Me and You and Everyone We Know
So Miranda July has an interesting perspective and grasp on life’s fragility. I want to say that I give this film a 9/10 and I recommend seeing it. It’s not flawless and there are moments where it doesn’t come off right…like say pseudo deep-ish sort of moments but the heart and the intention is there and the insights do come through.
I should have written about this film when I saw it a month ago and I didn’t for some reason. It didn’t seem like such a great film back then as it does now. It has a strange way of affecting you like that, as a certain melody sometimes inevitably does. There’s some great characters that make you feel something and that is a good thing. Miranda July (the director, an artist, and also the main female lead) is someone who looks after the elderly and longs to be with someone. She’s lonely and she’s taking care of a man who has found the love of his life for the first time at around 70 (sort of like Florentino in Love in the Time of Cholera only you like this man more I’d say). Miranda also longs to be acknowledged in an art community and sends her work to the art gallery (interesting criticisms here I’d say and a bit about the absurdities in modern art. I’m a fan of modern art in general but I could understand what she was getting at and I laughed quite a bit). Miranda is neurotic and very emotionally needy but her heart is in the right place.
Then, there’s the character of the recently separated father of two, who sets his hand on fire in the beginning of the film in front of his children. His kids engage in adult internet chatrooms while he’s working at the local shoe store.
There’s also the character of the young girl who spends all of her money on kitchen appliances and in her free time imagines her home, especially her kitchen, for when she is grown up and married.
There’s a creep in the vain of a Todd Solondz character as well but it isn’t a main focus. Still, it’s important to note there are some awkward sort of coming of age moments for one of the sons. Most of the characters seem to feel awkward all of the time anyhow, not quite right in their own skin. This is a film you’re supposed to struggle with that is supposed to open you up a bit like a minor surgery if you let it.
What I thought this film was really saying is that there’s an element that binds us…a common theme we all share no matter what our age or background. There’s a great deal of films that do this but none I’ve seen quite from this approach. And it’s very independent as in no high tech production or mainstream actors but in this case, that is to it’s great advantage because ultimately, it comes off as very real…as a voice for some life stories connecting. And you can immerse yourself in that more, forgetting they were actors just acting. There is less baggage to overcome on this level.
I’ll conclude with sharing a moment from the film. Miranda July’s character is driving her eldercab car with the elderly man she is taking care of and they see, in another lane, a father and his daughter who have forgotten the goldfish they have just purchased. And so, as long as they drive at a constant speed, there is plastic bag with this goldfish on the verge of death sitting on the top of the car looking at the blurry world from a temporary cushion of life giving water. And really, that’s what so many moments in our lives are like, are they not?
(now playing: Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah: Self Titled)