Me and You and Everyone We Know, A movie review

I realized soon after I started watching this movie that I had seen it before. But I proceeded to watch it through again, with fresh eyes.

A few days ago I watched a very remarkable movie called The Future which turned out to be written and directed by Miranda July, who also starred in, wrote and directed both of these Indie films. I was so impressed with this The Future movie that I looked up her earlier film, which is the one that is the subject of this review. This 2005 film is available for streaming on Netflix.

If all this starts to sound a bit Gertrude Stein-ish, it's the effect of spending too much time in the universe according to the very quirky and talented Ms July and attempting to write about it. She is an artist with a very particular vision. The Me and You film really breaks new ground and has stuff rarely before found in films to be seen by the public,at least in my experience, for instance children exploring their sexuality via the anonymity of the computer as well as in person. It's controversial stuff but July's approach to the material is so clearly mature and non-salacious that it has to be seen as the art that it is.

Real art always breaks new ground and walks the razor's edge, and now having seen two movies by this artist, I am starting to get a very good sense of her very individual vision of the Truth. It is refreshingly real, unsentimental, and true in a way rarely seen but often attempted especially in Indie films. Kids, especially pre-adolescents are curious about and often fascinated by sex. This combined with their inexperience and unbridled imagination makes for juicy stories. Coming-of-age is a favorite topic of filmmakers since it is a time so rich and pregnant with feeling and discovery.

Sex, love, art, communication and relationship are the themes explored here. Not just the kids exploring, but the adults experimenting with marriage, separation, divorce and reaching out for new love, new adventures and new artistic expression. There is a potential Pedophile here also to make things edgy and a bit dangerous. The way it is treated though is artistic, humorous and with compassion. But clearly this is not a film that would be recommended for or by the typical Republican household. It no doubt has been dismissed with selected denunciations and/or warnings by the narrow-minded. Lets just say its R rating is appropriate.

So it is a given that the audience for this movie is open minded, non-judgmental and sensitive and appreciative of the quirky, whimsical and artistic. If that is you, I predict you will enjoy this film as much as I did, even more so on a second viewing.