‘Me And You And Everyone We Know’ directed by Miranda July, 2005. Rating 9 out of 10.
Miranda July’s debut film Me And You And Everyone We Know is making its way to a theater near you. I’ve been a big fan of July’s work since seeing her at the Walker Art Center several years ago and hearing her on some fun releases from K Records back in the late-1990′s. I made a point of seeing the film when it screened at the Philadelphia Film Festival back in April and meant to write a few words about it back then but that never happened.
The remarkable thing about “Me and You” is that it does a good job of bringing the questioning and wondering sensibilities of performance art to a narrative film. When I first saw the film, I was contrasting it with the works of Todd Solondz, who deals with similarly isolated characters in a similarly quirky way. Unlike Solondz’ though, July leaves you with a hopeful feeling. “Me And You” does have some troublesome content (like the naive youngster who connects in a kinky online chatroom), but instead of tragedy July finds comedy in the strange and varied sides of loneliness that she depicts. Just as in her performance/video work, she finds a way of instilling a kind of momentary magic in the everyday.
Related: Miranda July’s “Me And You” Blog (do watch the videos in this post about Philly for a taste of July’s aesthetic.
See Also: Learning to Love You More
