Review of Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005) by David E — 10 Mar 2013

The directorial debut of author Miranda July, (who also wrote the film and acts in it), this is a very weird romantic comedy-drama, done with a light touch and with colourful characters. It's gentle humour comes out of the quirkiness of situations portrayed in the film, while it has a surreal touch that apes David Lynch in places.

However, it does have some good performances throughout. Shoe salesman Richard (John Hawkes) has recently been thrown out by his wife Pam (JoNell Kennedy), after a bout of depression. He gets his own place so his children Peter (Miles Thompson) and Robby (Brandon Ratcliff) can spend time with him.

Richard meets experimental video artist Christine (July) and the two begin a relationship. Meanwhile, Peter ends up in a playful friendship and then relationship with Heather (Natasha Slayton) and Rebecca (Najarra Townsend), who are neighbours with Richard, while Robby discovers online chatting, and ends up posing as Peter on a questionable online forum, while Richard is completely oblivious to all of this going on.

It's a quirky film, with some lovely camerawork by Chuy Chavez, and the film won the Caméra d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. It seemed indie cinema had a new saviour in July, but it would be another 6 years before she made another feature film again.