"Unlike certain directors who fixate on marginalia, creating art in which the engraving on a character’s belt buckle takes precedence over the story, July’s seemingly superficial gestures service something greater: a pulsing emotional center. It’s odd that she has come to represent, for some, a kind of soulless hipster cool, because in July’s work, nobody is cool. There’s no irony to it, no insider wink. Her characters are ordinary people whose lives don’t normally invite investigation. So her project is the opposite of hipster exclusion: her work is desperate to bring people together, forcing them into a kind of fellow feeling. She’s unrelentingly sincere, and maybe that sincerity makes her difficult to bear. It also might make her culturally essential."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Film directors from the United StatesShort story writers from the United StatesWomen authors from the United StatesScreenwriters from the United StatesActresses from Vermont
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Katrina Onstad, in "Miranda July Is Totally Not Kidding, in The New York Times (14 July 2011)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Miranda_July
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Miranda July
23 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Miranda July →
Related Quotes
"They wordlessly excused each other for not loving each other as much as they had planned. There were empty rooms in t…"
"It was a tiny sound but it woke me up because it was a human sound."
"That is my problem with life, I just rush through it, like I'm being chased. Even things whose whole point is slownes…"
"I wanted to make the movie feel like life feels to me — and life feels both sad and dark and confusing and more than …"
"I think there’s something spiritual in a very day-to-day, mundane existence. It’s impossible to articulate, and it’s …"
"I’m totally not kidding. … Life is too short. This is all too hard to do to actually be kidding about the whole thing."
"At this point, I’ve come to realize that where you are, the space you’re in, what you wear, this one body that you’re…"
"I think, ultimately, my character comes to think that the desire for a shared dream, a shared fantasy, a shared world…"
"I pretended that I was pausing before telling him about the secret feeling of joy that I hide in my chest, waiting, w…"
"Now began the part of her life where she was just very beautiful. Except for nothing. Only winners will know what thi…"