it goes overboard. Miranda July and John Hawkes are doing some interesting acting. They are endearing in their own sections.
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Quirky Starting time Picture show!
Miranda July wrote, directed, and acted in this film equally Christine Jesperson, an elderly taxi cab commuter and aspiring artist, in Los Angeles, California. John Hawkes played Richard Swerskey, a newly separated father of 2 young sons, who works a dead end task in shoe sales at a department shop. John Hawkes does a fabulous chore in playing a sympathetic part in this film. At that place are plenty of awkward times in the film. There is enough of realism in watching everyday ordinary people living their lives. The pedophile graphic symbol is perchance the most troublesome. He leaves disturbing notes on his window merely nobody seems to read them except the two teenage girls who walk by everyday. In that location is a lot of relevant topics that the picture deals with on an everyday level well-nigh online pornography, divorce, coming of age. The film is very relevant years later on in today's world. In that location are no major stars simply the story itself. Viewers will capeesh and relate to the characters in this film. They're but struggling to get by in life and trying to find happiness an fulfillment.
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Information technology'southward who you know underneath
The indie film was a breath of fresh air. Something totally dissimilar. A people picture show, that really makes you think, no matter how we appear, angry, deplorable, whatsoever, or despicable, underneath we're all human being. Nosotros all have our problems. Miranda July has made something special hither, through engaging characters and their humanistic performances, specially from information technology'south groovy male lead (remember Pete in the liquor store shootout in From Dusk To Dawn) yeah that guy. Acting calibre plus, and there'southward many other good players here. He makes himself none too popular at the start past accidentally burning his mitt, in a backfiring suicide attempt. He and July, too acting hither, a lonely lensman trying to cut it in the business organization, slowly forms a relationship with our Petey, (lets call him Petey) merely he's more slow near it, equally having only cleaved up, where his two kids, including one from the last marriage, reside with him, lost in the world of the internet. They're but detached from their begetter, where they are leading two different lives. One moment, I'll never forget involves our hapless and pathetic Petey confronting the two boys, if wanting an official confirmation that this detachment is forever, a line of dialogue beginning with "And so this is it.... where the boys don't even answer him. Petey works in a shoe store with a lumpy guy, who harvests a dark secret, involving sending profane sexual messages to 2 sexy teen girls, while committing other lewd acts, hence, the only reason for it'due south R certificate. The younger boy in Petey'due south family is a hoot, not actually having to act. The scene with him and the older brother posting letters to an unknown receiver, stranger, fantasy lover is hilarious. Only more than so, the golden moment is in the last scene, with the little son, sharing the bench with a bitter woman, an art consultant, who had turned down July's photos. Itt ends with him giving he a little kiss on the cheek, before toddling off. To me, this is one of the most moving moments in movie theater, if 1 of the virtually unforgettable endings in cinema. MYAEWK is such a deliciously funny and entertaining drama all the way, if totally original throughout, with many funny and standout moments, ane early on scene featuring an abandoned goldfish. Information technology's heartwarming and pleasant, despite mild paedophile themes, (remember Mysterious Skin, initially banned and Palindromes were hanging around a little earlier) and is definitely one for the movie connisseur. One of my favorite films of 2005.
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A lilliputian of the old "dorsum and forth"
Warning: Spoilers
I'll just go ahead and showtime out with a spoiler. It turns out that what I, yous, and everyone we know want is to CONNECT with someone else. Nothing new at that place. That'southward the theme of almost of the non-Bruckheimer films that you'll encounter. This film is and so charming and funny, however, that you'll forget how familiar the plot is. "Me and You and Everyone We Know" is the first full-length characteristic by author/director Miranda July. As far equally I know, her piece of work up to this betoken has consisted of brusk films and diverse types of performance art. As well writing and directing this flick, she takes the female atomic number 82 every bit a beautiful, quirky artist in need of a break and some friends her own age. She meets another quirky soul (John Hawkes), a recent divorcée who is distracted from her charm by his broken center and his two sons. Those sons are decorated exploring internet sexual practice and experimenting with the teenage neighbor girls, who have their own amour with an older man. This is a fun, charming little movie that is comfortable being a fiddling flick. Miranda July shows a real talent for screen writing, with hilarious dialog and outrageous situations. She likewise has a really cute donkey. Since this little movie doesn't try to overreach itself, the actors all shine in a way that they couldn't in a Large, Of import Picture show. John Hawkes, in particular, is very likable and real. I mentioned that most of the plot and themes are comfortably familiar, but there is one idea in "Me and You and Everyone We Know" that, as far equally I am aware, is completely novel. Information technology's called "back and along." I can't describe information technology without falling on the floor laughing, just I'll endeavour to depict it for y'all. )) <::> (( The bang-up thing was that during our viewing there were problems with the sound. While they fixed it, we got to see the "back and forth" scene three or four times. It was funny every time. Run into information technology if for no other reason than the "back and forth." five stars out of 5.
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A Movie to Fall in Honey With
This motion picture is virtually people trying to connect with each other, told in a very sweet, original way. It is quirky, beautiful, honest, and hilarious. The motion picture follows the lives and dreams of many truly memorable characters, from the adorable and fascinating children to the adults with all their idiosyncrasies. I couldn't terminate thinking most it the solar day afterward I saw information technology. I kept reliving the scenes in my caput, and grinning.
I am so happy to have discovered Miranda July. Not only did she write, direct, and star in this film... she is too a performance artist, has released music CDs, and is planning on releasing a volume of short stories next.
I'd recommend watching the trailer if you're curious. It definitely gives you lot a flavor of the film. If you like information technology, get run across the moving picture, and y'all may autumn in honey, besides.
Later on you lot meet information technology, check out the movie website (http://www.meandyoumovie.com/) and Miranda's website (http://www.mirandajuly.com/) for more than great stuff.
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This is 'Napoleon Dynamite' only up a notch or two, possibly
Alert: Spoilers
A very enjoyable picture show that at kickoff had me thinking Australian flick but Americanized. For me the highlights are the painfully ignorant teenaged girls and the mode too confident half dozen-year-old emailer. It's all innocent fun and well worth your fourth dimension though ultimately very Californian in its sensibilities and attitudes. (Bible belters best see something else.) Kinda made me want to pack up and move W (though word is I'm likewise late).
I asked Miranda July (at Ebert's Overlooked Film Festival) if she had seen Napoleon Dynamite and she said she had. She admitted she liked it only did non call it an inspiration. Perhaps if we had talked longer, but the crowd was pressing in. And, no wonder, she'southward very much as depicted in her picture: oddly endearing for a operation creative person.
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)) <: :> ((
Warning: Spoilers
Anyone who's seen "Me and You lot and Anybody Nosotros Know" should become this - positively hilarious. I'd take to side with Ebert - this was definitely one of the major highlights (and surprises) of the 2005 Sundance Moving-picture show Festival. The photography in this flick is stupendous, the acting is heartfelt (I especially enjoyed the performances of the ii young and curious boys), and the writing is fantabulous. I had never fifty-fifty heard of Miranda July prior to the festival, only I am now converted - she has loads of talent. "Me and You..." was such a touching, and honest film - with neat dialogue (and it doesn't hurt that July herself is adorably cute).
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Crafted with Realistic Beauty--a surprising A+
Alert: Spoilers
The first time I had heard of Miranda July was when I saw the trailer for her well-nigh recent picture, The Time to come. I saw the trailer and thought: hmm, this filmmaker sure has a strange sense of storytelling. When I went on IMDb and found a more than early film of hers, Me and You and Everyone we Know, I decided to take a take chances and told myself: get ahead, be brave, spotter the movie from the weirdo artist with a surname that happens to be the name of a summertime month. Turns out, my perplexity was effortlessly brushed away by hooking myself into this film: Miranda July's quirky protagonist (a narrator also as ane of the main characters) was so refreshingly existent, I wasn't certain if July was playing herself or this patently fictional heroine. The dialogue is all accurate and unapologetic: the scene betwixt John Hawkes' character, Richard (a sweet-natured and honest performance made all the more than impressive when I realized, thirty minutes into the moving picture, that this was the same man who played the chilling cult leader Patrick in Martha Marcy May Marlene)and Miranda July'due south Christine on the sidewalk on the way habitation from work is beautifully written and had such a poetry nowadays, information technology was i of my favourite scenes in the whole motion-picture show. Another appreciative aspect of this film is that July delivers a honey story that makes you forget its a dear story: so interwoven is Richard's relationship with his boys and Christine's attempts at impressing curators with her original and unorthodox functioning fine art as well as the story of a wonderfully three dimensional neighbor with a fetish for teenage girls while the girls themselves are so ridiculously riddled with hormones and experimentation with their sexuality, it comes off more than like the real deal rather than a forced delineation of youth struggling to come up into themselves. These stories are all intertwined into a perspective of connection, of how we connect with ane another, be information technology in person or over cyberspace. It allows the audience to enquire the greater question: How lonely are nosotros in a world designed to connect us but at the same fourth dimension manages to isolate usa too? It'due south a lovely theme that July executes without fault. When this film ended, it left me with a feeling of wonder and some remaining perplexity. It wasn't until I thought about it afterwards why this perplexity had resurrected itself: I didn't lookout man a movie. I watched the lives of people who could easily be the people I sit next to on the bus with or are neighbours with. This wasn't merely entertainment: It was a depiction that hit close to the bone while at the same time managing to inspire humour and, visually speaking, dazzler. I requite it an A+ and the highest recommendation. Well washed, Miranda July: I took a take chances and this expert storyteller did not disappoint.
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Connectedness
Whenever were lone nosotros always seem to construct a little earth for ourselves every bit sort of a safety zone from what's around united states but equally the old saying goes no homo is an island, we can never be a whole person unless there is another presence to make full that empty space in our lives allow alone share our world with usa to go far complete.
The name of the game in the pic is about connection and every bit the title suggests it'south about more but 2 people but virtually other couples involved which all parallel one another. This whole film I can't honestly say takes identify int he real world but seems to exist ane foot in the fantasy world due to the quirky nature of it. The whole film plays out like a surrealist painting sure things that happen around them are strange in a style but so are the characters themselves sometimes all have some foreign unique quality to them, they all have something in common their all living in their own picayune earth in a way are are lonely but are all homo and merely struggling to break free to connect. These characters through their conversations truly sympathize one another and make sufficient progress.
I'll admit the only flaw with the picture show had to exist the ane subplot involving those two teenage girls and Richard'south friend with that whole internet stalker scandal doesn't work and felt completely out of place, I honestly felt the film could have done without information technology.
This film is all told mainly in three stories that sand out and revolve around the theme: 1. The Performance Artist Christine Jesperson (Miranda July) and Richard Swersey (John Hawkes). Richard as we meet is a recently divorced single dad who is struggling to go over it, allow alone the fact his cocky centered ex wife cheated on him and made him feel like crap. His hand injury from a magic trick gone wrong reflects this internal damage he carries. Nosotros feel pathos for this guy and well-nigh of all empathize him, he'southward funny, strange in a practiced way, responsible, loves his kids, and is just trying to go back on track when he forms a bond with Christine. She is an eccentric operation artist who is alone and is pretty content with what she has but equally we come across in her eyes every bit well every bit what she says in the functioning art she constructs, she needs someone to make her soul whole. Despite picayune time both characters spend with one antoher they understand each other and are past first coming together subconsciously already in love with one another. In i memorable scene both walk while talking nigh relationships, how it could last for the longest fourth dimension possible only could stop if your not looking at the sidewalk your walking on and the direction and length it goes. This is not a foreshadowing it'southward a mutual truth were seeing. Another stand out moment for her character was when she come across the ex at the department store once once more brand Richard feel like crap for no reason, in one case he's gone Christine and so gives the ex one of the products in the store a moving picture frame that when you press a button says I love you. Christine says this "May'exist yous should've press the button more." I felt in that moment she stated the general reason to why most people divorce or some divulge into the amoral cheating is but because they've forgotten their love for the other or didn't work hard enough to proceed that love live.
ii. Richard's older son Peter Swersey (Miles Thompson) and a girl Sylvie (Carlie Westerman) who is at least about 3 or 4 years younger than him. Like well-nigh people at different ages their relationship is that mutual bridging the gap foundation. Both relish each other'due south company, Sylvie is wise beyond her years as she shows Peter her breast for things that she hopes to give to her futurity husband and daughters/sons (could exist Peter in the future equally time goes past). There's even one scene where their bondage is challenged when ane day he expresses doubt in their interaction due to their age and of communications; he then encounters 2 teenage girls almost his historic period, interacts with them too equally engages in some risky activities with them. But equally nosotros run into this goes nowhere and these girls are non very nice and rather immature toward him; you can tell from his optics he'd rather spend fourth dimension with Sylvie again because their relationship seems to make the well-nigh progress also as interesting. I feel this is another common truth about love presented if your going to have another in your life, have someone that's similar a best friend to you.
iii. The younger brother Robby Swersey (Brandon Radcliff) as well as the art director have this online chat relationship. At first for Brandon it's a prank but nosotros see it turns to more. In a strange way what is proficient about their relationship is both of them are giving each other an idea which carries hope for the future for both of them. For Brandon that he's capable of getting a cute woman in his life and really appoint in a deep intimate connection with her. For the art manager to actually be able to have someone to love again and not exist alone anymore.
We all alive in our own little worlds only it doesn't mean we can't share it with some other person, because it's truly people who make the globe get round.
Rating: 4 stars
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delightfully fresh adult earth
i had the supreme pleasure of seeing this picture show last dark equally the grand opener of the seattle international picture festival. (this was the outset time in the 31 year span of the festival that the opener was directed by a woman!) i loved it! contrary to some previous comments, i plant the writing and the approach to the subject matter very adult. a less mature screenwriter could have too easily fallen into a dour and pessimistic mood given the subject matter, especially the instances of desires pedophilia and families torn apart. i retrieve information technology takes a remarkable, mature writer and director to take these themes and turn them into a heart-warming piece of piece of work rather than just another fatalistic, globe-hating motion-picture show.
the performances were stellar across the lath. every character was completely fleshed out and truly human being. i think that's what struck me the near about this motion-picture show, the complete humanity of it. the title is apt, information technology really is a universal story of you and me and anybody nosotros know. the comedy didn't take to be forced, it was funny considering nosotros could all identify and sympathize with the awkwardness of life.
i'd dearest to come across more out of miranda july to this caliber. this was a huge feat for a first feature, but i accept a lot of hope and religion in her talents for the future.
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quirkiness with a capital Q
Warning: Spoilers
Like just virtually every independent film these days, "Me and Yous and Everyone We Know" wears its quirkiness similar a badge of honour. It shows the states a world populated by "ordinary," "boilerplate" people, living lives of repose desperation, who do and say the darndest things.
Thus we accept a father of two who lights his ain hand on burn equally a protest against his wife leaving him for another man; his overweight co-worker and neighbor who posts sexually explicit notes up in his windows for all the earth - including ii local underage girls - to run across; two young brothers who engage in cyber sexual activity chats with an unknown person on the other end; two teenaged girls who flirt with an older man merely current of air up initiating a much younger boy into the world of sex; and a flighty aspiring video artist who falls for a tentative shoe store clerk who has been woefully unsuccessful in the means of love.
Miranda July, who wrote and directed the movie (as well equally playing the part of the immature artist), clearly has a great deal of talent as a filmmaker. She is able to create a universe which feels e'er and then slightly off-kilter, yet which has elements that are instantly recognizable to us in the audience. We see that these are people trying to make some kind of intimate, honest connexion with other human beings but who are ofttimes thwarted in that effort by technological roadblocks or the fears they accept of being hurt or rejected. Notwithstanding, the movie, for all its moments of truthfulness and significant, often feels as if information technology is trying just a scrap also hard to be profound. Too ofttimes it feels forced and precious when information technology would be better if it were spontaneous and natural. "Me and You lot and Anybody We Know" comes across like one of those well-intentioned but pretentious projects made past get-go-twelvemonth film students, a film so impressed with its own quirkiness and insight into human nature that it fails to convince united states of america that it is actually telling u.s.a. anything nosotros didn't already know.
This may seem like an overly harsh judgment to lay on a film that at least tries to do something meaningful and important, and I certainly exercise not mean to imply that in that location is not a great bargain that is skillful about this movie (the acting, for one, although July is conspicuously better equally a manager than she is every bit an extra, hers existence the ane genuinely annoying performance in a bounding main of otherwise fine acting turns). I judge, mayhap, it's just that independent filmmakers take been ramping upwardly the "quirkiness" and "weirdness" quotient for then long now, that I've finally begun to lose patience with it. My suspicion is that July clearly intends for u.s.a. to identify with and similar her characters, just I just constitute myself wanting to go equally far abroad from them as possible. Based on the people nosotros come across hither, hers is not a neighborhood I would have a whole lot of interest in visiting.
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Unique does not equal great
Warning: Spoilers
I give this motion picture credit for being unlike anything I have seen before, and there is something to be said in favor of a picture show that could hold my attention for 90 minutes whose primary characters are a shoe salesman and a functioning artist. Richard, the shoe salesman, has merely separated from his wife and Christine, the performance artist, is looking to make a connection with just about anybody she tin can identify with. Given Christine'southward unusual outlook this is non easy, only she is taken with Richard and forces the relationship. In addition to Richard and Christine we are treated to several pocket-size characters, including Richard's two sons, an art curator, a pre-pubescent concentrating on her hope breast, 2 sexually curious teenage girls, and a heart-aged man with a predilection for posting sexually-explicit letters on his front windows.
Christine is trying to get a piece of performance art (in this example a home video) accepted for brandish at a local art museum. The curator asks the question, which is seemingly her main benchmark, "Could this accept been fabricated in any era, or only now?" I remember that this must have been the question the director, writer, and star of this film, Miranda July, was trying to give a positive answer to with this moving-picture show. And I recall that she succeeds, given the roles that sexual practice chat rooms, e-mail service, casual oral sexual practice, abode video and audio, rough bath humor, and electronic music play in the motion picture. And I doubt that a person like July could have gotten such a pocket-size film to marketplace until recent times.
There are some touching scenes, specially ones involving Christine and some of her interactions with people she encounters in her day job as a chauffeur for older people. While driving a man in his 70s around one day, he mentions that his friend in the assisted living home broke up with him. Christine asks why, and he says, "She thinks she is going to dice this week." This is typical of a lot of the humour in this motion-picture show, information technology is funny, but too sad; I found Christine's relationship with Richard to be that. Overall, however, a light bear on is maintained.
The master problem I had was that I could not get emotionally involved with any of the people. Richard's sons Peter and Robby should have been able to win your heart, but Peter just plays the sullen teenager and Robby is fixated on man excrement. The film's construction, such as it is, is episodic and information technology never coalesces into anything greater than the sum of its parts.
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an intelligent feel-good movie
This is a moving picture that exists out of several little paintings. It'southward a film made past artist and information technology's a work of art. Actually, each scene is a painting. Each scene tin stand up on itself. The flick is bright, warm, playful and innocent, but nevertheless it deals with subjects which are heavily loaded. Miranda July is wonderful as the star of the picture. It was very clever of her to play the leading role. Nobody else could take washed it that adept. She'southward a little weird (aren't nosotros all?) and no one else could have felt her character also as she does. Her story, or should I say her stories, are likewise a little weird. Weird and warm. And then are all the other characters in the moving picture. Weird and warm. Very clever and cheap too, not to utilize whatever familiar faces. A not bad lesson for other directors. Y'all don't need big stars to tell a clever story.
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touching
it is a special film. a delicate, fragile, profound reflection of life with its many sides. it is bitter and warm and prissy and cruel. a man, his children, married woman, neighbors, a woman. and splendid dialogs, touching performance. vulnerability and search of happiness. deep social problems. and fear. innocence in strange clothes. and demand of the other. a fish in a bag and a dialog. a motion-picture show with bird and the sun. a adult female and a kid in park. and too realistic temper. afterwards its stop - the image of Brandon Ratcliff astonishing performance. and the traces of a moving picture most basic common things. similar a mod fairy tale. only shadows of dragons is different. and the sleep of Mannerly Prince.
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Childlike playful and quirky story nigh finding beloved when one is very young, very one-time or somewhere in betwixt. Havent seen the equal of this kind of quirky story in years.
A teenager has his first blowjob experience. A recently divorced parent burdened by raising his kids alone, experiences how it feels to be loved again. And a senior denizen finally finds his true dearest in a resthome, while all his life he had to experience a coldhearted marriage. All these different people, with totally opposite ages are experiencing new establish beloved in places they could have never suspected.
This is definitely one of the most surprising, playful and unique stories I have watched in years. With terrific, unique childlike playful dialogues, I havent seen the equal of in years. Some might think though that this story is patently weird. Which it is! But in the near original, upbeat and suprising manner possible. Because of this pleasant weirdness information technology is probably only best suited for an arthouse audience or for those movie geeks who love really quirky, original pictures.
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Surprising and unique
Much lighter and brighter than Todd Solondz spooky all the same profoundly human being film 'Happiness.' I felt they were similar in that they explored the foreign things people do and say and the believable motivation backside them. Christine (reminiscent of Maggie Gyllenhaal) is a discrete nonetheless thoughtful artist who longs for romance and love. Richard is a lonely single father struggling to empathize where his life is going later on a contempo separation.
The kids (who are each some of the best parts of this motion-picture show) are defenseless up in an developed world figuring out who they are and where they fit in. This is an enjoyable dark comedy that had the crowd laughing at some parts and gasping at others. I left the theater satisfied and grin.
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A moving-picture show which walks on the water
Warning: Spoilers
Miranda July's 'Me and You and Anybody nosotros know' may simply exist the greatest debut by a director since Satyjit Ray's 'Pather Panchali'. Like Ray, July relies upon pocket-size incidents, incidents consisting of human being beliefs or n natural dialog. But these incidents create a fragile magic, a magic which spellbinds yous and when the movie is over yous are left with feeling of euphoria.
There are mainly two characters in the motion-picture show. Christine and Richard. Christine is an artist who drives elderly people to support herself. Richard is a shoe-salesman who is going through a separation. These 2 characters are at the center of the movie and the rest of the characters only orbit around them. All of them inhabit a world you and then desire to be a office of. I wanted to exist a part of it. Because they were speaking my emotional language. And that's what this motion picture is all about.
At the surface it's an ensemble movie, 1 of those indie flicks ( which about of the time aren't bad). Some has chosen information technology likewise 'high-sounding'. But don't allow its artistic exterior discourage you. Because beneath the surface, information technology's about people connecting with each other emotionally. Merely for most of them this isn't easy. Take Richard, for instance. Richard says that he is gear up to be swept off his anxiety. Then comes one of the about beautiful scenes in the history of move pictures (many times mentioned past Roger Ebert) where you lot can realize that Richard and Christine are made for each other. But right after that scene, something happens which is then shocking that it just pulls the rug away from our anxiety. Because whatever happens, Richard believes that he is not ready for someone as wonderful as Christine. The flick draws a strange line between fantasy and reality.
Movies like this feels dangerous (something 'antichrist' can never accomplish) It's about emotions understood by none other than me, y'all and everyone nosotros know. Otherwise why would we even bother to know them.
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weird, metaphorical, funny, and kind-of-pretentious-but-non-really
Miranda July made this motion-picture show. She also stars in information technology, she might be the chief character I call back, although in that location is a lot of main characters. This movie is near me, yous, and anybody nosotros know. Is it a quirky pic? Yes, it certainly contains the typical "quirky indie motion picture" flare, but information technology doesn't dwell on that like other indie movies. There are things almost it that experience like a direct reaction against the stereotype of an indie movie. There'due south disgusting and disturbing sexual content, satire of modern fine art, characters that are uncomfortably strange and likely mentally challenged, but are still highly sympathetic, and no existent overall story...wait stop. It actually does have an overall story or, more than appropriately, it has multiple stories that all connect in a surprisingly unique way. Many movies are like this sort of, many movies have a big cast of oddball characters that are all interrelated in their own mode and information technology all culminates together in the stop and whatever. But this moving-picture show does that whole trend a bit differently. A lot of the characters don't really take too much of a conclusion, they just fade (and run) away, and the last paradigm of the film shows that time will all the same go on. All of these people volition all the same live out their sad, warm, humorous, pathetic, lovable lives until their fourth dimension is up and another takes their place. What exactly am I trying to say? That's a practiced question. My thoughts on this pic are kind of scattered and confused, just like the film itself. Parts of it felt actually pretentious, but they also contained a type of honesty that isn't often seen in "pretentious" indie movies. July is a filmmaker with a clear vision...a vision that she just wants to express. She doesn't come up across equally an intentionally hipster-like artist who tries way to hard. Instead, she comes across every bit a person who is extremely 18-carat, who wants to express (using visuals and words) how she sees and feels about the world. And I respect her and this moving-picture show for that, even if I didn't really similar ALL of it, the overarching impression information technology gave me was actually powerful. Some of the visuals here are stuck in my heed forever, and don't mind that at all. At that place is dialogue in the film that is express joy out loud funny, in that location are moments of tragedy that touched me despite being actually mild when i stops to think about them. It's a movie to get you feeling and thinking, information technology'southward a movie that both tries too difficult and not plenty, making it experience but right. It is the pinnacle of imperfection, but it is too as well sweet and beautiful and hilarious to dismiss equally a failed experiment. Information technology is something "else" entirely, totally removed from what you're probably used to seeing, something that anyone with an open heed must see.
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Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0415978/reviews
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