You and Me and Everyone We Know

This is a little IFC gem that I heard about when it was in limited release back 6 or so months ago. It plays like a Todd Solondz movie but with the feminine touch of it's lead actress, writer and director Miranda July. Critically lauded, but not seen by many this is a piece of art about the human desire to connect with some very discomforting scenes interspliced to add a very dramatic sense of realness. The creepy shoe salesman who thinks he wants to coax some neighborhood teenage girls into a threesome, a 7 year old engaging in ass play themed instant messaging with a woman in her late 30's and the freakishly mature 10 year old girl who is collecting items (like a hand mixer or new shower curtain) for her dowdry and saving them in a hope chest are the roadside attractions on this journey about Richard and Christine's road to love.


I wouldn't call this a romantic comedy, although the overall theme is romantic and there are some laughs, albeit somewhat uncomfortable ones, along the way. It's more of an exploration of how desperate we get when we hit a point in our life when we feel incomplete because we cannot find out soul mate. Christine is fiercely brave in her approach towards making Richard notice her, and relentlessly pursues him because he is the one. I admired her vunerability while alone and her reckless behavior while around Richard, and completely sympathized with the emotional roller coaster it is to just have this crazy, overwhelming "feeling" about someone despite the fact that as Richard says in one memorable scene, they could be a "killer of small children."

Above and beyond the enjoyment I had watching the movie continually take it up to another level from scene to scene, I became completely mesmerized by Miranda July. Very unconventionally cute, like 1 part Rachel Griffiths and 1 part this girl I knew in college that none of you fucking know. Ha.