Me and You and Everyone We Know
Encyclopedia
Me and You and Everyone We Know is a 2005 American romantic
comedy-drama film
written and directed by Miranda July
(her directorial debut) and stars July, John Hawkes
, Miles Thompson, Brandon Ratcliff
, Natasha Slayton
, Najarra Townsend, Carlie Westerman, and JoNell Kennedy.
The film begins by introducing Richard (John Hawkes
), a shoe salesman and recently separated father of two. After being thrown out by his wife Pam (JoNell Kennedy), he gets an apartment of his own to share with his children, Peter (Miles Thompson) and Robby (Brandon Ratcliff
). He meets Christine (Miranda July
), a senior-cab driver and amateur
video artist, while she takes her client to shop for shoes, and the two develop a fledgling romantic relationship.
Robby, six years old, and his 14-year-old brother, Peter, have a joint online chat
which he later depicts in another chat session as "))<>((", an emoticon
that means "pooping back and forth, forever." This piques the interest of the woman at the other end and she suggests a real-life meeting.
Two of Richard's teenaged neighbors, Heather (Natasha Slayton
) and Rebecca (Najarra Townsend), develop a playful relationship with a much older neighbor Andrew (Brad William Henke
) who works in the shoe store with Richard. He does not say much, but he keeps leaving signs on his window about what he would do to each of them. As a result of this relationship, Heather and Rebecca ask Peter if they can practice oral sex
on him, so that he can tell them which of the two does it better; so they do. He says both were exactly the same. The daughter of a neighbor peeks in the window, sees what is happening, and quickly leaves. Heather and Rebecca later come to the neighbor's house intending to have sex with him as practice, but he appears afraid when he sees them through his window and he pretends not to be home.
Meanwhile, Christine's work is rejected by a contemporary art
museum, but then later accepted by the curator
, who turns out to be the woman who was instant messaging with the brothers.
The plots come together in the end, with Peter developing a friendship with the daughter of a neighbor, having been introduced to the hope chest
that she has, Christine and Richard displaying a show of mutual acceptance of their attraction to each other, and, as a final plot device, Robby finding that the noise he had awoken to early every morning was that of an early-rising businessman tapping a quarter
on a street sign pole. When asked why he is doing it, he stops and turns around, saying "just passing the time", and gives Robby the quarter. When his bus drives away and Robby tries it out himself, the sun heightens with each tap, time literally passing as he does it.
high definition digital video camera.
The score, composed by Michael Andrews
, was performed largely on a modified
Casio SK-1
sampling keyboard.
On-line chat scenes were filmed with open-source Gaim
software.
, with the consensus stating, "Miranda July
's debut feature is a charmingly offbeat and observant film about people looking for love." On Metacritic
, Me and You holds a 76, indicating "Generally favorable reviews".
The film won the Caméra d'Or
at the Cannes Film Festival
.
Portions of the script were included in the anthology The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2006 edited by Dave Eggers
.
Roger Ebert
cited it as the fifth best film of the decade.
Romantic comedy film
Romantic comedy films are films with light-hearted, humorous plotlines, centered on romantic ideals such as that true love is able to surmount most obstacles. One dictionary definition is "a funny movie, play, or television program about a love story that ends happily"...
comedy-drama film
Comedy-drama
Comedy-drama is a genre of theatre, film and television programs which combines humorous and serious content.-Theatre:Traditional western theatre, beginning with the ancient Greeks, was divided into comedy and tragedy...
written and directed by Miranda July
Miranda July
Miranda July is a performing artist, writer, actress and film director. Born Miranda Jennifer Grossinger, she works under the surname of "July," which can be traced to a character from a "girlzine" Miranda created with high school friend Johanna Fateman, called Snarla.- Background :Miranda...
(her directorial debut) and stars July, John Hawkes
John Hawkes (actor)
John Hawkes is an American film and television actor. He is known for his portrayal of the merchant Sol Star on the HBO series Deadwood, Dustin Powers on Eastbound & Down, and his Academy Award-nominated performance as the menacing backwoods meth addict Teardrop in Winter's Bone.-Life and...
, Miles Thompson, Brandon Ratcliff
Brandon Ratcliff
Brandon Ratcliff was born April 14, 1998 in La Crosse, Wisconsin. He relocated with his mother, Tonni Ratcliff from Highland Park, Illinois an affluent North Shore suburb of Chicago in 2003 to Los Angeles at the age of four to pursue an acting career and he currently resides in Studio City,...
, Natasha Slayton
Natasha Slayton
Natasha Slayton is an American singer, songwriter, dancer and actress actress. She is probably best known for her role in the 2005 film Me and You and Everyone We Know....
, Najarra Townsend, Carlie Westerman, and JoNell Kennedy.
Plot
The structure of the film consists of several subplots which all revolve around an intertwined cast of characters.The film begins by introducing Richard (John Hawkes
John Hawkes (actor)
John Hawkes is an American film and television actor. He is known for his portrayal of the merchant Sol Star on the HBO series Deadwood, Dustin Powers on Eastbound & Down, and his Academy Award-nominated performance as the menacing backwoods meth addict Teardrop in Winter's Bone.-Life and...
), a shoe salesman and recently separated father of two. After being thrown out by his wife Pam (JoNell Kennedy), he gets an apartment of his own to share with his children, Peter (Miles Thompson) and Robby (Brandon Ratcliff
Brandon Ratcliff
Brandon Ratcliff was born April 14, 1998 in La Crosse, Wisconsin. He relocated with his mother, Tonni Ratcliff from Highland Park, Illinois an affluent North Shore suburb of Chicago in 2003 to Los Angeles at the age of four to pursue an acting career and he currently resides in Studio City,...
). He meets Christine (Miranda July
Miranda July
Miranda July is a performing artist, writer, actress and film director. Born Miranda Jennifer Grossinger, she works under the surname of "July," which can be traced to a character from a "girlzine" Miranda created with high school friend Johanna Fateman, called Snarla.- Background :Miranda...
), a senior-cab driver and amateur
Amateur
An amateur is generally considered a person attached to a particular pursuit, study, or science, without pay and often without formal training....
video artist, while she takes her client to shop for shoes, and the two develop a fledgling romantic relationship.
Robby, six years old, and his 14-year-old brother, Peter, have a joint online chat
Online chat
Online chat may refer to any kind of communication over the Internet, that offers an instantaneous transmission of text-based messages from sender to receiver, hence the delay for visual access to the sent message shall not hamper the flow of communications in any of the directions...
which he later depicts in another chat session as "))<>((", an emoticon
Emoticon
An emoticon is a facial expression pictorially represented by punctuation and letters, usually to express a writer’s mood. Emoticons are often used to alert a responder to the tenor or temper of a statement, and can change and improve interpretation of plain text. The word is a portmanteau word...
that means "pooping back and forth, forever." This piques the interest of the woman at the other end and she suggests a real-life meeting.
Two of Richard's teenaged neighbors, Heather (Natasha Slayton
Natasha Slayton
Natasha Slayton is an American singer, songwriter, dancer and actress actress. She is probably best known for her role in the 2005 film Me and You and Everyone We Know....
) and Rebecca (Najarra Townsend), develop a playful relationship with a much older neighbor Andrew (Brad William Henke
Brad William Henke
Brad William Henke is an American actor.-Biography:Henke was born in Columbus, Nebraska. He starred in October Road and in the movies Around June with Samaire Armstrong and Jon Gries, The Amateurs with Jeff Bridges and Tim Blake Nelson, In the Valley of Elah with Tommy Lee Jones and Charlize...
) who works in the shoe store with Richard. He does not say much, but he keeps leaving signs on his window about what he would do to each of them. As a result of this relationship, Heather and Rebecca ask Peter if they can practice oral sex
Oral sex
Oral sex is sexual activity involving the stimulation of the genitalia of a sex partner by the use of the mouth, tongue, teeth or throat. Cunnilingus refers to oral sex performed on females while fellatio refer to oral sex performed on males. Anilingus refers to oral stimulation of a person's anus...
on him, so that he can tell them which of the two does it better; so they do. He says both were exactly the same. The daughter of a neighbor peeks in the window, sees what is happening, and quickly leaves. Heather and Rebecca later come to the neighbor's house intending to have sex with him as practice, but he appears afraid when he sees them through his window and he pretends not to be home.
Meanwhile, Christine's work is rejected by a contemporary art
Contemporary art
Contemporary art can be defined variously as art produced at this present point in time or art produced since World War II. The definition of the word contemporary would support the first view, but museums of contemporary art commonly define their collections as consisting of art produced...
museum, but then later accepted by the curator
Curator
A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...
, who turns out to be the woman who was instant messaging with the brothers.
The plots come together in the end, with Peter developing a friendship with the daughter of a neighbor, having been introduced to the hope chest
Hope chest
A hope chest, dowry chest, cedar chest, or glory box is a chest used to collect items such as clothing and household linen, by unmarried young women in anticipation of married life....
that she has, Christine and Richard displaying a show of mutual acceptance of their attraction to each other, and, as a final plot device, Robby finding that the noise he had awoken to early every morning was that of an early-rising businessman tapping a quarter
Quarter (United States coin)
A quarter dollar, commonly shortened to quarter, is a coin worth ¼ of a United States dollar, or 25 cents. The quarter has been produced since 1796. The choice of 25¢ as a denomination, as opposed to 20¢ which is more common in other parts of the world, originated with the practice of dividing...
on a street sign pole. When asked why he is doing it, he stops and turns around, saying "just passing the time", and gives Robby the quarter. When his bus drives away and Robby tries it out himself, the sun heightens with each tap, time literally passing as he does it.
Cast
- Miranda JulyMiranda JulyMiranda July is a performing artist, writer, actress and film director. Born Miranda Jennifer Grossinger, she works under the surname of "July," which can be traced to a character from a "girlzine" Miranda created with high school friend Johanna Fateman, called Snarla.- Background :Miranda...
as Christine Jesperson - John HawkesJohn Hawkes (actor)John Hawkes is an American film and television actor. He is known for his portrayal of the merchant Sol Star on the HBO series Deadwood, Dustin Powers on Eastbound & Down, and his Academy Award-nominated performance as the menacing backwoods meth addict Teardrop in Winter's Bone.-Life and...
as Richard Swersey - Miles Thompson as Peter Swersey
- Brandon RatcliffBrandon RatcliffBrandon Ratcliff was born April 14, 1998 in La Crosse, Wisconsin. He relocated with his mother, Tonni Ratcliff from Highland Park, Illinois an affluent North Shore suburb of Chicago in 2003 to Los Angeles at the age of four to pursue an acting career and he currently resides in Studio City,...
as Bobby Swersey - Natasha SlaytonNatasha SlaytonNatasha Slayton is an American singer, songwriter, dancer and actress actress. She is probably best known for her role in the 2005 film Me and You and Everyone We Know....
as Heather - Najarra Townsend as Rebecca
- Carlie Westerman as Sylvie
- JoNell Kennedy as Pam
- Brad William HenkeBrad William HenkeBrad William Henke is an American actor.-Biography:Henke was born in Columbus, Nebraska. He starred in October Road and in the movies Around June with Samaire Armstrong and Jon Gries, The Amateurs with Jeff Bridges and Tim Blake Nelson, In the Valley of Elah with Tommy Lee Jones and Charlize...
as Andrew - Tracy WrightTracy WrightTracy Wright was a Canadian actress who was known for her stage and film performances, as well as her presence in Canada's avant-garde for over 20 years...
as Nancy Herrington - Ellen GeerEllen GeerEllen Ware Geer is an American actress, professor, screenwriter, film director and theatre director.-Personal life:Geer was born in New York City, New York, the daughter of actors Herta Ware and Will Geer. She is currently married to children's musician Peter Alsop, and was previously married to...
as Ellen - Jordan Potter as Shamus
- Colette Kilroy and James Kayten as Sylvie's mom and dad
Production
The film was shot using a Sony HDW-F900 CineAltaCineAlta
Sony's CineAlta 24P HD Cameras are a series of professional digital video cameras that offer many of the same features of a 35mm motion picture film camera.- Concept :...
high definition digital video camera.
The score, composed by Michael Andrews
Michael Andrews (musician)
Michael Andrews is an American musician and film score composer. He is best known for a cover version of the Tears for Fears song "Mad World", which he recorded with Gary Jules for the Donnie Darko soundtrack, and which became a number one single in the UK in Christmas 2003.-Soundtrack...
, was performed largely on a modified
Circuit bending
Circuit bending is the creative customization of the circuits within electronic devices such as low voltage, battery-powered guitar effects, children's toys and small digital synthesizers to create new musical or visual instruments and sound generators....
Casio SK-1
Casio SK-1
The Casio SK-1 is a small sampling keyboard made by Casio in 1985.It has 32 small sized piano keys, four-note polyphony, with a sampling bit depth of 8 bit PCM and a sample rate of 9.38 kHz, a built-in microphone and line level input for sampling, and an internal speaker...
sampling keyboard.
On-line chat scenes were filmed with open-source Gaim
Pidgin (software)
Pidgin is an open-source multi-platform instant messaging client, based on a library named libpurple. Libpurple has support for many commonly used instant messaging protocols, allowing the user to log into various services from one application.The number of Pidgin users was estimated to be over 3...
software.
Reception
The film received largely positive reviews; it currently holds an 81% 'fresh' rating on Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, with the consensus stating, "Miranda July
Miranda July
Miranda July is a performing artist, writer, actress and film director. Born Miranda Jennifer Grossinger, she works under the surname of "July," which can be traced to a character from a "girlzine" Miranda created with high school friend Johanna Fateman, called Snarla.- Background :Miranda...
's debut feature is a charmingly offbeat and observant film about people looking for love." On Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, Me and You holds a 76, indicating "Generally favorable reviews".
The film won the Caméra d'Or
Caméra d'Or
The Caméra d'Or is an award of the Cannes Film Festival for the best first feature film presented in one of the Cannes' selections ....
at the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
.
Portions of the script were included in the anthology The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2006 edited by Dave Eggers
Dave Eggers
Dave Eggers is an American writer, editor, and publisher. He is known for the best-selling memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and for his more recent work as a screenwriter. He is also the co-founder of the literacy project 826 Valencia.-Life:Eggers was born in Boston, Massachusetts,...
.
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
cited it as the fifth best film of the decade.