Product Details

• Actors: Kelsey Chapman, Hector Elias, Amy French, Ellen Geer, John Hawkes
• Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• DVD Release Date: October 11, 2005
• Run Time: 91 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (143 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000AMJFYA
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #118,043 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "Me and You and Everyone We Know" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

One of the most critically acclaimed films of 2005, Me and You and Everyone We Know is also one of the most original feature debuts you're ever likely to see. Winner of the Camera d'or Award for best first film at the Cannes Film Festival, it's an altogether charming display of talent for writer, director, and costar Miranda July, a performance artist making a promising transition to film. Her loose-knit tale of love and longing encompasses a large cast of quirky and memorable characters, foremost among them being Christine (July), a forlorn dreamer who falls in love with Richard (John Hawkes, from HBO's Deadwood), who's going through a traumatic divorce. Richard is desperate to be a good father to his seven- and 14-year-old sons, both of whom have experiences that push Me and You to an almost perverse level of audacity, but July handles their potentially troubling scenes with such delicacy and tact that they seem almost miraculously innocent. The whole film is like that: It never, ever goes where you think it's going to go, and every scene tingles with humor, affection and curiosity for its characters. As it turns routine days into joyous opportunities for discovery, July's remarkable film is not for all tastes, but if you're looking for something new, different, and defiantly out of the mainstream, this gentle comedy's for you. --Jeff Shannon

Product Description

Award-winning and critically acclaimed, Me You and Everyone We Know, is a poetic and penetrating look at how everyday people struggle to connect with one another in an isolating modern world. Christine Jesperson (writer/director Miranda July) is a struggling artist and cab driver who uses her talents and imagination to draw her dreams and objects of desire. One such object is Richard Swersey (John Hawkes, TV's "Deadwood"), a newly-single father of two boys who is hoping for amazing things, yet panics upon meeting the captivating Christine. But in a world where the mundane is transcendent and people seek meaningful connections despite the risk, anything magical can happen - and well - happen.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

67 of 79 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars You and Me Against The World June 24, 2005

By MICHAEL ACUNA VINE™ VOICE

Miranda July's first film (she both wrote and directed) "Me and You and Everyone We Know" is a personal, thoughtful and humane film about how difficult it is for people to get together in these tumultuous times in which we live...and despite all the obstacles, we still manage to do so: Richard (John Hawkes, so good in HBO's "Deadwood") and Christine (Miranda July) meet "cute" while Christine is with a friend buying a pair of shoes and Richard is the shoe salesman.
Christine almost freaks Richard out.ok...she does freak him out after their initial meeting by "accidentally" always being where Richard is: Christine, in her eagerness to get to know Richard, almost slips into stalker behavior. But this is more a sign of our times.i.e. how difficult it is to meet someone nice, July is saying rather than anything unnatural on Christine's part. And Richard is as lonely as Christine. And they form a bond. They build a fence against all that can go wrong in the world: lying, cheating, not enough money, career problems...all the negative stuff that can clog your life as a whole and your love life in particular. As Richard says early in the film: "I'm prepared for amazing things to happen." And so it does: in the form of Christine.
"Me and You and Everyone We Know" is as sunny, optimistic and loving as a film can be and you leave the theater actually feeling better than when you walked in. But this film is no Pollyanna: Your good feelings come with a price: only after a good fight with the evil forces of the world. And in this case it isn't Dark Vader, The Scarecrow or a pack of Zombies, it's from the vagaries and detritus of the world in which we live: the stuff that lurks out there waiting to defeat you. But Richard and Christine, somehow, someway work as a couple as they never did as individuals...good for them.

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Are you willing to play along? October 23, 2006

By Keith A. Markus

Format:DVD

This film is not for everyone and I appreciate the insights in some of the negative reviews. However, it would be unfortunate if such reviews put off viewers to who might otherwise connect with the film. I will try to offer a more successful reading.

The movie's most self-referential scene involves the playful conversation between the two lead characters as they walk to their respective cars. In offering their respective interpretations of the walk, they each take chances by playing a game at the risk that the other will not play along. It is precisely this vulnerability of the characters that makes the characters so endearing and the main narrative so romantic. By taking the risks and playing along with the conversation, they each reveal to the other a common openness to a shared way of relating to the world. By extension, through the entire film Miranda July takes risks, asking the viewer "this is game that I am playing, are you willing to play along?"

A less central but significant scene recognizes that not everyone is willing to play along. An awkward and unsuccessful conversation in the intimate setting of a female character's bathroom between two recently separated characters presents them as each good and decent individuals who simply cannot connect with one another successfully. I take this sympathetic representation of the separated wife as one of the most admirable dimensions of the film. It celebrates the playful artistic stance of the two main characters, the quality that brings them together and allows them to connect, while respecting the alternative ways that other characters relate to the world around them.

The scene in which "you" and "me" move toward and away from one another captures the theme that runs through the interactions of various characters in the movie. Yes, the characters experience various forms of rejection or unsuccessful attempts to connect with others. However, nothing tragic happens to anyone who breathes though lungs rather than gills. For instance, two teenagers running distractedly down the middle of a street could easily have met unhappily with another character driving her car in a funk after partially obstructing her windshield. They did not. At bottom, Miranda July presents an optimistic world in which connecting is tough and brings painful disappointments but perseverance is ultimately rewarded. Living and loving are hard but the world is not ultimately hostile to either.

Two scenes involving a bird in a tree bracket the film, symbolizing an openness to be moved by aesthetic pleasures that extend beyond practical concerns. After receiving inadequate or incorrect explanations of a clanging sound heard early in the morning, the youngest character sets out under the bird image to discover the truth by direct investigation. He meets a kindly buss passenger who gives him the coin he had been clanging against the bus signpost. So, the character gets to the factual, literal truth of the matter. Then as the character clangs the post, the sun rises, echoing an earlier explanation given by his mother but on a more magical level. Clanging the coin signals the sun to rise. With that leap the character steps beyond the mundane into the playful stance of the artist: The childlike willingness to find more in the world than what is actually there is the wellspring of artistic creativity. "This is the game that I am playing, are you willing to play along?"

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars i've always loved her work, now i love it even more September 27, 2005

By nikki

Format:DVD

This movie is fantastic, period. Each scene is so colourful and humourous and touching. What makes this movie so good to me are all the little, seconds-long moments of weirdness/sadness/cuteness which really (cheesy as it sounds) Touch Your Heart. Keep an eye out for the goldfish scene, the talking picture-frame scene, and the mug scene for an idea of what i'm talking about. And the little boy who plays the part of the younger son is phenomenal. i am usually annoyed by child actors but this little boy is so genuine and lovable. you would never, ever know that the things coming out of his mouth are pre-scripted lines. i ended up liking and caring about every single character and, more than that, feeling really moved by the visuals and the aforesaid asides that come and go so quickly.

i appreciate this movie the same way i might appreciate a beautiful photograph- with respect and wonder.