ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW (2005)
PLOT
Several interlocking stories about love, sexual awakening and innocence lost in suburban Los Angeles
WHY I LOVE IT
Putting it mildly, Miranda July is an …. acquired taste. She’s a performance artist who specializes in the odd and peculiar things in life. She approaches her material with a childlike wonder, whether in book form, on stage, online or in movies. Me and You and Everyone We Know is her first feature and it’s a rapturous event that had me feeling alive, hopeful, and just fuzzy all over.
Within 15 minutes, you’ll know if this film is going to work for you or not. But if you stick with it, you may find yourself sort of falling in love with these characters, including July as a cab driver for the elderly who likes to meddle in her passengers’ lives. She’s also a performance artist who merges multimedia platforms to create love as art. She has an emotional connection with a local shoe salesman (the great John Hawkes, in a complete 180 from his sinister-creepy turn in the recent Martha Marcy May Marlene), who is sort of going through a mid-life shake-up of his own. His two young boys, meanwhile, are looking for love in all of the wrong places (they engage in an online chat with an anonymous woman about, of all things, poop). The older brother donates his body for “science” as he allows two girls to practice their oral sex skills on him. Those girls, by the way, are oddly entranced by a neighbor who happens to be a wanna-be pedophile.
The film may sound raunchy or hardcore but it’s far from it, really. It’s just odd and precious, gentle and sweet, random and just a little bit dirty. Most of all, it’s simply enchanting. It resonated with me. Me and You and Everyone We Know is a one of a kind, and I’m certain I’ll never see anything quite like it.
Good one, Dave. I also really enjoyed this unique little film. Speaking of Miranda July, have you seen The Future? Heard mixed things about it but have yet to see it myself.
I’m glad you dug it. It is unique, indeed! I did see The Future and I have a Quick Take of it going on the site tomorrow. Bottom line — not quite as magical as this one, but it had its adorably quirky moments. Keep your expectations in check.
If I liked Tiny Furniture, then I’m sure I’l like this. I have it in my Netflix Instant Queue already
Funny, I may have used the same high praise to describe Tiny Furniture and this movie, and yet, the two are nothing alike. I enjoyed Furniture quite a bit, but this one….this one I just LOVED. I mean, to the point where I can imagine myself hugging it tightly. Ya dig?
Haha, I dig.
Oh I loved this movie. Saw it years ago but Hawkes already impressed me there. It’s amazing that he can play both delicate and sweet guys and sinister badasses equally well.
Oh yeah, Sati, Hawkes can nail both types of roles. He tends to lean on the creepy side of things, but when a role like this comes along, he’s a pleasant surprise.