Ellen: Ellen Geer
Richard Swersey: John Hawkes
Andrew: Brad William Henke
Christine Jesperson: Miranda July
Shamus: Jordan Potter
Robby: Brandon Ratcliff
Chad: Jason A Rice
Heather: Natasha Slayton
Peter: Miles Thompson
Rebecca: Najarra Townsend
Sylvie: Carlie Westerman
The very words 'Performance Artist' can strike fear into the hearts of many viewers.
Something worthy, possibly unpalatable, probably dreary, yet
ultimately empty is expected. But multitalented Miranda July might just be
the artist to change our preconceptions with her debut feature film, Me &
You & Everyone We Know. The movie is creating the biggest buzz since
leftfield hits
Lost In Translation
and
Donnie Darko
and was made for a fraction of their budgets. And yet it is a relentlessly
mesmerizing treat, boasting a couple of the very best child performances
you'll ever witness.
July is the writer, director and star of this small drama about loneliness,
isolation and art in the 21st Century, and she clearly knows these subjects
well. She plays part-time cab driver and would-be artist Christine
Jesperson, who sets her heart on equally lonely shoe salesman Richard
Swersey, the sort of guy who sets his hand on fire as a cry for help.
His two young sons, Robby and Peter, are also at sea in a world of dodgy
internet chatrooms and local girls seeking new experiences. And Richard's
mouthy colleague and the town's art curator are caught in the middle of a
world they can't connect with. Fortunately, they pull away from ill-advised
liaisons in the nick of time, plunging back into parallel, yet similarly
self-imposed isolations.
Weird scenes inside this goldmine of a film stay with the viewer long
afterwards, like the goldfish teetering on the roof of a car going along a
highway, the strange pictures the boys create by printing rows of
punctuation from their computer, and the household objects being gradually
collected by junior homemaker Sylvie.
Miranda July clearly has the world at her feet and should have the studios
queuing up to produce her imaginative fare instead of their increasingly
identikit projects and mindless remakes. But she might want to keep making
films about something and on her terms. Whatever she chooses, shešs
certainly one to watch. And keep an eye out for those talented child actors,
Brandon Ratcliff and Carlie Westerman.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
