Me and You and Everyone We Know
Starring: John Hawkes, Miranda July, Brandon Ratcliff, Carlie Westerman
Director: Miranda July
The film: It's like a script for one of those feel-good Hollywood movies: newcomer changes her name from Grossinger to July, writes a script, struggles to get funding, directs the film and plays the lead. Before you know it, she's on her way to Cannes, where she wins the Camera d'Or (for first-time directors).
Miranda July's Me and You and Everyone We Know - which also was a winner at this year's Sundance Festival - doesn't seem much in synopsis form: another examination of the people in a run-of-the-mill American town.
But five minutes in, you realise the protagonists aren't your ordinary townsfolk. Christine Jesperson (July) is a rather eccentric cab driver for the elderly who spends her free time making performance art by videoing postcards and photos with voice-overs.
Her love interest is the equally quirky Richard Swersey (John Hawkes), a recently divorced shoe salesman. At one stage, he tries to impress his two sons by burning his hand to mark his divorce (he thought it would be a cool stunt).