Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005)

Fresh and charming: this is the savor left on my palate after I watched this film. It had been a while since I had gone to the movie theater and enjoyed a happy story, an unpretentious vision of life. This is what I call an independent film.

The story takes place on a random American city, where a quirky performance artist (Miranda July, also the director/writer of the picture) and a shoe salesman struggle to connect which each other and to everyone they know. The relationships of most of the characters are quite simple: they are neighbors. But it is through love, art and even the Internet that they begin to interact.

The magic of this movie is revealed as malice and pain are lifted from the central characters. Simple moments of life are seen through windows of lifted pain -- these can be as simple as the last moments of a goldfish's life, or the last moments a couple spends walking down a street before parting ways. "Me And You…", more than pretending being artsy, shows a quiet depth and poetic soul in describing the world.

Full of high-quality scenes that keep us thinking about the film after it's over: including a bunch of kids lying in a circle on the grass chirping for gummy worms and a 6-year-old child copying and pasting text (inadvertently, extremely funny text) in an Internet chat. This movie will make you reflect on what defines complete, connected experiences in life. Are we searching for moments the same way a bird looks for a tree, or like someone trying to take the picture of a bird in a tree, in a tree? Which one would you prefer? Hurry and catch it at Landmark E Street Cinema, the Cinema Arts Theatre (in Fairfax) or at the Shirlington Cinema. You will truly enjoy it.