Me and You and Everyone We Know

2005
IFC Films
Director: Miranda July
Length: 92 min.
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 1 February

It's always a disappointment when you finish a film and simply don't care about it. It's very hard to care about Miranda July's debut feature, Me and You and Everyone We Know. The characters aren't really interesting, and as a result, the blossoming romance of the two leads fails to register because we can't really see why they like each other so much. The highly sexualized scenes between the many children in the film quickly become either disturbing (why again is it funny that a man leaves dirty notes for two underage teen girls?) or simply dull (the online sex - although the "are you touching yourself" bit was pretty funny). The film is supposed to be quirky and whimsical, and though the quirks and whimsy never feel forced, they never feel natural, either and thus the film doesn't work from that angle, either.

Granted, this film does have some funny parts (I'm guessing no one alive can utter "shitlords" half as funny as John Hawkes does here) and some cute bits (the walk/life-long romance down the street is rather sweet and charming), and the theme of isolation in the digital world is a good one. It's unfortunate that July couldn't make more of these elements and give us a film that was easier to care about.