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(Miranda July, above.)

(This talk with Miranda July originally appeared in Venice Magazine in June of 2005.)

by Terry Keefe

The "ensemble film of people with problems" is a staple of the indie film world these days. The stories often take place in urban or suburban locations and revolve around a group of characters with peripheral connections to each other. Their different paths will cross repeatedly as the story progresses. Then, a tragedy of some sort often brings all the characters together. That might be a suicide, or perhaps a swinger's session that goes badly. There have been so many of these films made that they're a genre of their own. Are you ready to buy a ticket to a different film yet? Don't if the ensemble film of people with problems is filmmaker Miranda July's very unique Me and You and Everyone We Know. At first glance the elements...

PARK CITY -- This first feature by multimedia performance artist Miranda July is a hit-and-miss affair. It has moments of unexpected, offbeat comedy, but most of the time neither the characters nor the situations engage the viewer.

The world concocted by the writer-director is not quite real but isn't pushed enough to be called surreal. Adults act dopey while children and teenagers do and say very unlikely things. "Me and You", which screened in American Dramatic Competition at Sundance, is something of an acquired taste so its theatrical audience will be limited.

John Hawkes plays a shoe salesman who just broke up with his wife. He is often stuck with his two sons as his estranged wife pursues another romance. An "Eldercab" driver and remarkably bad multimedia artist, played by July, unaccountably sets her romantic sights on the newly single salesman. This produces indecision if not downright panic in the salesman.

Meanwhile, his boys pursue their own romances -- of sorts. The 7-year-old (Brandon Ratcliff) conducts a chat room flirtation with an over stimulated adult female on the Internet. His 14-year-old brother (Miles Thompson) is sexually experimented upon by two female classmates. A 10-year-old girl (Caflie Weseman) in the neighborhood takes a less aggressive approach with the youth.

July perhaps wants to demonstrate that everyday life can contain things magical and fanciful. But her script is more capricious than convincing. The featherweight film is backed with music by Mike Andrews that sounds like something you might hear riding a merry-go-round.

PARK CITY -- This first feature by multimedia performance artist Miranda July is a hit-and-miss affair. It has moments of unexpected, offbeat comedy, but most of the time neither the characters nor the situations engage the viewer.

The world concocted by the writer-director is not quite real but isn't pushed enough to be called surreal. Adults act dopey while children and teenagers do and say very unlikely things. "Me and You", which screened in American Dramatic Competition at Sundance, is something of an acquired taste so its theatrical audience will be limited.

John Hawkes plays a shoe salesman who just broke up with his wife. He is often stuck with his two sons as his estranged wife pursues another romance. An "Eldercab" driver and remarkably bad multimedia artist, played by July, unaccountably sets her romantic sights on the newly single salesman. This produces indecision if not downright panic in the salesman.

Meanwhile, his boys pursue their own romances -- of sorts. The 7-year-old (Brandon Ratcliff) conducts a chat room flirtation with an over stimulated adult female on the Internet. His 14-year-old brother (Miles Thompson) is sexually experimented upon by two female classmates. A 10-year-old girl (Caflie Weseman) in the neighborhood takes a less aggressive approach with the youth.

July perhaps wants to demonstrate that everyday life can contain things magical and fanciful. But her script is more capricious than convincing. The featherweight film is backed with music by Mike Andrews that sounds like something you might hear riding a merry-go-round.