Miranda July’s film Me and You and Everyone We Know seems to be about people who are looking for meaning in life while trying to pass the time. Before the opening credits are played in the film, Richard, who is recently separated from his wife, decides there should be some type of ceremony for his sons, so he pours lighter fluid on his hands and lights it in front of his sons’ window and ends up severely burning himself. A great deal of the film focuses on Christine and her performance art, which seems to be an avid hobby of hers as well as a search for an idealistic vision of love. The close ups used of her performance art help the audience to enter Christine’s world.
The secondary characters in the story also seem to do be doing something to pass the time, whether it’s Nancy thinking she’s talking to a potential mate on the internet or Heather and Rebecca who are beginning to explore their blossoming sexuality. There is a great moment when Heather and Rebecca take turns performing oral sex on Peter and the camera shows Peter looking at a picture of his family when his parents were still together. It seems to convey a sense of loss of innocence.
The final scene of the film is especially poignant. Robbie is awake early to hear what the clicking from the outside is and sees a man waiting for the bus, banging a coin on a sign. He claims he’s just “passing the time” and hands the coin over to Robbie who imitates his clicking. The sunrise and this line seem to convey it’s a new day and everyone is just trying to get by.
1 comment:
Dominic Lee.
Me And You And Everyone We Know.
In my opinion, this is a film that expresses through its plot and cinematography the awkwardness of human beings in relationships,as it tries to expose our inability to engage or act in a certain level of intimacy without some kind of filter or barrier. These "barriers", are what I think Miranda July places the most focus on in her film, as throughout the movie they can be noted, such as the importance of technology,shown through the innocent but almost obsessive relationship between Robby and the person of the chat room, and the importance of the "intangible", such as a persons opinion, which is heavily shown through the two girls and peter, and even Richard and Andrew.
In the beginning of the film the first thing the viewer interacts with is the image of what appears to be a man and woman looking out at a beautiful sunset at the beach; a romantic setting, with a romantic dialogue, or monologue as we realize when the movie progresses to the introduction of the main character in the most awkward way imaginable, just an example of the way the movie takes advantage of what is typically perceived and shows it in an uncomfortable yet still generic way.
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