Cady's Take:

Richard (John Hawkes) is a recently divorced shoe salesman who shares partial custody of his two children, teenager Peter (Miles Thompson) and six-year old Robby (Brandon Ratcliff). Richard has attracted the attention of Christine, a struggling artist (writer-director-actor Miranda July), who, like everyone else in the film, is just trying to connect with people. Basically, Richard and Christine are the axis around which the rest of the characters spin in this quirky, sometimes unbearable, but nonetheless smart, art house flick.

This film requires a great deal of patience from the viewer. The tone is slow and poetic as you watch the love story between a pair of eccentric losers who happen find each other and then engage in a sort of awkward courtship that is undoubtedly meant to be charming but is mostly just off-putting.

We are also given a hilarious yet disturbing subplot involving young Robby as he develops an Internet relationship with a woman. Actually more than a few of the main plot lines here involve children in inappropriately sexual settings. So, needless to say, Me and You and Everyone We Know isn't a movie for everyone.

To me, this film felt artificial. Not a single conversation felt real, yet it shows a great deal of imagination and is without a doubt an original tale.

One word: Weird! What a strange movie "You and Me and Everyone We Know" is! The characters are oddballs, their situations unbelievable, and the plotlines are risky. This movie was nothing like I expected it to be. Reading about the writer, director, and star Miranda July I found that she is a performance artist (like her character in the film) and now it makes a little more sense. I was initially really disappointed but I think if I watched this movie again - and I will eventually - I might be able to "get it" a bit more. I'm generally a big fan of these character-driven, quirky independent pieces but "You and Me and Everyone We Know" really took me off guard.

This film received rave reviews from Richard Roeper and Roger Ebert, whose reviews I read weekly in earnest. They review good movies and they are good writers, and they always keep their eye on the independent scene, Ebert in particular. This movie was described as the "Sideways" for 2005 but do not be fooled. This movie is nothing like "Sideways". It is like "Sideways" in that it is a small independent film that made a big splash, but do not look for actual similarities between the two movies.

The strongest element of "You and Me and Everyone We Know" are the performances, which are heartfelt and genuine. I'm going to give this movie a tentative three stars, but that could change after I watch it again...someday.