We didn’t know what to expect from Me and You and Everyone We Know. Thankfully it turned out to be one of the finest low budget films I’ve seen. Since watching this film, I’ve found out that it won the 2005 Caméra d’Or at Cannes and the Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision at Sundance among numerous others. Roger Ebert also awarded it four out of four stars in a recent review. All this from a first time director, Miranda July, who also co-starred in this wonderful film.
We know, almost as soon as we set eyes on him, that there’s something a little odd about Richard, played brilliantly by John Hawkes. This is confirmed moments later when, in an effort to impress his two children in the midst of separating from his African American wife (Jonell Kennedy), he pours lighter fluid over his hand and sets it alight! We find out a few scenes later that he confused lighter fluid with rubbing alcohol (which apparently won’t burn you when set alight).
Christine (July), is a budding modern artist who composes strange little cinema pieces from photographs stuck to her wall. To pay the bills, she drives the elderly around town in her car. On one such trip, she takes her client and friend, Michael (Hector Elias), to a shoe store. Here she meets Richard, who’s a salesman in the shoe store. From this point on, Christine more or less stalks Richard – in the nicest of ways. These two, both quirky in their own ways, are obviously meant to be together. Christine sees this from the start, while Richard, having just separated from his wife and with two young children to look after, is still less sure of this.
Further entertainment is provided by the young characters: Richards children, Peter (Miles Thompson) and Robby (Brandon Ratcliff), Sylvie homemaker (Carlie Westerman) who is the young girl next door, and Heather (Natasha Slayton) and Rebecca (Najarra Townsend) who play a couple of late teens curious about sex. The funniest moments in this film occur during an Internet chat that Peter and Robby are having with an unknown person who becomes highly aroused at Robby’s strange, but ultimately innocent (Robby is seven years old), ideas of sex.
A terrific movie. If you like slightly offbeat and innovative films, this one’s a must see.
