Me, You and Everyone We Know
This independent film by Miranda July is quirky and offbeat.
So is Miranda July. Her blog is a hoot, highlighting her funny way of looking at the world. She possesses a very unique sense of humor, so it won’t come as a surprise that this is a very unique movie.
MY and EWK is a story about relationships: weird relationships, quirky relationships, dangerous relationships and frustrating relationships are explored in graphic detail. Be aware that there are some troubling scenes in this film. It portrays, without apology, children in compromising situations. However, I think it is valuable in that it illustrates the emptiness that people often feel, the extremes people will go to in order to gratify their longings, and the often empty and unfulfilling results of many of these attempts. Desperation, longing, loneliness and clumsy courtship figure prominently…
But there is also hope in this film. The movie follows several concentric threads in which people are looking for companionship, each one demonstrating a unique approach to the pursuit. One primary plotline follows two adolescent girls (Natasha Slayton and Najarra Townsend) as they try their hands at flirting with a grown man. Unfortunately, their experimentation leads to a situation where a man who should know better (Brad William Henke) attempts to seduce the two girls. While the girls interpret his seduction as a kind of gross game, both the girls and Andrew fall for their own BS (so to speak) and have to face the music of their folly.
Similarly, Miranda’s depiction of the genesis of an internet romance between a 7-year-old kid and an unknown adult has profoundly spooky implications. When the two would-be “randomers� finally do meet, it is simultaneously hilarious, profound and pathetic.
Other relationships center around anonymous and experimental teen sex, internet chat rooms, retirement home romances and couples dealing with breakups. People of all ages make fools of themselves, compromising their own convictions to try to connect with someone else. We witness myriad approaches to the pursuit of intimacy, from anonymous meetings between chat room participants to bold invitations into an intended’s car while at a stop sign. Each relationship is starkly filmed, artfully framing desperation and loneliness in the portraits of believable people.
Understanding the nature of this film is a valuable lesson. I came away from the movie thanking Miranda July for her instruction. She aimed to portray the longing she carried around as a child, her apprehension for the future, her desire for someone to find her, her yearning for magic in her life. Every relationship in the film is weird, but desperately wants to be normal. Each character is hurting, but has no one to cry with and is incapable of expressing his or her true needs.
One scene that I found intriguing occurs near the end of the movie, when the two boys and their dad take his recently burned but mostly mended hand out for some air, and one of the boys sings a song he learned in school. It’s a precious, pivotal moment in the film.
Overall, this is a sensitive story, told well. Miranda July is an insightful person, but more importantly she has something valuable to say to all of us: when we do connect with one another, it’s a special moment. We may not all connect, but there is hope.
So is Miranda July. Her blog is a hoot, highlighting her funny way of looking at the world. She possesses a very unique sense of humor, so it won’t come as a surprise that this is a very unique movie.
MY and EWK is a story about relationships: weird relationships, quirky relationships, dangerous relationships and frustrating relationships are explored in graphic detail. Be aware that there are some troubling scenes in this film. It portrays, without apology, children in compromising situations. However, I think it is valuable in that it illustrates the emptiness that people often feel, the extremes people will go to in order to gratify their longings, and the often empty and unfulfilling results of many of these attempts. Desperation, longing, loneliness and clumsy courtship figure prominently…
But there is also hope in this film. The movie follows several concentric threads in which people are looking for companionship, each one demonstrating a unique approach to the pursuit. One primary plotline follows two adolescent girls (Natasha Slayton and Najarra Townsend) as they try their hands at flirting with a grown man. Unfortunately, their experimentation leads to a situation where a man who should know better (Brad William Henke) attempts to seduce the two girls. While the girls interpret his seduction as a kind of gross game, both the girls and Andrew fall for their own BS (so to speak) and have to face the music of their folly.
Similarly, Miranda’s depiction of the genesis of an internet romance between a 7-year-old kid and an unknown adult has profoundly spooky implications. When the two would-be “randomers� finally do meet, it is simultaneously hilarious, profound and pathetic.
Other relationships center around anonymous and experimental teen sex, internet chat rooms, retirement home romances and couples dealing with breakups. People of all ages make fools of themselves, compromising their own convictions to try to connect with someone else. We witness myriad approaches to the pursuit of intimacy, from anonymous meetings between chat room participants to bold invitations into an intended’s car while at a stop sign. Each relationship is starkly filmed, artfully framing desperation and loneliness in the portraits of believable people.
Understanding the nature of this film is a valuable lesson. I came away from the movie thanking Miranda July for her instruction. She aimed to portray the longing she carried around as a child, her apprehension for the future, her desire for someone to find her, her yearning for magic in her life. Every relationship in the film is weird, but desperately wants to be normal. Each character is hurting, but has no one to cry with and is incapable of expressing his or her true needs.
One scene that I found intriguing occurs near the end of the movie, when the two boys and their dad take his recently burned but mostly mended hand out for some air, and one of the boys sings a song he learned in school. It’s a precious, pivotal moment in the film.
Overall, this is a sensitive story, told well. Miranda July is an insightful person, but more importantly she has something valuable to say to all of us: when we do connect with one another, it’s a special moment. We may not all connect, but there is hope.
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