Miranda July is cool blog

A few years ago I stumbled upon the film Me You and Everyone we Know at a random chain video store in the new release section and I'm really glad I picked it up cause I seriously can't remember the last time I laughed so hard I felt like I could be doing serious damage to my internal organs. Which is exactly what happened when I saw the now-infamous "back and forth" scene. Not because of just shock value, but because it was so honest. But also, yes, I gotta admit it was the fact it was totally unexpected too. And sure, we could all make a movie with a few over-the-top scenes that catch people's attention and have it do well. That's what most of Todd Solondz' films are in their entirety. Not that I don't like some of his movies, but this is completely different, and if anything, it's trying much less to grab you with a few off-the-wall scenes. The golden scenes are the ones in between the scenes that really make you laugh or shock you. The intro lays the mood for what the film really is perfectly. A good example that a low-budget doesn't impair your ability to make a nearly perfect film.
I've heard a some bash it for being overly-contrived and I feel sorry for those people. Because if anything, it's insanely true to life, and if they can't relate I can't imagine how amazingly robotic their existences must feel. Life is that strange at times. Strangely ordinary.

Think about your own life. Hopefully, for your sake, if you spliced up the last half a year of your life and took the most interesting scenes from an interconnected web of the people around you's lives as well, it'd be as interesting and colorful as this. Cause life is that real. It's so real, it seems hyper-real at times.

Here's my favorite scene from the movie. Actually, one of my favorite scenes. I'll leave the stranger scenes for you to discover on your own. No matter what you're into or who you are, I think you'd be inspired by her originality.

Ans moments like the fish on the car scene DO happen in real life! If you are confused by all this and are trying to figure out what I'm talking about then that's good, because hopefully you'll read this and go out and rent this or buy her book.

Almost everyone I've showed this too (besides the jaded haters of everything who are missing out on life because they are too busy criticizing whatever they can in a constant and pathetic, almost teenage-like attempt to one-up you) has gotten a huge crush on this lady. Cause she's friggin' insanely adorable. And she's not from ultra-celebrity planet. She's the girl you could meet anywhere and it wouldn't really seem out of the ordinary. She's the girl working at the bagel shop you get breakfast at everyday before work, or the person you strike up a conversation with at a lame and stuffy art exhibition cause she's the only one who seems down to earth. Or someone who works the check out line at a grocery store even. Nothing special, but that's what's special. She understands what's nice about life, almost from this super reflective and almost enlightened perspective, that's somehow sort of childlike at the same time in its simplicity. She prefers this view I believe. Oh, and did I mention she doesn't just star in it, she also wrote and directed it.



And maybe the movie alone won't convince you that she's someone worth staying up to date with. But it might interest you enough to check out her site, www.mirandajuly.com. And then her short stories. And then her book. And then her homemade youtube videos. And then I think you'll be sold. Cause what she illuminates are the same sorts of transient observations and thoughts that makes life interesting for all of us, except she's actually brought what we may not totally be conscious of thinking about to the surface. This kind of film allows you to understand how you can simply ride back and forth on a train all day, observing who gets on and off, listening in on random happenings in passenger's lives, looking out the window, etc., and be completely amazed with life.

So feel free to fall in love right now from learning how to make buttons the Mirandy July way.