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Me and you and everyone we know - Miranda July
This is one of the biggest surprises for me in recent months. An independent film at it's best (and thank God for it, I was beginning to lose faith in American independent cinema). It won loads of awards at the Cannes film festival and numerous others and yet somehow managed to slip under my radar.
Right from the start it was clear this film will be like nothing I've seen before. None of the characters act in the way they're supposed to.
Miranda July not only wrote and directed the film but also stars as Christine Jesperson, a struggling artist, empath and a romantic at heart. She meets Richard, a shoe salesman going through divorce, gradually they become intrigued by one another and eventually fall in love...sounds standard doesn't it? Far from it. Just when you start thinking this is a beautiful love affair a la Amelie (although I'd say they do share some similarities), the main protagonists get thrown back into reality.
Maybe that's what makes this film so fresh and original, the fact that it seemed so much more real than most other romance/comedy type flicks. And not just with regards to the central characters, all the supporting ones act unexpectedly real. For example, Richard's colleague Andrew, who looks like a retarded jock, is actually a fairly intelligent creature. But here's a quote to illustrate it, the scene is him meeting two underage girls that flirt with him as a challenge: "Andrew: I would love to believe in a universe where you wake up and don't have to to go to work and you step outside and meet two beautiful 18-year-old sisters who are also girlfriends and are also very nice people.". Now, normally, you'd expect someone like that to take advantage of the situation, but Andrew displays a remarkable amount of sobriety.
These are just a few of the characters that makes this film so interesting. We also follow the adventures (or misadventures) of Richards beautiful and naive children, one of whom, the six year old Robby (such a naturally played character, unlike most child actors whose acting is more constrained than relaxed and childlike) starts an (unusual to say the least) internet relationship with an anonymous woman.
For a debut feature, this film exudes maturity and functions as an incredibly well rounded whole. No excess scenes or dialogs, pinning you to the screen from start to finish, not with sheer excitement (although, judging by the opening sequence you could get the wrong idea, perhaps), but with its quirky comedy interlaced with incredibly beautiful, almost poetic moments (the gold fish scene, the scene at the park when Robby meets the anonymous woman, to name but a few).
Every single scene seemed so fresh and new, every piece of dialog like nothing I've ever heard before, yet I could relate to. An incredibly enjoyable experience....Unfortunately, I've read that July has put her filming career on a hiatus. Apparently "she found the promotion of the film too much of a grind, and too much of a strain on her life and art, and she told the interviewer that she was going to go back to smaller projects that were more manageable and more controllable." I do hope she changes her mind, she's obviously an incredibly talented young woman and a natural filmmaker...
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This is one of the biggest surprises for me in recent months. An independent film at it's best (and thank God for it, I was beginning to lose faith in American independent cinema). It won loads of awards at the Cannes film festival and numerous others and yet somehow managed to slip under my radar.
Right from the start it was clear this film will be like nothing I've seen before. None of the characters act in the way they're supposed to.
Miranda July not only wrote and directed the film but also stars as Christine Jesperson, a struggling artist, empath and a romantic at heart. She meets Richard, a shoe salesman going through divorce, gradually they become intrigued by one another and eventually fall in love...sounds standard doesn't it? Far from it. Just when you start thinking this is a beautiful love affair a la Amelie (although I'd say they do share some similarities), the main protagonists get thrown back into reality.
Maybe that's what makes this film so fresh and original, the fact that it seemed so much more real than most other romance/comedy type flicks. And not just with regards to the central characters, all the supporting ones act unexpectedly real. For example, Richard's colleague Andrew, who looks like a retarded jock, is actually a fairly intelligent creature. But here's a quote to illustrate it, the scene is him meeting two underage girls that flirt with him as a challenge: "Andrew: I would love to believe in a universe where you wake up and don't have to to go to work and you step outside and meet two beautiful 18-year-old sisters who are also girlfriends and are also very nice people.". Now, normally, you'd expect someone like that to take advantage of the situation, but Andrew displays a remarkable amount of sobriety.
These are just a few of the characters that makes this film so interesting. We also follow the adventures (or misadventures) of Richards beautiful and naive children, one of whom, the six year old Robby (such a naturally played character, unlike most child actors whose acting is more constrained than relaxed and childlike) starts an (unusual to say the least) internet relationship with an anonymous woman.
For a debut feature, this film exudes maturity and functions as an incredibly well rounded whole. No excess scenes or dialogs, pinning you to the screen from start to finish, not with sheer excitement (although, judging by the opening sequence you could get the wrong idea, perhaps), but with its quirky comedy interlaced with incredibly beautiful, almost poetic moments (the gold fish scene, the scene at the park when Robby meets the anonymous woman, to name but a few).
Every single scene seemed so fresh and new, every piece of dialog like nothing I've ever heard before, yet I could relate to. An incredibly enjoyable experience....Unfortunately, I've read that July has put her filming career on a hiatus. Apparently "she found the promotion of the film too much of a grind, and too much of a strain on her life and art, and she told the interviewer that she was going to go back to smaller projects that were more manageable and more controllable." I do hope she changes her mind, she's obviously an incredibly talented young woman and a natural filmmaker...