Michael Curcio
Me And You And Everyone We Know
The film, “Me And You And Everyone We Know” deals expertly with relationships between people, both romantic and platonic, without creating an overbearing sense of drama between the subjects. The result is a movie that relates to human emotion but doesn’t fully capture it and because Miranda July walks that fine line in her writing, the audience benefits by not having their intelligence insulted. July urges the viewers to relate with the characters and empathize with the characters by filling in their lack of human emotion in the film with the viewer’s own feelings from personal experiences. Some viewers may find it frustrating that John Hawke’s character can’t seem to simply squeeze out his true emotions in hopes of allowing some closure in his divorce. Others might see his emotional retardation with both his ex-wife and his other “love” interest -Miranda July’s character Christine- and relate because they too have felt their communication skills to be lacking in their own life so they feel relieved and empowered to share their pain with other person even if that person may be fictional.
Miranda July made this picture to communicate with the audience about the side of themselves that they don’t openly allow others to see. Ms. July understands that when the emotional introvert expresses his or her emotions; beautiful and awkward situations occur. One of these situations is towards the end of the film when Robby, after an entire film of wondering, finally discovers what the noise is that constantly wakes him up in the morning. He takes that quarter that the businessman is using to tap against the metal rail and then the young boy starts tapping the metal himself, slowly taking over the unofficial responsibility of the man as being his proverbial morning rooster. This moment is exclusive to Robby, but any member of the audience that has had a similar experience could relate to the boy and they could share the moment together. The aforementioned experience is what makes this film fleetingly sentimental yet highly effective in warming the human heart.
1 comment:
This is a start and you've identified some details from the film that interest you. But you are not yet making an interpretive claim. For instance, your thesis states "and because Miranda July walks that fine line in her writing," yet does not articulate what line, exactly, she's walking. In sum, you have stated that the film is interesting, that it portrays people and situations the viewer might relate to, and that it warms the heart. But this could be said about any number of films - indeed, this is generally what most fiction films attempt to do. For the next film, try to get more specific about what the film is saying, big picture, and how it goes about saying it. Try to look more at form and structure, and less exclusively at content.
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