Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005)

Pretty Good

Just what I expected

Good start, but then it gets ruined

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

it is a special film. a delicate, fragile, profound reflection of life with its many sides. it is bitter and warm and nice and cruel. a man, his children, wife, neighbors, a woman. and splendid dialogs, touching performance. vulnerability and search of happiness. deep social problems. and fear. innocence in strange clothes. and need of the other. a fish in a bag and a dialog. a picture with bird and the sun. a woman and a child in park. and too realistic atmosphere. after its end - the image of Brandon Ratcliff amazing performance. and the traces of a film about basic common things. like a modern fairy tale. only shadows of dragons is different. and the sleep of Charming Prince.

Miranda July wrote, directed, and acted in this film as Christine Jesperson, an elderly taxi cab driver and aspiring artist, in Los Angeles, California. John Hawkes played Richard Swerskey, a newly separated father of two young sons, who works a dead end job in shoe sales at a department store. John Hawkes does a fabulous job in playing a sympathetic role in this film. There are plenty of awkward times in the film. There is plenty of realism in watching everyday ordinary people living their lives. The pedophile character is perhaps the most troublesome. He leaves disturbing notes on his window but nobody seems to read them except the two teenage girls who walk by everyday. There is a lot of relevant topics that the film deals with on an everyday level about online pornography, divorce, coming of age. The film is very relevant years later in today's world. There are no major stars but the story itself. Viewers will appreciate and relate to the characters in this film. They're just struggling to get by in life and trying to find happiness an fulfillment.

Not even for every fan of independent cinema. As others have pointed out, there are some discomfiting moments reminiscent of a Todd Solondz film (I'd also throw in Neil LaBute). Although ultimately, if you can maintain your composure during those discomfiting moments, this film is nowhere near as dark and bleak as a Solondz or LaBute film (just the opposite, really).Some reviewers mentioned turning it off after a few minutes. If you just watched the beginning, you might think the movie was just kind of an aimless example of the "quirk" genre of low budget indie cinema. There's definitely that element, but if you stick with it it really does transcend the quirk and get into genuine pathos, I promise.

This is an out-of-the-way type of movie, much different from the standard painful crappy oeuvre offered by Hollywood. The main elements of its plot revolve around a recently divorced salesman (played by John Hawkes) and a struggling performance artist, played by Miranda July, who also wrote and directed the movie and is herself a performance artist. Because this movie involves some very uncommon plot elements, including adolescent sexuality, it is evident that July was trying to portray some of the stuff which we do not normally never see in movies, but is nevertheless a very important part of the human experience. This movie deserves credit for being so light-hearted, romantic and satirical that one is easily transferred into the world of the movie and feels to experience what the characters experienced. The portrayal by the young child actors was also very good. Overall, an easy 10 out of 10.