"Me and You and Everyone We Know" fails to captivate

July 6, 10:30 AMSalt Lake City Indie Movie ExaminerKrista Smith

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Poster Photo IFC Films

Between me and you, this is boredom for everyone we know.

 This 2005 film was work shopped at the Sundance Institute Directors Lab before being completed into a feature length film. Miranda July, wrote, directed and starred in her first feature length film.

“Me and You and Everyone We Know” tells the story of aspiring artist and “eldercab” driver, Christine Jesperson (July). She meets the recently divorced, shoe salesman Richard Swersey (John Hawkes). Meanwhile, Christine is attempting to get her work into a local museum. There are a few interesting side stories with Richard’s co-worker and the neighbor girls, who also have a sexual encounter with Richard’s oldest son, Peter (Miles Thompson).

All in all, I found myself bored with the story. I couldn’t find anything to grasp onto in the characters to make me empathetic. Although they have quirks and problems aplenty, I just couldn’t bring myself to care.

There were a few entertaining bits. My favorite scene is was when
Christine is resting on her bed staring at her cell phone after giving Richard her number and she says, “We have a whole life to live together you fucker, but it can't start until you call.” Unfortunately, the funny pieces don’t make up for the 90 minutes of boredom.

Due to my boredom, I started to pick out the small mistakes of the film. For example, in the closing sequences there are understandable lighting issues since multiple scenes were filmed during sunset outside. I’m guessing nature didn’t hand out the exact same sunset twice.

My friend and film studies student, Ian Stevens loves this film. He believes everyone we know should see it. "Me and You and Everyone We Know" also won a few festival prizes including the Sundance Film Festival Original Vision Award. So if you like quirky characters in a story that doesn’t seem to go anywhere you will find a film with interesting use of color and a few funny lines.