Show I Me and You shows real people having haying real relationships Carina Chocano 4 Times Los Angeles Moments before dousing his hand with lighter fluid and setting it afire in front of window his sons' sons bedroom Richard John Hawkes a department store shoe salesman salesman salesman sales sales- man in the midst of a reluctant reluctant reluctant tant divorce walks into their room and asks Do I 1 look well to you guys If you weren't my kids would you That looks OK 7 think guy Peter Miles Thompson and Robby Brandon Ratcliff stare at him blankly then Robby who is about 6 asks Are you mad at us Miranda Julys July's gorgeously loopy Me and You and Everyone We Know is made up of moments like these sequiturs non-sequiturs that make perfect perfect perfect per per- sense banal images that turn transcendent on a dime casual exchanges that suddenly suddenly suddenly sud sud- denly seem to encompass the entirety of human relation relation- ships Richard didn't mean to self-immolate self in the front yard he only meant to replicate replicate replicate cate a favorite trick of his uncles When the flames didn't go out he remembered it was alcohol that burned itself off Lighter fluid just burns he tells his worker co-worker Andrew Brad William Henke the next day So that didn't work Still he says hes he's prepared for amazing things to happen Almost everyone else in inthe inthe inthe the film is too and they reach out in infinitesimal ways to show the universe their readi readi- ness A lonely museum curator curator curator cura cura- tor who is haltingly putting together a show of work that Me and You Continued on Page 12 Me and You Continued from page 7 seems as though it could only be made now looks for love in inan inan inan an online chat room Richards Richard's neighbor a strange and lonely girl named Sylvie Carlie Westerman collects house- house wares and small appliances in a hope chest she plans to share with her future husband and daughter Andrew meets a couple couple couple cou cou- of teenage girls eager to experiment with their sexuality and plaintively declares I would love to believe in a universe universe universe uni uni- verse where you wake up and dont don't have to go to work and you go outside and meet two 18 year-old year sisters who are also girlfriends and very nice people peo peo- But of course he cant can't so he just leaves them dirty notes and hides Me and You and q Everyone e We Know is an ensemble piece but it focuses mainly on the rela rela- between Richard and Christine Jesperson played by July a struggling mixed-media mixed artist who works as an elder cab driver Christine meets Richard when she takes a friend and client Michael Hector Elias on an errand to buy tennis tennis tennis ten ten- nis shoes A few days later Christine returns to the store and slips Richard her business card Next she pretends to run into him on his way out In one of the loveliest loveli loveli- est scenes in the movie they take the two-block two walk to their car together instantly falling into a riff in which the walk becomes a metaphor for a rela rela- The promise of their first conversation curdles quickly quick quick- ly though when Christine pretends pretends pretends pre pre- pre tends to run into Richard a third time minutes later and just plain freaks him out As funny as asit jt is wistful is-wistful wistful Me and You and Everyone We Know is about lonely people trying to connect with each other through love art the Internet and whatever other means they can think of and about the increasing difficulty of doing so in a world full of barri barri- ers July takes a world in which everything ugly is a distinct and lurking possibility rejection stagnation lack of money sex between adults and teenagers virtual your true truelove truelove truelove love dumping you because she's dying and turns it it- into it-into into an oddball oddball oddball odd odd- ball love song Optimistic and humanistic to the core Me and You and Everyone We Know is a paean to perseverance and finding ways to cope Its It's a little like Richards Richard's explanation to Michael as ash he helps h-elps him try try try-on on shoes Were Weve V i not supposed to touch the foot any anymore more he explains But if you'll notice we ve spend a lot of time touching the shoe |