Review of Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005) by David M — 23 Jan 2012

I watched this film, obviously, and here I am starting up my review.

Obviously.

Now, I am looking at the sides of this page, that shows a couple of other people's reviews for this. And quite honestly, I have no idea why two of the three have given it a 100%.

Me, on the hand, cannot really give it any more than a 60%. And even that is being a tad bit generous. I initially gave it a 50%, but I figured I could be nicer about it.

Here's why.

POSITIVES.

First of all, let us admire and respect that a woman did three things for this film. Because this does not happen all too often. Miranda July wrote this, directed this, and takes a performance role in this. I will go over each aspect positively below.

Miranda July's writing:

In terms of dialogue, it is decent. It is not to the point where it is all cliche and generic, or laughable. But it is not all that clever, either. Which is not exactly a bad thing. Not good, not bad, but decent. Decent is alright. And that is how her dialogue is. I like that she wrote the script and that it did not suck, but she should have written the way she wanted it and handed it to someone she trusted and admired to improve it. At least collaborated with that person.

But when it comes to the characters, they were written well. What I mean by that is they were creatively made. They are all very sympathetic people and, for me, I wanted to see more of each of them.

Well.

Most of them.

Anyway, the characters were pretty good. They are not pathetic to the point that causes you to complain about them and frustrate you in a way you do not care about that. But they are pathetic---scratch that. I should not being using the word "pathetic". I should be using the word "desperate". They are all desperate people.

So, the best part of July's writing in this film, is her characters.

Miranda July's directing:

I really like how she uses the camera. There are plenty of shots I really liked. Ones that really caught my attention. She really is an observant filmmaker. She captures a lot of beauty by looking at little simple things. Like a coin in the light of dusk at the end of the film.

The idea of having the colors of the film being more saturated made the film easier to watch. Plus it somewhat displays the higher saturation of the characters. Now, I know that is the work of the cinematographer, but she probably had that idea in mind and brought it to him.

Miranda July's acting:

She is not a bad actress. And physically, she reminds me of Laura Dern.

Not sure what that had to do with anything ...

She clearly has talent, and it shows that she has acting experience. She is just not some lucky gal who got a part because she knew somebody or because she has big breasts or something.

No.

She earned her way up. Same goes for her directing. She is where she is because of her talent. And we will be hearing about her a lot in the not-so-distant future.

Her role as Christine in the film is very believable. It has got me wondering if she was pretty much just playing herself. She is quirky, but somehow likable (to an extent). She has a lot of sweetness in her character. She somehow gets you to like her. But remember, she is one of the desperate characters.

Done with Miranda July, now.

As I said before, the use of more saturation in the cinematography was necessary and was done very well.

The soundtrack is super good by itself, and along with the film. It compliments it well, but ...

And there were a couple more good performances.

I already talked about July's performance, so I will briefly cover John Hawkes'.

John Hawkes' character, Richard, is probably the more relatable and normal character. As usual, John Hawkes' puts up a performances that really stands out and pressures you into liking him and his character. He has done this in pretty much every film I have seen him in. Now, I have not seen a lot of them, but the ones I did, he always stood out. And I believe he has tons and tons of potential but still is not getting that one role that is destined to be his. He is running out of time so somebody better hurry up with that.

Hopefully he does not end up like Gary Oldman ...

Carlie Westerman, who is just a kid in this film, puts up a pretty good child performance. She is very likable as an actress here, and as her character. Her character is a bit strange, like most of the characters int his film, but like I said, she is very likable considering that. She will grow up to be a pretty darn good actress, you just watch.

NEGATIVES.

All the other acting was pretty pathetic.

Narraja Townsend was eh.

Another downfall of Me And You And Everyone We Know, is some of its random events and random moments. I could see what it was trying to do on some parts, but it just was not thrown in there as well as it should have and could have been. It was just odd. And some of the events were not even necessary. Or at least putting the point behind certain parts in a way that was stupid and could have been used in a different way.

I understand what this film was trying to say, and I liked what it was trying to say but I feel like it was poorly executed.

To further extend on that, Me And You And Everyone We Know communicates with us the way the characters try to communicate with each other by being daring, and whimsy with playful mind games and audacious challenges. The film seems to even say that nobody really communicates that way anymore. And I definitely agree with this. Only me and you and everyone we know seems to be the only ones communicating these ways.

I felt like I explained that terribly.

Sigh.

Hopefully you can figure out what I meant.

Anyway, I caught the point of the film and what it was trying to say, but as I mentioned above, the execution and the results were poor.

I ONLY UNDERSTOOD IT BECAUSE I'M A GENIUS.

This is definitely worth bringing up, and could be, maybe, the most important thing about it, is that I felt like it was trying too hard to be quirky. I know that was a sub-part to the point of the film, but still.

Also, the last thing I will bring up, is the use of the soundtrack.

The soundtrack is superb, it really is. But like the point of the film, it was not used effectively as it easily could have been. And that is pretty disappointing.

WELP!

That's all, folks!

It smells like pancakes in my apartment so I am going to find out where there are pancakes hiding here.

Me And You And Everyone We Know tries too hard to be what it is.

Two mangos out of four.