ME, YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW is a gorgeous, whimsical, slightly nutty movie about cute people who think good things, want magic in their lives and refuse to be bowed down by all the emotional brutality we experiece on a day to day basis. It follows a genuine nice guy who "wants his kids to have magical powers". His wife has left him and he works in a shoe store. In walks a beautiful video installation artist who happens to drive a taxi to make ends meet. She falls in love with him - he needs to take a chance on her. Meanwhile, they are surrounded by the kind of kooky suburban goings-on that we'd expect from a Daniel Clowes comic. Somehow, when the guy's little kid starts talking dirty to an older women in an internet chat room, or when the guy's colleague starts leaving lewd messages for two hot teenage girls taped to his door - it all still seems sweet, innocent and magical. And yes, I know how that last sentence sounds, and I know why the MPAA gave this an "R" rating for sexual content involving kids, but really that rating does not reflect the feel and subject matter of this flick. In many ways, this is the modern day fairytale that SHOPGIRL was trying to be. But before I extoll you to "go check it out", I should fairly point out that if you find "cute" annoying in life - if you prefer films to feature guns, t*ts, explosions - then ME, YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW is not for you. And that's also fine. That's why god gave us Arnold Schwarzenegger.
ME, YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW premiered at Sundance 2005 where it won the Special Jury Prize . It also won the Golden Camera and three other awards at Cannes. The movie went on limited release in the US and UK in summer 2005. It went on release in the Netherlands yesterday and goes on release in Germany on the 23rd February 2006. ME, YOU and EVERYONE WE KNOW is available on Region 2 DVD.
Cool Blog! Are you going to do more Bollywood reviews? We need to represent the Desi viewer :-)
ReplyDeleteNot that I intend to become the Grinch to your Christmas, but I must once again offer the opposing view. Even for a lover of artsy farsty cinema created for those who never could connect properly with the world, this movie was a bit much. The person I watched it with and I agreed that bits and pieces of it might be decent if taken apart and made into video installations for museums like the Whitney. However, as a full movie, it suffers from a surfeit of pretentiousness, a general pointlessness and the sort of highhandness only people who have really, really little connection with the rest of society are capable of documenting without self consciousness. That is all.
ReplyDeleteI understand why you hate it - it's one of those movies you either love or hate - walking a fine line between whimsy and disappearing up its own arse. Definitely one for people who like Wes Anderson flicks. As for disconnected from reality - isn't that the point it's trying to make? If reality is shitty, you dont have to accept that - you can just simply believe in love at first sight?!
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