Here it is, the start of summer. All the big name, big budget movies are filling the multiplexes. Cars, planes, and cities are blowing up. Superheroes are defeating supervillains. Sequels, prequels and remakes will be rolling out tempting us to watch what we’ve already seen before.
What a perfect time to hunt up some good independent films – to find something original and different. Indie films refresh us by giving us variation. Sometimes the film may just be unusual, but often they are also quite good.
Me You and Everyone We Know is just the kind of film to break up a summer of movies that we see every summer. Writer-director-actor Miranda July and the film won (among other things) the Camera d’Or at Cannes for best first film. The film also received a special jury prize at Sundance for originality of vision. Me You and Everyone We Know is a refreshing look at everyday life, even though it seems anything but common place. It is filled with humor and pathos, but mostly with humanity.
At its heart, Me You and Everyone We Know is about the desperation we have to meaningfully connect to someone. It really isn’t so much about our alienation from each other, as much as it is about how hard it can be to really connect with someone else. The film shows a number of ways that people try – through the internet or simply taping sexually loaded messages to their apartment window, through sexual experimentation or setting one’s own hand on fire, through art or collecting household goods.
The various characters in the film find themselves making their way through life, some more successfully than others, but not really happy. Richard, a recently separated father would like to be a better parent, but doesn’t know how. Christine, a struggling artist, wants human contact that is missing from her life. There are fantasies never to be lived out. There are children who may want to grow up too fast, or who act grown up while in a child’s body. There are those who only see the moment, and those who long for a future.
We see that in each character, there has to be more than what they have by themselves. There is a need to share their lives with someone else and a need to have others share their lives with them.
But to connect with others involves risk – risk of rejection, risk of self-discovery, risk of losing oneself, risk of failure. Often the fear of these risks prevents people from connecting. Even as the film shows us how desperate people can be to make a connection, it also shows that to do so means people have to take risks to make those connections. In the film, the risks really aren’t physical risks, but emotional risks. Some of the risks pay off in the film, but not always – just like in life.
Because the risks sometimes pay off, there is a sense of hope in the film. It isn’t a dark, brooding piece about loneliness. Rather it is lighthearted and slightly optimistic. We don’t see the outcomes of the attempts at connecting, but we do see the beginnings of connections that are starting to take place.
In the days since I saw the film, I keep thinking about various scenes and marveling at the detail and skill with which they were put together. The humor is especially agreeable. Subjects that might be offensive or disturbing are handed in such a light manner that it only makes me love the film more. Even the most scatological humor keeps bringing a smile to my face.
So if you’re looking at the theater listings and feel like you’ve already seen everything (even though you haven’t been to the movies for ages), maybe it’s time to find your way to something different, like Me You and Everyone We Know. No cars exploding, no superheroes, no actors you recognize – just a bit of life as bizarre as reality.
—Comment on the blog
