| Movie Review: Me And You, And Everyone We Know by Kelly Thomas
|  Me, And You And Everyone We Know. Like I said, folks, this movie is weird. I really don't know how to even describe Me And You And Everyone We Know. I got interested in it because of this guy, John Hawkes, who plays in Deadwood. In Deadwood, Hawkes plays a really laid back partner of the Sheriff- a nice and accepting guy. He kind of plays the same character here.
What is so interesting about the movie is that you keep trying to figure out if there's a plot. The movie critic, Ebert, touted it as a great film. Not sure what he's been smoking; it's an OK movie but not great. It does hold your attention; however, as you're trying to figure out what is happening. How is it going to come together? It is kind of a movie about connection: how is a little of a mystery.
My buddy from Deadwood, John Hawkes, otherwise known as Richard in the movie, is a shoe salesman whose wife is leaving him and we don't quite know why. Crazy maybe? And, yet, he's not all that bad. She's a beautiful black woman who leaves her children with Richard. What woman would leave her children?
Then there are the kids; precocious to the max, boys; seven and maybe fourteen. The fourteen year old is introduced to oral sex by two girls in his classroom who seem to have no supervision and spend their time walking by this house where a potential pervert lurks. The only thing the potential pervert really does is put up signs in his window that brag about what he would like to do to these girls. When he gets his chance, he hides. See, I told you: weird.
Then there's a performance artist, a Berkeley type,Christine, (Miranda July) who is trying to get noticed; but, while she's doing it, she runs a taxi service for seniors. She seems to only taxi one guy around. This old guy is engaging; he is in love with another woman at the senior home who makes him happy after having been unhappily married for fifty years so he says. Finally, he is dumped by his new love because she says she's going to die. She does.
The performance artist, Christine, stalks Richard. Eventually, they have a kind of touching few moments which seems to be going somewhere. Richard's seven year old son starts an email relationship with who we think might be a child molester but who turns out to be a middle-aged woman looking for love.
You see a movie like this and you wonder what sort of mind directs, makes, or does this movie. A bunch of weirdoes, in my opinion! Here's the way to watch this movie: invite some friends over, have a couple of six packs, two pepperoni pizzas; eat, drink, laugh and talk about how weird this movie is. I liked it, but I've been accused of being weird. |
| DVD Review: The Rising Place by Majorie O'Keefe
|  The Rising Place The story unfolds because a niece finds letters in a closet. A little like Fried Green Tomatoes. The niece reads the letters which told about the story of a relationships of a young woman. The gaps of the story are filled in by ailing Aunt Millie. Later it is revealed that the story is about Aunt Millie. Aunt Millie's sister (the nieces' mother) is also in the story.
The Rising Place is a sweet, sweet movie-one of the millions of stories of WW ll and all that surrounded it. The setting is southern Missisissippi. This young girl meets a serviceman just prior to WW ll and becomes pregnant. There was no mention of abortion in those times. Terminating a pregnancy was not an option.
The young girl's family was not supportive; but her best friend, an African American kept the faith with her, along with a young man trying to find his way. The movie naturally showed the Southern underbelly; i.e., racial prejudice. In many ways, you almost have to be a southerner to get all the nuances.
The DVD had an alternative ending which was really good and better than the original, I thought. It showed more emotions of the younger sister(the nieces'mother) having to deal with her older sister's pregnancy-the decisions and the conflicts.
The Rising Place is a very touching movie. Rent the DVD on a lazy afternoon. The movie had great music. Here are some of the words(maybe some paraphrasing): "Many times in our lifetimes, our hearts know despair. And I wonder why some souls might believe and I question just who would be there. I can be so uncertain with pain all around. Heartbreak is so hard to face for everything that is lost, there is another found and love seeks its own sacred space. God bless the heartaches, the reshape, the soul in return. God bless and keep our memories and God bless the lessons we learn. It is out of the shadows to the warm sunlight to the joy without sorrows and then be no warring for that is just how life seems to go. God bless the heartaches, the reshaping the soul's concern. God keep our memories. God bless the lessons we learn. God bless our heartaches. God bless the tough breaks. God bless the lessons we learn." ----Pretty powerful, wouldn't you say? |
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