Eccentric and singularly relatable artist, author and filmmaker Miranda July appeared at a screening of her 2005 film “Me and You and Everyone We Know” at Vidiots in Los Angeles on March 21.
Perched on the corner of Eagle Rock Boulevard, the nonprofit video store reopened in 2023 after years of renovations. Beyond its glass double doors is not only a video store but also a beer and wine bar and a theater that seats up to 271 people.
Marya E. Gates, author of “Cinema Her Way,” facilitated a question-and-answer session with July before the film screening, where July spoke about her first time directing.
“I kept thinking, ‘I don’t know any of the conventions of a set; I don’t know, like, I’m getting confused about everyone’s jobs. The only thing I know how to do is the thing I’ve been doing all along, which is just the creative part, and I’m pretty sure that’s all that matters,’” she said.
July is absolutely right about the creative part being her forté. Her work, from the page to the screen, is strikingly honest in a way that resonates to the core because, somehow, she has recognized and articulated what no one else dares to admit, let alone speak aloud.
“Me and You and Everyone We Know” follows a number of different stories that converge and collapse on one another in various ways. The most prominent storyline follows the budding romance between incredibly forward yet awkward performance artist-slash-cab-driver-for-the-elderly Christine Jesperson (Miranda July) and recently divorced father Richard Swersey (John Hawkes), who works as a shoe salesman in a department store. While Christine is struggling to make her art known to the world, Richard is striving for his two sons’ respect as they tackle what it means to grow up in a newly online world that gives rise to hilariously uncomfortable instant message conversations about sexuality and bodily functions.
Each scene is delightfully unexpected, allowing the film to remain poignant and important even 20 years later. This film is arguably even more important today than it was upon its initial release, as the digital age continues to encourage children to grow up and sexualize themselves even faster than before.
Teen girls Rebecca (Najarra Townsend) and Heather (Natasha Slayton), who share romantic tension of their own, keep seeing dirty messages posted in the window of a man’s house. This man just so happens to be a neighbor and coworker of Richard. The two girls argue about who would give him a better blowjob and, to test their theory, invite themselves into Richard’s house to ask his son Peter’s (Miles Thompson) opinion.
Young Sylvie (Carlie Westerman) keeps a hope chest of household items, including a lampshade and an immersion blender, with intentions to pass them on to her future husband and daughter — though she couldn’t possibly be older than a middle schooler with her ponytails and pastel collared shirts.
When Peter’s younger brother Robby instant messages an adult about “pooping back and forth” and — to the audience’s horror — meets up with his admirer in a park, we are relieved to find that it is the stiff and judgmental director of the art museum, Nancy Herrington (Tracy Wright), where Christine has submitted her work.
Though the movie dips its toes into the dangers of pedophilia and children online through Robby, Rebecca and Heather, every time it seems that things might take a turn for the worse, they do not. In fact, each encounter is pleasantly benign and even serves as a bit of comic relief in comparison to the drama the movie would become if it had gone otherwise.
Each of the highlighted characters is searching for a sense of validation and meaning in this world. Through their feelings of isolation, the audience comes to understand that these people are not lonely or out of place — they are just where they belong.
July told her audience the night of the screening that after writing the film, she recommended herself to play the lead. Her forward and awkwardly charming character absolutely steals the show. July also told SAG Indie that big-name actors were drawn to the film, but she felt that they would have been too distracting.
“There were moments when I would get offered a name, and I would say, ‘That is a great actor,’ but it didn’t match what the film was about,” she told SAG Indie. “A name would take away from all the other roles. I didn’t want that.”
Her decision to keep this movie small and out of the hands of A-list actors allows for a more pedestrian viewing of her quietly brilliant work. July’s incredible artistry and understanding of the human body and mind would have been lost in a film with a face too well known.
“I just want to say one thing,” July added as Gates closed out the conversation. “Which is, there’s someone here who’s never seen this before and who, in fact, before we came, asked the name of the movie, and it’s my child. So I’m pretty nervous, and I just want to say, ‘Popper, like, I wasn’t a mom yet; I wouldn’t do any of this now, but I think you’re old enough to see one of my movies.’”
A performer, novelist, filmmaker, mother and much, much more, July brings her own perspective to everything she does. She understands what it takes to tell a story more than most do.
Her most recent New York Times bestselling novel, “All Fours,” was published in May 2024 by Riverhead Books and nominated for the National Book Award for fiction. DVD copies of “Me and You and Everyone We Know” are now available on The Criterion Collection.
Lillian Dunn is the 2024-2025 Arts & Entertainment Editor. She can be reached at lbdunn@uci.edu.
Edited by Jaheem Conley.