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Even the mistakes are interesting in "Me and You and Everyone We Know"

By ELEANOR RINGEL GILLESPIE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A movie that won something at Sundance called the "Originality of Vision" award and is directed by a performance artist who calls herself Miranda July throws up all sorts of red flags.

IFC Films

'Me and You and Everyone We Know'

The verdict: Often charmingly offbeat, but sometimes full of itself.

Director: Miranda July
Starring: Miranda July, John Hawkes, Miles Thompson, Brad Henke, Brandon Ratcliff
Run time: 95 minutes
Release date: June 17, 2005
Rating: R for disturbing sexual content involving children, and for language.
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Ignore them. Well, some of them. "Me and You and Everyone We Know" does tend toward preciousness, and its slightly connected storylines are the current plot style du jour. ("Crash" and "Happy Endings" are recent examples.) But this is still a movie you'll want to see. Even its mistakes are interesting.

Christine (July) is a struggling video artist who makes a living as an "ElderCab" driver. Translation: She chauffeurs seniors on their errands. As the movie opens, she's working on a new piece, and it's hard to tell if her character is meant to be a brilliant artist or is a brilliant parody of a not-so-brilliant artist. One of the film's problems is, by the end you probably still won't know.

Best take it as parody, since that's more in line with the tone of the rest of the picture, in which a panoply of rich characters do oddball things. Or worse.

Christine has two goals in life. One is to get her demo seen by a dour art curator (Tracy Wright) who insists she mail it in, even though they're shoulder to shoulder in the same elevator. "But I'm right here," Christine pleads.

She's saying pretty much the same thing to Richard ("Deadwood's" John Hawkes), a sad-eyed shoe salesman recently separated from his wife (her choice). He shares custody of their sons, 14-year-old Peter (Miles Thompson) and 7-year-old Robby (Brandon Ratcliff), who blunder into unexpected sexual territory. (By the way, both these young actors are terrific.)

July, who also wrote the script, is a keenly observant filmmaker. She lays out relationships in little telling bits. The way Richard stops Peter from fidgeting his foot as they watch TV. Or Christine flirting with Richard by using socks as earrings. Or a little girl obsessively collecting odd domestic items for her hope chest.

July is also a connoisseur of the trivial, be it a petty cruelty or a tiny epiphany. Hers is a singular voice, still immature at this point, but well worth listening for again.