Day 86: Me and You and Everyone We Know

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If there ever was a movie that exemplifies the meaning of an original idea, this movie can make such a case. Miranda July's Me and You and Everyone We Know is a film about a group of individuals who attempt to find some sort of clarity in their lives, with their story ending up being intertwined with one another. Yes, that has done many times and done successfully as well (Magnolia comes to mind) but what makes this film so special to me, as a fan of well done romantic comedies, is that it doesn't preoccupy itself with making the audience comfortable. The journey that all the characters find themselves in the middle of are reflections of the different stages each person goes through in a lifetime. In a way, you can say that the actual title of this film is a hint that we're all one person only being separated by age and the level of pain we endure.


For the most part, this movie is centered around Miranda July's character Christine and a single father Richard, who is taking care of his two sons while dealing with the divorce from his wife. The audience is introduced to Richard's kids when Richard decides to attempt to impress them by setting his hand on fire. Richard's facial expression while watching his arm become engulfed in flames is what defines this film for me. No matter how insane the circumstances may be at the moment, each character in this film is still able to look outside of the horror and see the beauty in the situation. The relationship between Christine and Richard is one that seems to make sense. Both are in a stage in their lives where they desperately need someone to comfort them. Yet, until both can overcome their own hardships, they won't be able to become one. Richard's oldest kid Peter is undergoing a type of sexual awakening throughout the film. He becomes a guinea pig for two pre-teens, Rebecca and Heather, who are infatuated with the idea of oral sex after meeting one of their older neighbors, Peter. Richard's youngest child, Robby, begins an online relationship with a pedophile and ends up suggesting that they meet in person. Robby is an innocent six year old who doesn't understand half of the things that are being told to him by this stranger but for some odd reason, I felt that Robby can understand the pain and loneliness that this online predator feels in his or her life.

Christine struggles to get her work accepted by a local Art institute and is pushed to the limit when she records herself bearing her soul to the head of the institute and giving one of the most heartbreaking monologues I've seen in film. She explains to the Dean of the institute that it isn't quite fair how she'll probably won't even watch this video and go home to her loving family, while Christine continues to live in a world where dogs have families and she doesn't. Her attraction to Richard begins when they first meet at Richard's workplace and the spark between the two can be seen a mile away. At first, the two seem to click; while walking to each others cars they use their paths to their cars as a metaphor for their non-exsitant relationship. Both are extremely self-aware, which at one point stops Richard from completely opening up to Christine and denying her the first time she attempts to get closer to him.

It isn't important for me to tell you how the relationship between the two ends up like but what is essential here is to understand the meaning of this film. All of the characters in this movie help each other reach a goal. Some of the goals are bigger than others and some aren't even goals but rather a starting point. A starting point for that character is a place that these characters long for because being lost in their own heads is probably the toughest thing these people have ever gone through, no matter the age. Love is what pushes all of us to be happy. We often think that the only way to be happy is to be IN love but that isn't the case. I find that we all need help from one another in order to be at peace with what we have in front of us. Me and You and Everyone We Know is as sweet and hypnotizing as the big blue eyes of Christine but the journey each characters goes through is as rough and fragile as the burned hand of Richard.