Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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58 of 70 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
You and Me Against The World, June 24, 2005
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.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Romance and Relationships in the Age of Technology..., October 12, 2005
Finally! A movie that addresses on almost every age level, the effects of our current internet daze age. For the young children, life consists of going home everyday after school to try and talk and chat and connect with cyber folks. For the teenagers, sex is misunderstood again and again, and the fantasy/reality dilemma continues to leave them feeling lonely. And for the adults, well...the problems are almost the same just with more complexities and ambiguities."Me And You And Everyone We Know" should not work as well as it does. It takes so many risks that could've potentially ruined its own subject matter and themes, but yet, Miranda July's direction takes the uncomfortable (and seemingly 'normal American life') and turns it on its head with surprising and shocking comic side effects. Thankfully though, July never sacrifices the humanity of her characters at the expense of merely getting a laugh. Throughout "Me And You And Everyone We Know," there is a kind of subtle, beautiful melancholy mood woven through the words and actions of every character. Again, considering how provocative and unsettling at times the script is, this seems like a minor miracle. Exploring how the internet and cell phones and technology at large has contributed to isolated individual experiences is just one of the film's many themes. Like the one very rich and very simple scene from the film conveys, me and you and everyone we know are like tiny specs on pieces of paper with a small, but seemingly infinite amount of space between us.Although far from perfect and far from being a cinematic masterpiece, "Me And You" wins at the end of the day because of the very common place from which it begins. Throughout every quirky scene and heartbreaking moment, it remains loyal to its subjects (on both sides of the screen).
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Are you willing to play along?, October 23, 2006
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?"
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