Me And You And Everyone We Know

Me And You And Everyone We Know, won a Special Jury Prize for "Originality of Vision" at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. I’m not sure how original it is as the two teenage girls in it are very reminiscent of Enid and Rebecca from Terry Zwigoff’s Ghost World (2001) and the deadpan suburban absurdist style surely has been around for quite a while. Nothwithstanding, it does the style well, addressing the core concern of the indie film - alienation – with wickedly black humour.

Writer-director Miranda July, who also plays the slightly unhinged Christine, revels in the quirks and foibles of human nature. No-one here is on top of anything, going anywhere, or making a statement. On the contrary they’re bumbling around and bumping into each other, not in an inanely comedic Jerry Lewis kind of a way but as lost souls drifting on the sea of life..

Richard (John Hawkes), a recently separated shoe salesman looks after his two children, teenager Peter (Miles Thompson) and six-year old Robby (Brandon Ratcliff). Christine (July), is a lonely performance artist trying to get her work accepted by the local art museum. The film is about their slowly developing relationship, peppered with a few characters connected with them. The absurdity is, of course, exaggerated, perhaps a little too much so with too much quiet desperation, but it is based on a well-crafted script steeped in the indie style’s trademark bitter-sweet poignancy and reinforced by a characteristically whimsical soundtrack.

Given that this is July’s debut feature it is a delight for anyone with an inclination to the tragic view of life. Everyone else will do well to seek out more conventional fare.

 

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