Themes: Fathers and Sons, Life in the Arts, Suburban Dysfunction
Main Cast: John Hawkes, Miranda July, Miles Thompson, Brandon Ratcliff, Carlie Westerman
Release Year: 2004
Country: UK/US
Run Time: 90 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
A handful of disparate characters, both adults and children, find themselves navigating the tricky waters of intimacy in this award-winning independent comedy drama. Richard (John Hawkes) is a recent divorcé who is alternately exhilarated and terrified with his life and the world around him. While he believes great things are in store for him, he's also become so despondent about his wife's departure that he attempts to set his hand on fire. Richard meets Christine (Miranda July) at the shoe store where he works; Christine likes to paint a picture of herself as a stylish and confident video artist, but in truth she supports herself as a driver with a car service for the elderly, and she'd very much like to meet someone special. As Richard and Christine fumble their way into a relationship, Richard's two sons have issues of their own. Seven-year-old Robby (Brandon Ratcliff) has met someone in an Internet chat room who responds to his naïve and scatological perceptions of sex, while 14-year-old Peter (Miles Thompson) finds himself on the receiving end of unusual and unexpected attention from two girls in his class. Me and You and Everyone We Know was the first feature film written and directed by noted performance artist Miranda July; the picture won prizes in 2005 at the Cannes Film Festival and Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Slight, and slightly precious, this wide-eyed indie cross-pollinates the romantic comedy with the offbeat ensemble drama. Whether the results seem like Robert Altman lite or a more profound When Harry Met Sally depends upon the sensibilities of the viewer. Writing and directing her first feature, video artist Miranda July grapples with the terror and exhilaration of human interaction: love, sex, companionship, and fate. These characters -- including July's own Christine, the aspiring artist whose tentative romance frames the story -- rarely understand their own needs, let alone each other's. Their lives intersect, often in unexpected ways, yet fear and misunderstanding usually threaten any lasting connection. As a filmmaker, July favors episodes over arcs and wry chuckles over belly laughs. As a performer, she proves compellingly ethereal: evocative where she could have settled for quirky shtick. Ditto for John Hawkes, of Deadwood fame, who provides a winsome variation on the sort of wounded man-child who pops up in any number of features at Sundance every year. Really, there's not a bad performance to be found anywhere in the film. It's the overall tone that's as likely to annoy as enchant. July makes judicious use of talented composer Michael Andrews, whose previous credits include Donnie Darko and TV's Wonderfalls. His compositions help sustain the mood of ramshackle momentum and the moments of sudden, tenuous transcendence. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
John Wyatt - Art Director, Meg Morman - Casting, Christie Wittenborn - Costume Designer, Amy Armstrong - First Assistant Director, Miranda July - Director, Andrew Dickler - Editor, Peter Carlton - Executive Producer, Caroline Kaplan - Executive Producer, Jonathan Sehring - Executive Producer, Holly Becker - Executive Producer, Iliana Nikolic - Executive Producer, Michael Andrews - Composer (Music Score), Aran Reo Mann - Production Designer, Chuy Chavez - Cinematographer, Gina Kwon - Producer, Bryan John Venegas - Set Designer, Yehuda Maayan - Sound/Sound Designer, Miranda July - Screenwriter, Meg Taylor - Re-Recording Mixer, Meg Taylor - Supervising Sound Editor
The structure of the film consists of several subplots which all revolve around an intertwined cast of characters.
The film begins by introducing Richard (John Hawkes), a shoe salesman and recently separated father of two. After being thrown out by his wife Pam (JoNell Kennedy), he gets an apartment of his own to share with his children, Peter (Miles Thompson) and Robby (Brandon Ratcliff). He meets Christine (Miranda July), a senior-cab driver and amateurvideo artist, while she takes her client to shop for shoes, and the two develop a fledgling romantic relationship.
Robby, six years old, and his 14 year old brother, Peter, have a joint online chat which he later depicts in another chat session as "))<>((", an emoticon that means "pooping back and forth". This piques the interest of the woman at the other end and she suggests a real-life meeting.
Two of Richard's neighbors, 15-year-olds Heather (Natasha Slayton) and Rebecca (Najarra Townsend), develop a playful relationship with a much older neighbor Andrew (Brad William Henke). He doesn't say much, but he keeps leaving signs on his window about what he would do to each of them. As a result of this relationship, Heather and Rebecca ask 14-year-old Peter, Robby's older brother, if they can practice oral sex on him, so that he can tell them which of the two does it better; so they do. He says both were exactly the same. The daughter of a neighbor peeks in the window and sees what happens at the time, and quickly leaves. They later come to the neighbor's house intending to have sex with him, as practice, which shocks him, and he pretends not to be home.
Meanwhile, Christine's work is rejected by a contemporary art museum, but then later accepted by the curator, who turns out to be the woman who was instant messaging with the brothers.
The plots come together in the end, with Peter developing a friendship with the daughter of a neighbor, having been introduced to the hope chest that she has, Christine and Richard displaying a show of mutual acceptance of their attraction to each other, and, as a final plot device, Robby finding that the noise he'd been awoken to every morning very early was that of an early rising businessman tapping a quarter on a street sign pole. When asked why he's doing it, he stops and turns around, saying "Just passing the time." and gives Robby the quarter. When his bus drives away and Robby tries it out himself, the sun heightens with each tap, time literally passing as he does it.
