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Miranda July (born Miranda Jennifer Grossinger; February 15, 1974) is an American film director, screenwriter, actress and author. Her body of work includes film, fiction, monologue, digital presentations and live performance art.

Key Information

She wrote, directed and starred in the films Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005) and The Future (2011) and wrote and directed Kajillionaire (2020). She has authored a book of short stories, No One Belongs Here More Than You (2007); a collection of nonfiction short stories, It Chooses You (2011); and the novels The First Bad Man (2015) and All Fours (2024).

Early life

[edit]

July was born in Barre, Vermont, in 1974,[1] the daughter of Lindy Hough and Richard Grossinger. Her parents are both writers who taught at Goddard College at the time.[2] They were also the founders of North Atlantic Books, a publisher of alternative health, martial arts, and spiritual titles.[3][4] Her father was Jewish, and her mother was Protestant.[5]

July was encouraged to work on her short fiction by author Rick Moody.[6] She was raised in Berkeley, California, where she first began staging plays at 924 Gilman Street,[7][5] a local punk rock club.[8][9] She attended The College Preparatory School in Oakland for high school.[3] She describes the experience as overwhelming.[5] She later attended the film school at University of California Santa Cruz, but dropped out during her second year and moved to Portland, Oregon.[8][10]

Career beginnings

[edit]

After relocating to Portland, Oregon,[11] she took up performance art in "one woman shows".[12] Her performances were successful; she has been quoted as saying she has not worked a day job since she was 23 years old.[13] In an interview for the Tate, she explained that she still tried to practice performance, partially due to its stark differences from filmmaking, such as its live audience or how "present" it is in comparison.[14] Portland is also where she began participating in the riot grrrl scene that was beginning to grow in the early 1990s.[5]

In the early stages of her film career, she created several small video projects and performances years prior to her feature film, Me and You and Everyone We Know.[5] However, while she worked on her art, July had to work several odd jobs; she worked as a waitress, a tastemaker for Coca-Cola, a locksmith, and a stripper.[15][8]

At the age of 16, Miranda wrote and directed a play known as The Lifers, which was based on a close connection she had with a man who was incarcerated for murder. She moved on to stage it in punk clubs.[citation needed]

Film

[edit]

Joanie4Jackie

[edit]
July reading at Modern Times Bookstore in San Francisco (c. 2007)

July was immersed in the riot grrrl scene in Portland and motivated by its do-it-yourself ethos, and she began an effort that she described as "a free alternative distribution system for women movie-makers".[16] One of July's reasons for starting the project was to apply the concepts of riot grrrl into the filmmaking world.[15] The idea was to connect as many women artists as possible, let them see each other's work, and foster a sense of community.[17] Participants sent a self-made short film to July, who mailed back a compilation videotape containing that film and nine others – a "chainletter tape".[18] When it began in 1995, the project was called Big Miss Moviola[9] but was soon renamed Joanie4Jackie.[19] July also credits the project to the loneliness she was experiencing at the time, but felt she learned from the project immensely, saying "that was my film school".[5] July's first film, Atlanta, appears on the second tape of the series.[19] July ran the project for seven years, handing it off to the film department of Bard College in 2003.[20]

In spring 2016, July donated an archive of Joanie4Jackie to the Getty Research Institute.[21] The collection includes more than 200 titles from the 1990s and 2000s, videos from Joanie4Jackie events, booklets, posters, hand-written letters from participants, and other documentation.[22] Thomas W. Gaehtgens, the director of the Getty Research Institute, stated that the acquisition is "an esteemed addition to our Special Collections that connects to work by many important 20th century artists who are also represented in our archives, such as Eleanor Antin, Yvonne Rainer and Carolee Schneemann."[23][24]

Miranda made a flier for other women filmmakers of her time to see as a way for them to send Miranda their VHS tapes of their work. By doing so, Miranda would be able to watch then send the films back to that person. This was how women during that time period were able to see each other's work.

Me and You and Everyone We Know

[edit]
Main article: Me and You and Everyone We Know

Filmmaker rated her number one in their "25 New Faces of Indie Film" in 2004. After winning a slot in a Sundance workshop, she developed her first feature-length film, Me and You and Everyone We Know, which opened in 2005.

The film won the Caméra d'Or prize at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival[25] as well as the Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, Best First Feature at the Philadelphia Film Festival, Feature Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at the San Francisco International Film Festival, and the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at the Los Angeles Film Festival.[26]

The Future

[edit]
Main article: The Future

On May 16, 2007, July mentioned that she was working on a new film. This film was originally titled "Satisfaction" but was later renamed The Future, with July in a lead role.[27] The film premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival[28] and was nominated for a Golden Bear at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival.[29]

Kajillionaire

[edit]
Main article: Kajillionaire

In March 2018, it was announced July would write and direct a heist film, with Brad Pitt and Youree Henley producing the film, under their Plan B Entertainment and Annapurna Pictures banners, respectively.[30] That same month, Evan Rachel Wood, Richard Jenkins, Debra Winger and Gina Rodriguez joined the cast of the film.[31] In June 2018, Mark Ivanir joined the cast of the film.[32] Principal photography began in May 2018.[33] Its theatrical release was on September 25, 2020.

The Amateurist

[edit]

In July's film 'The Amateurist (1998),[34] a dowdy researcher examines, via a video monitor, a stereotypical "beautiful woman"; July plays both roles. July wrote, directed, and starred in the film. The film won Cinematexas Best Experimental and No Budget Award 1999, New York Expo 1999 Silver Award Experimental, and San Francisco Golden Gate Award Silver Spire 2000.[35]

Nest of Tens

[edit]

In October 2000, July released Nest of Tens[36].[37] A lengthier video, the 27-minute Nest of Tens (2000), juxtaposes four unrelated scenarios in which "seemingly everyday people go about acting completely normal while demonstrating distinct abnormality".[34] July wrote and directed the film with Polly Bilchuk in the starring role. Nest of Tens has been placed in the permanent online collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[38] July won awards for Nest of Tens, the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival's main prize 2001 and Cinematexas International Short Film Festival's Gecko Award 2000.[39][better source needed]

Other film work

[edit]

Wayne Wang consulted with July about aspects of his 2001 feature-length film The Center of the World,[40] for which she received a story credit.[41] July appears as herself in the 2017 documentary Turn It Around: The Story of East Bay Punk.[42] She was interviewed for the film !Women Art Revolution.[43] July narrates the documentary Fire of Love.

Music and spoken word

[edit]

She recorded her first EP for Kill Rock Stars in 1996, titled Margie Ruskie Stops Time, with music by The Need.[44] She released two full-length LPs, 10 Million Hours A Mile in 1997 and The Binet-Simon Test in 1998, both on Kill Rock Stars.[45] She collaborated with Calvin Johnson in his musical project Dub Narcotic Sound System,[44] and in 1999 she made a split EP with IQU, released on Johnson's K Records.[46]

Acting

[edit]
At the San Francisco Cinematheque fundraiser at Theater Artaud, 2006

July has acted in many of her own short films, including Atlanta, The Amateurist, Nest of Tens, Are You The Favorite Person of Anyone?, and her feature-length films Me and You and Everyone We Know and The Future. She also made an appearance in the film Jesus' Son (1998).[41] She appeared in an episode of Portlandia in 2012.[47] She co-starred in Josephine Decker's 2018 feature film, Madeline's Madeline.[48]

Live performance pieces

[edit]

In 1998, July made Love Diamond, her first full-length multimedia performance piece – in her description, a "live movie."[44] This two-hour stage work featured July playing multiple characters, humorously depicting women's perceived cultural roles.[49] This was followed by a second full-length performance piece, The Swan Tool, and a six-minute film, Getting Stronger Every Day (2001).[50] The latter is an abstract view of a grown man and a little girl, seemingly taunted by indistinct floating shapes while an offscreen narrator recounts a tale of real-life pedophilia.[50] The Swan Tool is another "live movie", a one-woman show in which July plays Lisa Cobb, a woman searching for her lost body. Although it's peppered with deadpan comedy, the surrealist story concerns "childhood sexual traumas, adult alienation, and persistent, unfocused guilt".[51]

In 2006, after completing her first feature film, she went on to create another multimedia piece, Things We Don't Understand and Definitely Are Not Going To Talk About, which she performed in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York.[52] This stage show contained several ideas that would become key elements of her later film, The Future.[44]

In March 2015, July premiered her performance work New Society as part of the 58th San Francisco International Film Festival.[53] In the program for the performance, July requested the audience not share details of the show, stating it is now "a rare sensation to sit down in a theater with no idea what will happen."[54]

Other art projects

[edit]

With artist Harrell Fletcher, July founded the online art project called Learning to Love You More (2002–2009). The project's website offered assignments to artists whose submissions became part of "an ever-changing series of exhibitions, screenings and radio broadcasts presented all over the world".[55] Over 8,000 people participated in the project.[5] In addition to its internet presentations, Learning to Love You More also compiled exhibitions for the Whitney Museum, the Seattle Art Museum, and other hosts.[55][56] A book version of the project's online art was released in 2007.[56][57] Starting May 1, 2009 the project's website stopped accepting assignment submissions. In 2010 the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art acquired the website, to preserve it as an archive of the project online.[58]

July constructed a sculptural exhibition, Eleven Heavy Things, for the 2009 Venice Biennale.[59] Its assortment of cartoonish shapes, made sturdy with fiberglass and steel, were designed for playful interaction by visitors.[60] The exhibition was also shown in New York City at Union Square Park and in Los Angeles at the MOCA Pacific Design Center.[59]

In 2013 she organized We Think Alone, an art project involving the private emails of public figures. Unredacted except for the recipients' names, the emails were freely donated by a disparate group of notable persons including author Sheila Heti, theoretical physicist Lee Smolin, basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and actress Kirsten Dunst. July grouped selected emails by topic, and sent a new set to the project's subscribers every week for 20 weeks.[61][62] As one reviewer described them, the emails are "simultaneously mundane and eerily revealing; they shed light on how people in the public eye craft their private identities... [they] also underscore, in some way, the way all of us present ourselves over email: excessively formal or passive-aggressive, lovey-dovey, flakey, overly excited."[62]

In 2014, July created Somebody, an iOS app[63] which allows users to compose a message to be delivered to someone else in-person, or to deliver someone else's message in-person. When you send your friend a message through Somebody, it goes – not to your friend – but to the Somebody user nearest your friend. This person (likely a stranger) delivers the message verbally, acting as your stand-in. Somebody is a far-reaching public art project that incites performance and twists our love of avatars and outsourcing – every relationship becomes a three-way. The project was funded by Miu Miu.[64] The app closed on October 31, 2015.[65]

In 2019, July created an Instagram series with Margaret Qualley entitled "Hazion."[66] The series depicted July and Qualley mediating a strained relationship over FaceTime recordings and text conversations. It also included appearances by Jaden Smith, suggesting a Hazion Circle ritual, and Sharon Van Etten writing a song for them.[67]

In 2022 July collaborated with Mack Books to create Services, a limited edition book/sculpture composed of photographs and texts between July and Jay Benedicto, a trans woman living in the Philippines who offered services to increase the readership of self-published authors. The first six months of July and Benedicto's correspondence, which coincided with the first six months of North American lockdowns in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, were published in the book. Only 25 copies were made available for sale.[68]

For its fall 2024 campaign, Prada worked with July on "Now That We're Here", a photo series featuring stars like Hunter Schafer, Letitia Wright, Damson Idris, Harris Dickinson and Ma Yili who encourage people to call into a hotline where they can interact with pre-recorded scripts recorded by July herself.[69]

Writing

[edit]

Her short story The Boy from Lam Kien was published in 2005 by Cloverfield Press, as a special-edition book with illustration by Elinor Nissley and Emma Hedditch. Another short story, Something That Needs Nothing, was published in the following year by The New Yorker.[70]

No One Belongs Here More Than You

[edit]

No One Belongs Here More Than You, July's collection of short stories, was published by Scribner in 2007.[71]

It won the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award on September 24, 2007.[72] In The New York Times, Sheelah Kolhatkar gave the collection a mixed review: "A handful of these stories are sweet and revealing, although in many cases the attempt to create 'art' is too self-conscious, and the effort comes off as pointlessly strange."[71]

Kirkus Reviews commented that the collection is "a smart, original collection" and "an accomplished debut collection of 16 stories, simultaneously bizarre and achingly familiar."[73] Writing in The Guardian, Josh Lacey called the volume "a fabulous collection," saying that "although a few read like experiments that didn't quite work, the majority of the 16 stories in No One Belongs Here More Than You are blisteringly good."[74]

As of 2015 the collection has more than 200,000 copies in circulation.[75]

It Chooses You

[edit]

July's non-fiction story collection It Chooses You was published by McSweeney's in 2011.[76]

While procrastinating during the writing of her screenplay The Future in 2009, July criss-crossed Los Angeles accompanied by photographer Brigitte Sire to meet a random selection of PennySaver sellers, glimpsing thirteen surprisingly moving and profoundly specific realities, along the way shaping her film, and herself, in unexpected ways.[77] The work received mixed reviews, with fans citing the collection's "lasting impression" of realistic struggle[78] and critics citing the mumblecore-influenced artist's writing style as a "cheap trick" in text-format.[79]

The First Bad Man

[edit]

July's first novel The First Bad Man was published by Scribner in January 2015.[80] The narrative centers around Cheryl Glickman, a middle-aged woman in crisis whose life abruptly changes course when a young woman, named Clee, moves into her home.[80][81] The novel explores the complex relationship between Cheryl and Clee.[82]

In her review for The New York Times Book Review, reviewer Lauren Groff writes The First Bad Man "makes for a wry, smart companion on any day. It's warm. It has a heartbeat and a pulse. This is a book that is painfully alive."[82]

All Fours

[edit]

July's second novel, All Fours, was released on May 14, 2024, from Penguin Random House.[83] The novel follows a 45-year-old perimenopausal woman who, after having an extramarital affair during a road trip, has a sexual awakening.[84][85][86] It was shortlisted for the 2024 National Book Award for Fiction,[87] and the Women's Prize for Fiction.[88]

Styles and themes

[edit]

July was heavily inspired by the riot grrrl movement. She was friends with several of the bands who were part of the movement such as Bikini Kill, Excuse 17, and Heavens to Betsy.[15][11]

Her films have a common theme of "intimacy." For example, many of her work's titles use pronouns ("me", "you", "we", etc.). July creates "slice of life" films using ordinary characters and giving them attention within her films. She describes this as her being, "desperate to bring people together."[5] However, as she's aged she's become more interested in how people sabotage coming together.[14]

July receives criticism for being too "niche" or trying too hard to seem "quirky." According to The New York Times, "July has come to personify everything infuriating about the Etsy-shopping, Wes Anderson-quoting, McSweeney's-reading, coastal-living category of upscale urban bohemia that flourished in the aughts [sic]." She is often lumped in with directors like Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach, but says she gets more push-back than them due to her films being so emotional and feminine, being called "precious" and "twee." In this same interview with The New York Times, July explains that she likes the directors she's been compared to, but they never get criticized for making films about themselves, though she as a female filmmaker is often labeled "self-obsessed."[5] In a 2015 Guardian article, July adds, "Yes, it's pretty clear that 'whimsical' is a diminishing word, [...] I almost think asking the question is like I'm being asked to gossip about myself. I think it's kind of a female thing, being asked to gossip about yourself. I think I'm maybe done with that."[89]

July also often includes the theme of sex in her films. The New York Times describes this theme "as both a sudden surprise and a way to illuminate the inner lives of her characters". July elaborates: "I was always interested in sex, even as a kid. Sex includes shame and humiliation and fantasies and longing. It's so dense with the kinds of things I'm interested in."[5]

She has also expressed her interest in the rhythm and feeling of film, rather than being "inspired" by other filmmakers, and states that she wouldn't call herself a "cinephile."[5]

In between Me and You and Everyone We Know and The Future, July began to incorporate some of the oddball avant-garde things she had done in theater performance into her films, some of which was easier to swallow on stage but not on screen, such as the talking cat in The Future,[14] which she was later criticized for by viewers.

July also has a strong interest in clothing and costume.[12] She served as the lookbook creative director for Uniqlo UT's 2019 clothing line.[90]

Personal life

[edit]

July is married to filmmaker and visual artist Mike Mills, with whom she has a non-binary child,[91] born in March 2012.[92][93] July and Mills met at both of their first Sundance Festival premieres in 2005,[94] and married in mid-2009.[5] In July 2022, July announced that she and Mills were separated romantically, although they continue to live near each other and co-parent.[95]

In a 2007 interview with Bust magazine, July spoke of the importance which feminism has had in her life, saying, "What's confusing about [being a feminist]? It's just being pro your ability to do what you need to do. It doesn't mean you don't love your boyfriend or whatever ... When I say 'feminist', I mean that in the most complex, interesting, exciting way!"[96] In a later interview in 2017 on Idaho's Public Television station, July explained that once she started confronting the racial issues in current day politics, she started contacting publishers and revising her work, realizing that not everything she had said was racially and politically sound.[12]

She changed her last name to "July" when she was 15, after a character based on her in a story by her high school best friend, Johanna Fateman. She changed her name legally in her early 20s.[5] July describes her family as very "DIY", which probably accounts for some of July's makeshift style.[5] Therefore, when July wanted to change her last name, her father was very accepting of the decision.[12] Her father was a workaholic, which is something she believes she picked up from him.[12] Her family also dabbled in practicing New Age religions and discussed spirituality while she was growing up.[5]

Filmography

[edit]

Full-length films

[edit]

Short films

[edit]
  • I Started Out with Nothing and I Still Have Most of It Left[97]
  • Atlanta (1996) – appeared on Audio-Cinematic Mix Tape (Peripheral Produce)
  • The Amateurist (1998)
  • A Shape Called Horse (1999) – appeared on Video Fanzine #1 (Kill Rock Stars)
  • Nest of Tens (1999) (Peripheral Produce)
  • Getting Stronger Every Day (2001) – 6 mins 30 secs,[98] appeared on Peripheral Produce: All-Time Greatest Hits: a collection of experimental films and videos (Peripheral Produce)
  • Haysha Royko (2003) – 4 mins[99]
  • Are You the Favorite Person of Anybody? (2005)[97] – appeared on Wholphin issue 1
  • Somebody (2014), Miu Miu's Women's Tales 8 – 10 mins 14 secs
  • Miranda July Introduces the Miranda (2014) – advertisement for a handbag designed by July and Welcome Companions. With music by JD Samson.

Other film work

[edit]

Music videos

[edit]
  • "Get Up" by Sleater-Kinney (1999) – directed by July[101]
  • "Top Ranking" by Blonde Redhead (2007) – July acts in the video, directed by Mike Mills[102]
  • "Hurry On Home" by Sleater-Kinney (2019) – directed, plus a cameo appearance[103]

Bibliography

[edit]

Performances

[edit]
  • Love Diamond (1998–2000)[9]
  • The Swan Tool (2000–2002)
  • How I Learned to Draw (2002–2003)
  • Things We Don't Understand and Are Definitely Not Going to Talk About (2006–2008)
  • New Society (2015)

Discography

[edit]

Albums

[edit]
  • 10 Million Hours a Mile (1997) (Kill Rock Stars)
  • The Binet-Simon Test (1998) (Kill Rock Stars)

EPs

[edit]
  • Margie Ruskie Stops Time EP (1996) with music by The Need (Kill Rock Stars)[106]
  • Girls on Dates split EP with IQU (1999) (K Records)

Awards

[edit]
[edit]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]

Further reading

[edit]
[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Miranda July

View on Grokipedia
from Grokipedia
Miranda July (born Miranda Jennifer Grossinger; February 15, 1974) is an American filmmaker, visual artist, and author whose work spans independent cinema, short fiction, novels, and performance pieces often exploring interpersonal intimacy and emotional vulnerability.[1][2]
She wrote, directed, and starred in her debut feature Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005), which received the Caméra d'Or for best first feature at the Cannes Film Festival and a Special Jury Prize at Sundance.[3]
Subsequent films include The Future (2011), which she also wrote and starred in, and Kajillionaire (2020), a heist drama she scripted featuring Evan Rachel Wood and Gina Rodriguez.[1]
In literature, her short story collection No One Belongs Here More Than You (2007) won the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, while her novels The First Bad Man (2015) and All Fours (2024)—the latter a New York Times bestseller and National Book Award finalist—have garnered critical attention for their introspective narratives.[2][4]
July's early career featured collaborative zines, music with the band The Need, and interactive projects like the 2011 app Somebody, blending art with technology to facilitate anonymous messaging between strangers.[5]

Early Life and Education

Family and Childhood

Miranda July was born Miranda Jennifer Grossinger on February 15, 1974, in Barre, Vermont, to writers Richard Grossinger and Lindy Hough.[6][7] Her father, Richard Grossinger, authored books on topics including ecology, astronomy, and bodywork, while her mother, Lindy Hough, wrote poetry and fiction and edited anthologies on subjects such as nuclear strategy.[8] The couple, who met as undergraduates, co-founded North Atlantic Books in 1974, a nonprofit publisher specializing in alternative health, somatic practices, and spiritual nonfiction, initially while teaching at Goddard College in Vermont.[8][7] July has an older brother, Robin Grossinger, born in 1969, who later became an environmental scientist.[6] When July was three years old and her brother eight, the family relocated from Vermont to Berkeley, California, where they integrated the publishing operations into their home life.[8] The parents' shared compulsion for writing—described as graphomania—permeated the household, with the children assisting in business tasks such as sorting book stock in the basement and mailing orders from the post office.[8] To evade local regulations lacking a permit for home-based operations, the family concealed book deliveries from neighbors, contributing to an idiosyncratic, semi-countercultural environment amid Berkeley's landscape.[8][9] July's parents encouraged self-generated entertainment, fostering early creative outlets; as a child, she recorded one-sided conversations on cassette tapes.[8] Her brother constructed a two-story playhouse with running water in the backyard for her.[10] Despite this support for artistic pursuits, July later recounted "rough episodes" in her youth, including physical altercations, such as a fight with her best friend around age 11 or 12 that she described as intimate and satisfying.[10] The family operated as the only non-hippie household in their otherwise alternative surroundings, reflecting the parents' intellectual rather than communal focus.[11]

Academic Background and Early Influences

July enrolled at the University of California, Santa Cruz, in the early 1990s to study film, reflecting an initial interest in visual media that aligned with her emerging artistic inclinations.[12] During her time there, she explored filmmaking coursework but grew dissatisfied with certain classes, leading her to adopt unconventional personas, such as wearing a gray wig or gas mask, as expressions of her discomfort with traditional academic structures.[13] She ultimately dropped out during her sophomore year in 1995, forgoing formal degree completion to pursue independent creative endeavors, a decision that disappointed her parents but marked a pivot toward self-directed artistic practice.[14] This departure from academia facilitated her relocation to Portland, Oregon, where she immersed herself in DIY cultural scenes, though her brief university experience provided foundational exposure to film techniques that informed her later experimental works.[8] Early influences stemmed primarily from her family environment; born in 1974 in Barre, Vermont, to writers Lindy Hough and Richard Grossinger—who taught at Goddard College and co-founded North Atlantic Books, a publisher of alternative and esoteric literature—July was raised amid intellectual and countercultural stimuli.[8] After moving to Berkeley, California, at age five, she attended local schools including Le Conte Elementary and Head-Royce, environments that, combined with her parents' emphasis on writing and unconventional thought, fostered her precocious engagement with performance and narrative forms, evident in her adolescent adoption of the pseudonym "July" at age 15.[9] These familial and regional influences, rather than institutional academia, cultivated her interdisciplinary approach, prioritizing intuitive, participatory art over structured learning.[15]

Career Beginnings

Zine Culture and Music Projects

In the early 1990s, July co-created Snarla, a feminist zine, with her high school friend Johanna Fateman while living in Portland, Oregon.[16] The zine emerged from the DIY punk and feminist self-publishing culture, featuring personal essays, illustrations, and critiques aligned with third-wave feminist themes, with at least two issues produced, including one dated 1993 from Santa Cruz, California, and Portland.[17] Snarla reflected the era's zine movement, which emphasized accessible, low-cost production via photocopiers to bypass mainstream media gatekeeping, and connected July to broader networks in the Pacific Northwest's punk scenes, though her contributions predated and extended beyond core Riot Grrrl hubs like Olympia, Washington.[8] July's early music projects centered on Portland's queercore scene in the mid-1990s, where she participated despite lacking instrumental skills, focusing instead on vocals, screaming, and performance elements.[15] She joined the CeBe Barnes Band, a short-lived group including Rachel Carns and Radio Sloan, performing song, dance, and experimental punk; the band released a self-titled 7-inch EP on Horse Kitty Records around 1996.[18] This evolved into collaborations with The Need (formed by Carns and Sloan in the mid-1990s), including the 1996 7-inch Margie Ruskie Stops Time on Kill Rock Stars, where July provided spoken-word narratives over the band's punk instrumentation.[19] [20] Parallel to band work, July produced solo audio releases blending spoken-word monologues, radio-drama elements, and minimalist music, issued by Kill Rock Stars.[21] These included 10 Million Hours a Mile (1997), an album of narrative audio pieces; The Binet-Simon Test (released May 12, 1998), featuring experimental tracks like "Medical Wonder"; and Girls on Dates (1999, with IQU), continuing her exploration of intimate, awkward human interactions through sound.[22] [23] These projects underscored Kill Rock Stars' role in amplifying underground feminist and queer artists, with July's output totaling at least three full-length releases by 1999, often performed live in punk venues before transitioning to multimedia formats.[24]

Performance Art and Spoken Word

Miranda July began her artistic career in the 1990s with spoken word performances and recordings that emphasized narrative introspection and musical accompaniment. Her early albums, including The Binet-Simon Test (1998) and Margie Ruskie Stops Time (1998, with The Need), featured original monologues performed over minimalist soundscapes created in collaboration with musicians like Donovan Skirvin.[25][19] These works, released on Kill Rock Stars, explored themes of perception and human connection through July's deadpan delivery, influencing her later multimedia experiments.[15] These spoken word efforts evolved from initial stage appearances in Portland's punk clubs, where July tested raw, participatory formats amid DIY scenes.[26] By the late 1990s, she transitioned to structured performance art, debuting Love Diamond in 1998 as her first full-length piece, commissioned by the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA). This two-hour "live movie" integrated live narration, video projections, slides, and audience involvement, with participants reciting pre-written tales of an idealized "love diamond" during the second act, blurring performer-audience boundaries to probe romantic illusions.[27][28] The production premiered at PICA before touring to cities including New York, where excerpts were performed at venues like The Kitchen in 2000.[29][30] July's performance art continued with The Swan Tool in 2001, another PICA premiere that fused video segments, live enactment, and onstage music to simulate a toolkit for emotional repair, encouraging viewers to engage with scripted interactions.[31][28] These pieces established her method of using vulnerability and collective input to dissect everyday awkwardness, with audience members often cast as co-narrators, as seen in later participatory extensions like Things We Don't Know.[32] Her approach drew from punk-era spontaneity but formalized it through precise staging, prioritizing relational dynamics over traditional spectacle.[24]

Initial Video and Film Experiments

In the mid-1990s, after dropping out of college and relocating to Portland, Oregon, Miranda July began her video experiments amid the city's DIY and Riot Grrrl-influenced scene.[5] In 1995, she launched Joanie 4 Jackie, a feminist video distribution project modeled as a chain-letter network.[33] Participants, primarily women, submitted short personal videos addressing themes like violence, relationships, and identity; July curated and compiled them into VHS tapes mailed back to contributors, eventually amassing around 300 submissions before digitization in the 2000s.[33] The initiative sought to create alternative narratives outside Hollywood's male-dominated frameworks, emphasizing raw, amateur expressions over polished production.[5] [33] July's personal contributions to this era included "Atlanta" (1996), a 10-minute mockumentary in which she portrayed both a young Olympic swimmer and her overly affectionate mother, using first-person interviews and staged footage to probe familial dynamics.[34] This work exemplified her initial approach of low-budget, performative video blending documentary-style elements with scripted absurdity.[34] Subsequent experiments built on these foundations. In "The Amateurist" (1998), a 14-minute abstract piece, July depicted herself as a numerically fixated expert surveilling a confined woman—also played by her—via black-and-white monitor, merging humor with undertones of isolation and gender performativity in an early nod to online voyeurism.[5] [34] "Nest of Tens" (1999), running 27 minutes, intercut vignettes of characters mired in banal routines, such as July's airport complainer, overlaid with animation to evoke entrapment and fleeting transcendence.[34] By "Getting Stronger Every Day" (2001), a 6.5-minute short, her videos incorporated surreal auras enveloping everyday figures, signaling a maturation toward thematic depth while retaining experimental brevity and multimedia hybridity.[34] These productions, compiled in collections like Videoworks: Volume 1 (covering 1996–2001), prioritized intimate, introspective storytelling over conventional narrative arcs, often drawing from July's performance background to challenge viewer expectations of intimacy and observation.[35] [5]

Filmmaking Career

Short Films and Web Series

July's initial forays into filmmaking consisted of experimental short videos produced between 1996 and 2001, compiled in Videoworks: Volume 1, which emphasized lo-fi aesthetics, personal introspection, and unconventional narratives drawn from performance art roots.[35] These pieces, such as Atlanta (1996, 10 minutes), depict a 12-year-old aspiring Olympic swimmer and her mother conversing about competitive pressures and maternal support, highlighting generational tensions through dialogue-heavy staging.[36] The Amateurist (1997, 14 minutes) follows a professional observer tracking an amateur subject's daily routines via surveillance, forging an abstract bond through quantified observations and linguistic patterns.[37] Subsequent shorts expanded on motifs of control, loss, and spatial dynamics. Nest of Tens (1999, 27 minutes) interweaves four vignettes involving children and a developmentally disabled adult employing idiosyncratic strategies for emotional regulation, underscoring July's interest in human coping mechanisms.[38] Getting Stronger Everyday (2001, 7 minutes) portrays disorientation and recovery in a spirit realm evoked via rudimentary effects and allusions to remembered television, blending whimsy with existential drift.[39] Haysha Royko (2003, 4 minutes) captures three individuals navigating interpersonal energy and territorial claims at Portland International Airport, distilling awkward encounters into concise, observational tension.[40] Later shorts shifted toward commissioned and promotional formats while retaining July's signature blend of intimacy and absurdity. Are You the Favorite Person of Anyone? (2005, 3 minutes 45 seconds) features actors John C. Reilly and Mike White delivering July's scripted exchanges on relational hierarchies, serving as a thematic prelude to her feature debut.[36] Somebody (2014), a 17-minute entry in Miu Miu's Women's Tales series, accompanies the launch of July's Somebody app by examining anonymous messaging and emotional outreach through fragmented, app-mediated interactions; it premiered at the Venice Film Festival.[41] In the 2010s and 2020s, July produced web-oriented shorts tied to commercial or interactive projects. The trio of How to Make a T-Shirt films (2019), each under 5 minutes, promote Uniqlo's UT collection featuring her graphic designs, demonstrating garment assembly via participatory instructions shared on social media platforms.[36] Nichols Canyon (2020), a brief video essay, responds to David Hockney's 1980 painting of the same name, probing landscape's emotional resonance through narrated reflection.[42] Most recently, F.A.M.I.L.Y. (Falling Apart Meanwhile I Love You) (2024) comprises a series of collaborative videos solicited via Instagram for exhibition at Fondazione Prada, inviting participants to contribute footage exploring familial discord and affection amid disruption.[36] These works reflect July's evolution from analog experimentation to digitally distributed, audience-engaged formats, prioritizing relational authenticity over polished production.[40]

Feature-Length Films

Miranda July has directed three feature-length films, each characterized by her distinctive style blending everyday absurdities with explorations of human connection, isolation, and emotional vulnerability. Her debut, Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005), premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision, and later received the Caméra d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for best first feature.[43][44] The film follows artist Christine Jesperson, played by July, who encounters shoe salesman Richard Swersey (John Hawkes) amid intersecting stories of longing and awkward intimacy involving their families and acquaintances in Los Angeles.[45] It received an 82% approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, praised for its quirky humanism but critiqued by some for uneven pacing and controversial elements like child-adult interactions.[45] The film was re-released by the Criterion Collection in 2020.[46] In The Future (2011), July again wrote, directed, and starred as Sophie, alongside Hamish Linklater as her partner Jason, in a story where the couple's plan to adopt an injured cat triggers a surreal reevaluation of their stagnant lives, incorporating time-bending narrative devices and voiceover narration.[47] The film premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and was distributed by Roadside Attractions.[48] It holds a 73% Rotten Tomatoes score, with reviewers noting its whimsical yet melancholic tone but dividing audiences over its abstract elements and perceived self-indulgence.[49] July's third feature, Kajillionaire (2020), shifts to a family of small-time con artists—Robert (Richard Jenkins), Theresa (Debra Winger), and their daughter Old Dolio (Evan Rachel Wood)—whose routines disrupt when they partner with outsider Melanie (Gina Rodriguez), prompting Old Dolio's awakening to familial dysfunction.[50] Written and directed by July but without her on-screen presence, it premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and was released theatrically by Focus Features on September 25, 2020.[51] The film earned a 90% Rotten Tomatoes rating, commended for its inventive heist-comedy structure and strong ensemble performances, though some found its quirkiness less emotionally resonant than her earlier works.[52]

Directorial Techniques and Collaborations

July's directorial approach prioritizes scripted precision over improvisation, as she has stated a preference for adhering closely to written dialogue to preserve the integrity of her fully formed narratives, such as the debut feature Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005), which she composed in a single train ride.[8] This method extends to actor direction, where she rejects unsolicited changes, focusing instead on meticulous rehearsals and blocking to capture subtle emotional shifts, as seen in her early performance-derived works adapted into film. Her technique often incorporates surreal, theatrical devices drawn from live art, including anthropomorphic voiceover narration—like the talking cat that opens The Future (2011)—to blend dreamlike abstraction with raw interpersonal awkwardness.[53] [8] On set, July cultivates a protected creative environment, selecting crew based on their capacity to minimize distractions and foster intuitive "feelings," which informs decisions like persisting with takes until her gut confirms sufficiency, providing editing flexibility.[54] This process yields films characterized by observational intimacy and outsider protagonists navigating alienation, employing simple cinematography and sound design to heighten unease alongside tentative reassurance, as in Kajillionaire (2020), where family role-play exposes relational voids without veering into overt whimsy.[5] Her DIY ethos from performance roots persists, emphasizing amateur-like vulnerability in professional contexts, though she resists reductive labels like "quirky" that overlook the deliberate unease in her worlds.[5] Recurring collaborations underscore her films' sonic and visual cohesion. Composer Michael Andrews provided scores for multiple projects, including Me and You and Everyone We Know, utilizing an orchestra of household objects and toys to evoke the story's off-kilter domesticity.[43] For The Future, international financing enabled a largely German crew, including standout sound technicians who amplified its theatrical surrealism.[53] Cinematographer Chuy Chávez partnered on the 2005 feature, delivering handheld, close-quarters shots that mirror the characters' tentative connections.[43] In Kajillionaire, July directed seasoned performers like Evan Rachel Wood, Gina Rodriguez, Debra Winger, and Richard Jenkins, integrating their input within scripted bounds to animate the con-artist ensemble's improvised-seeming dynamics.[54] Earlier, her Joanie 4 Jackie initiative (1995 onward) distributed short films by female collaborators via chain letters, influencing her networked approach to production.[5]

Writing Career

Short Fiction and Collections

Miranda July's debut collection of short fiction, No One Belongs Here More Than You: Stories, was published by Scribner on September 18, 2007.[55] The volume comprises 16 stories, many of which first appeared in literary magazines such as The Paris Review and Zoetrope: All-Story.[56] It achieved commercial success, becoming a New York Times bestseller, and received critical acclaim, including designation as one of Time magazine's top ten books of the year.[57] The collection earned the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award in 2008, recognizing it as an outstanding work of short fiction.[58] It has since been translated into 23 languages, reflecting its international reach.[56] Prior to the collection's release, July published the limited-edition chapbook The Boy from Lam Kien through Cloverfield Press in 2005, marking an early foray into standalone short fiction.[59] Subsequent individual stories by July have appeared in outlets like The New Yorker, including "The Metal Bowl" in 2017, but no additional short fiction collections followed No One Belongs Here More Than You.[60] The work draws on July's multidisciplinary background, incorporating elements of performance and visual art into narrative forms that emphasize interpersonal awkwardness and emotional vulnerability.[55]

Novels and Autobiographical Elements

Miranda July's novels include The First Bad Man, published on January 13, 2015, by Scribner, and All Fours, released on May 14, 2024, by Riverhead Books.[61][36] The First Bad Man marked her debut as a novelist and achieved New York Times bestseller status, centering on Cheryl Glickman, a solitary woman in her forties employed by a self-defense organization called Open Palm Enterprises, whose ordered life unravels with the arrival of her bosses' disruptive adult daughter.[62] The narrative explores themes of isolation, unexpected intimacy, and maternal instincts through surreal and introspective lenses, but lacks direct autobiographical ties; July, aged 40 at publication, crafted the protagonist's eccentricities and relational dynamics as fictional constructs rather than personal recountings, drawing instead from observed human behaviors.[63] In contrast, All Fours incorporates pronounced autofictional elements, with its unnamed 45-year-old protagonist—a semifamous artist, filmmaker, and writer—mirroring July's own multidisciplinary career and life stage during perimenopause.[64] The plot follows the narrator's road trip from Los Angeles to New York, intended as a solo creative escape but derailed by an extramarital encounter and subsequent homebound affair, prompting reevaluations of monogamy, desire, and domesticity amid hormonal shifts and midlife introspection.[65] July has described the work as emerging from her real-life experiences with aging's impact on sexuality, marriage, and ambition, noting that writing it prompted personal upheavals, including separations from routine, though the character remains a stylized vessel rather than a literal self-portrait.[8] The novel's New York Times bestseller status and National Book Award finalist nomination underscore its resonance, blending empirical observations of bodily and relational changes with July's signature quirky realism.[36] Across both novels, autobiographical influences manifest indirectly through July's recurring focus on vulnerability and unconventional connections, informed by her performance and multimedia background, yet she prioritizes invented narratives over confessional modes, as evidenced by the absence of explicit personal disclosures in promotional materials or publisher descriptions.[66] This approach aligns with her broader oeuvre, where personal motifs like emotional awkwardness appear stylized, avoiding unmediated autobiography in favor of empathetic fabrication.

Essays and Non-Fiction Works

It Chooses You (2011) is Miranda July's primary non-fiction book, published by McSweeney's.[67] Originating from a period of procrastination during the summer of 2009 while drafting the screenplay for her film The Future, July purchased inexpensive items from classified ads in the PennySaver and visited the sellers' homes in Los Angeles for unscripted interviews, accompanied by photographer Brigitte Sire.[67] The resulting volume compiles transcripts from 13 such encounters, interspersed with July's introspective narrative and Sire's photographs, offering candid portraits of diverse individuals' lives amid themes of isolation, vulnerability, and unexpected human connection.[67] It explores the mechanics of inspiration amid creative blockage, with July reflecting on how these detours inadvertently informed her film's development.[67] In collaboration with artist Harrell Fletcher, July co-edited Learning to Love You More (2007, Prestel), a compilation of submissions from a participatory web project launched in 2002 that posed 70 open-ended assignments to the public, eliciting over 8,000 responses in forms like narratives, images, and audio.[68] The book reproduces selected contributions, emphasizing communal creativity and personal disclosure without editorial curation beyond the prompts themselves.[69] July has published essays in prominent literary periodicals, including "Doing Nothing Isn't Enough" in The New Yorker on June 1, 2020, which critiques passive responses to social inertia during crises.[70] Another piece, accompanying her short film Nichols Canyon in the Fall 2020 issue of Gagosian Quarterly, meditates on artistic influence and perceptual shifts inspired by David Hockney's painting of the same canyon.[36] Her non-fiction writing has also appeared in Harper's, The Paris Review, and The Believer.[56]

Other Artistic Outputs

Acting Roles

July's acting career is secondary to her work as a director and writer, with most appearances in projects she created or in supporting capacities in independent films and television. Her performances typically feature introspective, eccentric characters exploring themes of isolation and connection, aligning with her broader artistic output.[1] In her feature directorial debut, Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005), July played the lead role of Christine Jesperson, an aspiring artist and "eldercab" driver who forms an unlikely bond with a recently separated shoe salesman amid vignettes of suburban disconnection.[71] The film premiered at Sundance and earned the Camera d'Or at Cannes.[72] She reprised a starring role in The Future (2011), portraying Sophie, a childless couple's partner who impulsively quits her job and embarks on a surreal path of self-discovery after deciding to adopt a cat, incorporating dance and fantastical elements into her character's unraveling routine.[73] The film debuted at Sundance and screened at Berlin.[47] July appeared as a guest in the Portlandia episode "Cat Nap" (season 2, episode 6; aired February 10, 2012), depicting a boutique co-owner peddling overpriced, minimalist clothing in a sketch satirizing Portland's artisanal retail scene.[74] In Josephine Decker's Madeline's Madeline (2018), she portrayed Regina, the unstable mother of a teenage aspiring actress drawn into an experimental theater troupe, contributing to the film's exploration of blurred boundaries between performance and personal trauma. Her role drew praise for capturing maternal fragility without overshadowing the lead. Additionally, July provided voice narration as volcanologist Katia Krafft in the documentary Fire of Love (2022), voicing archival integration in the story of a couple's fatal obsession with volcanoes. This marked one of her few non-fiction related performances.

Music and Audio Projects

July's early involvement in the Pacific Northwest punk and queercore scenes included performing at underground clubs like 924 Gilman Street in Berkeley and co-authoring the fanzine Snarla as a teenager.[75] Despite lacking instrumental skills, she joined the queercore band initially known as CeBe Barnes Band, which later became The Need, where she contributed vocals.[15] With The Need, she collaborated on the 7-inch EP Margie Ruskie Stops Time, released by Kill Rock Stars in 1996, featuring two tracks blending spoken elements and music.[76][19] Transitioning from live performances, July recorded solo audio works derived from club sets, releasing the CD 10 Million Hours a Mile on Kill Rock Stars in 1997, comprising eight tracks such as "Bloodrace" and "How's My Driving," characterized by experimental spoken-word overlays on minimal instrumentation.[36][77] This was followed by The Binet-Simon Test CD in 1998, also on Kill Rock Stars, drawing from similar performance origins and incorporating surreal, narrative-driven audio experiments amid the Riot Grrrl era.[36] In the late 1990s, she produced a series of audio pieces blending radio drama and spoken word, reflecting influences from the Northwest music scene including labels like Kill Rock Stars and K Records.[21] Her audio projects extended into performance and installation formats, as seen in Love Diamond (1998–2000), a full-length stage work incorporating slide/video imagery and original music by composer Zac Love, staged at venues including the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art and The Kitchen in New York.[36] Similarly, The Swan Tool (2000–2002) featured live music by Love alongside video and helium-altered vocals, performed at sites like Rotterdamse Schouwburg.[36] A 2001 short video, Getting Stronger Everyday, included a soundtrack composed by Love.[36] In sound art, July created The Drifters, a 2002 installation for the Whitney Biennial consisting of ten short dialogues broadcast in the museum's elevator, evoking transient interactions among riders.[78][79] She has also directed music videos, including several for the band Sleater-Kinney, integrating her stylistic elements of awkward intimacy and minimalism.[80] More recent efforts include audio-only works in exhibitions, such as a new piece F.A.M.I.L.Y. (Falling Apart Meanwhile I Love You) debuted in Berlin in 2023.[81]

Multimedia and Interactive Installations

Miranda July's multimedia and interactive installations often involve audience participation to explore themes of connection, vulnerability, and everyday absurdity, utilizing digital platforms, physical sculptures, and human intermediaries.[36] These works, spanning from the early 2000s to the present, emphasize collaborative creation over solitary authorship, prompting viewers or users to contribute content or actions that become integral to the piece.[12] One of her earliest and most influential projects, Learning to Love You More (2002–2009), co-created with Harrell Fletcher, functioned as a web-based interactive platform where participants worldwide responded to 70 specific assignments, such as "Take a picture of the sun" or "Make a field guide to your own heart."[82] Submissions—ranging from photographs and videos to written narratives and performances—were archived and displayed online, fostering a collective archive of personal expressions that July and Fletcher curated without rejection, resulting in thousands of contributions.[36] The project extended into physical exhibitions and culminated in a 2007 book published by Prestel, with the digital archive later acquired by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 2010.[82] In 2009, July presented Eleven Heavy Things, an interactive sculpture garden commissioned for the 53rd Venice Biennale at Giardino delle Vergini, featuring eleven cast fiberglass elements including pedestals for standing, tablets with apertures for inserting body parts, and freestanding abstract headdresses.[83] Designed to encourage physical engagement, such as lifting heavy forms or posing with friends, the installation used steel-lined fiberglass to create durable yet whimsical objects that invited passersby to interact collaboratively, later exhibited in Union Square Park, New York (2010), and Melrose Wave Park, Los Angeles (2011).[36] The work's concept highlighted relational dynamics through tangible, body-involved play, contrasting digital ephemera with corporeal weight.[83] Somebody (2014), launched as a free iOS app during the Venice Film Festival, reimagined instant messaging as a human-mediated interactive system, where users composed texts with optional performative instructions (e.g., "[hug]" or "[cry]"), which GPS then routed to nearby strangers for verbal delivery to the recipient.[84] Participants rated deliverers' performances, creating a networked ecosystem of proxy interactions that emphasized emotional immediacy over digital detachment; the project included live demonstrations at institutions like the New Museum (October 2014) and LACMA, where museum spaces served as "hotspots" for sending and receiving messages.[85] Though the app ceased operations in 2015, it underscored July's interest in technology as a facilitator of awkward, embodied encounters.[84] More recently, F.A.M.I.L.Y. (Falling Apart Meanwhile I Love You) (2024), a multi-channel video installation, emerged from July's yearlong Instagram collaboration with seven performers, capturing fragmented exchanges that probe familial and societal bonds; it debuted as part of the New Society exhibition at Fondazione Prada in Milan, marking her first solo museum survey.[36] These installations collectively demonstrate July's approach to multimedia as a participatory medium, where interactivity generates emergent narratives from user input rather than predefined scripts.[12]

Artistic Themes and Style

Recurring Motifs in Human Connection

July's oeuvre consistently portrays human connection as fragile and elusive, marked by characters' intense yearnings for intimacy amid pervasive isolation and emotional barriers. In her short story collections, protagonists often indulge in elaborate fantasies of relational bonds—romantic, platonic, or ephemeral—yet repeatedly encounter failure or partial fulfillment, underscoring a core tension between desire and disconnection.[86] [87] This motif recurs in her films, where interpersonal interactions unfold through awkward, improvised gestures that expose vulnerability; for instance, in Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005), isolated figures pursue bonds via impulsive digital exchanges and chance meetings, revealing the inadequacy of modern tools for genuine closeness.[88] [89] Familial and quasi-familial ties emerge as another recurrent site of strained connection, frequently distorted by dysfunction or unconventional dynamics. In Kajillionaire (2020), the Dyne family—petty grifters operating as a tight-knit unit of emotional neglect—grapples with redefining bonds when an outsider disrupts their insular scams, prompting tentative explorations of affection and independence.[90] [91] Similarly, her novel The First Bad Man (2015) depicts intimacy evolving from aggression and cohabitation into maternal and erotic attachments, blurring lines between combat, caregiving, and desire as pathways to relational depth.[92] These narratives emphasize connection not as harmonious resolution but as an ongoing, often uncomfortable negotiation of boundaries and unmet needs. Across mediums, July integrates motifs of bodily and emotional exposure as prerequisites for connection, portraying touch, gaze, and shared vulnerability as antidotes to alienation, though seldom without risk of rejection or absurdity. Her characters' quests frequently hinge on reimagining everyday failures—lost opportunities, mismatched expectations—as portals to empathy, reflecting a worldview where human links persist through persistence despite inherent precarity.[93] [94] This approach, evident from early performance pieces to recent novels like All Fours (2024), prioritizes raw, idiosyncratic relational experiments over conventional romance, challenging viewers and readers to confront the raw mechanics of attachment.[95][8]

Stylistic Quirks and Experimental Forms

July's prose often incorporates repetition and alliteration to heighten emotional emphasis, as seen in stories where words like "kneeling" recur multiple times within short spans to underscore vulnerability.[96] She varies sentence lengths to produce a rhythmic, almost musical quality, blending terse observations with extended internal monologues that mimic the halting pace of hesitant characters.[96] Dialogue eschews quotation marks, integrating speech into the narrative flow or presenting it as sidebar-like asides, which dissolves boundaries between thought and spoken word.[96] Perspective shifts—moving fluidly between third-person ("she"), second-person ("you"), and first-person ("my")—induce temporal and spatial disorientation, as in tales where events loop ambiguously between past and present, such as references to occurrences "twenty or thirty minutes ago" that blur chronological sequence.[96] Wordplay, including puns and negative phrasing (e.g., "worried she would not let him love her with the stain"), adds layers of ambiguity, while allegorical elements ground surreal motifs in mundane acts like blowing one's nose, reinforcing themes of life's cyclical returns to the ordinary.[96] Characters frequently exhibit quirks like freezing in moments of indecision or fixating on trivial details—such as uneven napkin distribution revealing group insecurities—prioritizing internal daydreams and imagined lives over linear action.[97] In her films, these quirks extend to experimental forms like magical realism, exemplified by a narrating cat in The Future (2011) or a character soliciting advice from the moon, treated as a literal "rock in the sky," to amplify emotional unraveling amid everyday frustrations.[98] Across media, July blurs fiction with reality through intermedial techniques, such as fabricating physical objects from novels (e.g., a "blouse with diagonal pastel stripes" from The First Bad Man) for promotional art installations that extend narrative into tangible space.[97] Her short fiction favors emotion-driven structures over conventional plots, as in No One Belongs Here More Than You (2007), where fragmented narratives evoke whimsy laced with dark undercurrents.[98] Later works like All Fours (2024) mark a pivot to "writing straight," employing direct, autobiographical-infused prose with reduced quirkiness and unreliable narration to achieve raw authenticity, informed by accumulated personal notes spanning years.[8]

Critical Reception

Accolades and Commercial Success

Miranda July's film Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005) received the Caméra d'Or at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival for best first feature and a Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.[99] [3] Her short story collection No One Belongs Here More Than You (2007) won the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award.[100] July has also been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and named one of TIME Magazine's 100 most influential people in 2025.[2] Her novel All Fours (2024) was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction.[101]
WorkAwardYear
Me and You and Everyone We KnowCaméra d'Or, Cannes Film Festival2005[99]
Me and You and Everyone We KnowSpecial Jury Prize, Sundance Film Festival2005[3]
No One Belongs Here More Than YouFrank O'Connor International Short Story Award2007[100]
GeneralGuggenheim FellowshipUndated[2]
All FoursNational Book Award Finalist (Fiction)2024[101]
July's debut novel The First Bad Man (2015) debuted as a New York Times bestseller, as did All Fours, which sold over 200,000 hardcover copies in its initial release and rights in 25 territories.[101] [102] [103] Her films, primarily independent releases, achieved modest box office returns; for instance, The Future (2011) grossed approximately $219,000 in limited U.S. theatrical runs.[104] This aligns with her focus on artistic rather than mainstream commercial viability, with success measured more through critical recognition and niche audiences than high gross earnings.[105]

Praise for Innovation

Miranda July's debut feature film Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005) garnered acclaim for its innovative narrative structure, which interwove fragmented vignettes of awkward human interactions across generations, defying conventional plot linearity and earning the Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision at the Sundance Film Festival.[106] The film's unconventional blending of performance art sensibilities with cinematic storytelling, featuring deadpan dialogue and symbolic motifs like digital messaging mishaps, was further recognized with the Caméra d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, awarded to the best first feature in the official selection.[107] Critics highlighted its fresh depiction of vulnerability and connection, positioning July as a distinctive voice in independent cinema that prioritized emotional authenticity over polished realism.[106] Subsequent works like The Future (2011) extended this praise, with reviewers lauding its experimental fusion of surrealism and domestic drama, described as a "radical" and "otherworldly" exploration of stagnation and regret through non-linear time manipulation and anthropomorphic elements, such as a talking cat narrating existential dread.[98] The film's cult status in art-house circuits underscored July's ability to innovate within genre constraints, transforming mundane anxieties into philosophical inquiries via theatrical staging and minimalist aesthetics.[98] Beyond film, July's multimedia projects have been celebrated for pioneering participatory formats that bridge digital and physical realms. The 2014 Somebody app, developed in collaboration with Miu Miu, innovatively outsourced message delivery to proximate strangers, requiring verbal recitation and optional physical gestures to reinfuse human unpredictability into text-based communication, a concept praised for disrupting automated social media norms.[85] Earlier, her collaborative website Learning to Love You More (2002–2009, with Harrell Fletcher) invited public submissions to structured prompts, generating a dynamic archive of user-generated content now held by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, exemplifying early web-based interactive art that democratized creative authorship.[36] Such ventures, alongside interactive installations like Eleven Heavy Things (2009) at the Venice Biennale—a sculptural environment prompting physical engagement with everyday objects—earned July a 2025 Guggenheim Fellowship in fiction and fine arts, affirming her sustained contributions to boundary-pushing interdisciplinary practice.[108]

Criticisms of Pretension and Self-Indulgence

Critics of Miranda July's oeuvre have frequently characterized her films and writings as emblematic of art-house pretension, marked by whimsical detachment from substantive concerns and an inward focus on personal quirks. Her 2005 debut feature Me and You and Everyone We Know, which earned the Camera d'Or at Cannes, elicited charges of contrived oddity, with some reviewers decrying its ensemble vignettes on loneliness and communication as self-consciously twee rather than insightful.[98] This sentiment intensified with her 2011 follow-up The Future, where the narrative of a couple contemplating parenthood amid surreal elements like a talking cat was dismissed by blogger Josh Zyber as "pretentious crap" devoid of patience-testing merit.[109] In a 2011 Guardian profile tied to The Future's release, publicist Richard Laermer encapsulated broader disdain, deeming July's output "1,000 per cent pretentious" and tantamount to "masturbation," while writer Judy McGuire assailed her films as "pretentious, cloying" exercises in "cinematic torture."[98] Such critiques portray her stylistic hallmarks—deadpan dialogue, non-sequiturs, and anthropomorphic motifs—as indulgent navel-gazing, prioritizing aesthetic affectation over relatable stakes like economic hardship, which the article contrasts with her middle-class preoccupations.[98] These themes persisted into her prose, particularly her 2024 novel All Fours, a midlife odyssey of erotic reinvention critiqued for privileging neurotic impulses over self-examination. The Aurorae Review faulted its descent into a "self-indulgent fever dream," arguing that July's signature introspection spirals from promising unraveling into unchecked solipsism.[110] Detractors, including reader forums, have echoed this by highlighting the protagonist's unexamined entitlement, viewing the work as emblematic of July's oeuvre: innovative in form but ultimately self-referential, appealing chiefly to insular creative circles while alienating audiences seeking causal depth beyond affective whimsy.[111]

Controversies in Content and Themes

In her 2005 debut feature film Me and You and Everyone We Know, July included scenes portraying children's exposure to adult sexual concepts, such as a sequence where two young brothers explicitly discuss "pooping back and forth forever" as a proposed sexual act between them, intended to evoke innocent mimicry of overheard adult behaviors but prompting widespread discomfort.[112] The film also features a 6-year-old boy engaging in an online instant message exchange with an unrelated adult woman, where the conversation escalates to promises of mutual genital touching, framed by July as an exploration of vulnerability and miscommunication in digital interactions.[113] These elements contributed to the film's R rating from the Motion Picture Association of America specifically for "disturbing sexual content involving children, and language," reflecting concerns over the normalization or aestheticization of pedophilic-adjacent themes.[113] Critics and viewers, including in user reviews aggregated on platforms like IMDb, described the content as controversial for blurring boundaries between child innocence and sexual predation, with some accusing July of exploiting minors for artistic provocation without sufficient narrative condemnation.[114] Similar thematic risks appear in July's 2007 short story collection No One Belongs Here More Than You: Stories, where narratives recurrently probe blurred lines of desire and age-inappropriate attraction. In one story, a protagonist develops pedophilic inclinations toward a young boy, presented through introspective narration that some readers interpreted as insufficiently distancing from the act itself, relying on themes of pedophilia and near-pedophilia to underscore emotional isolation.[115] Another tale incorporates a pedophile teacher among its ensemble, integrating the character into sentimental family dynamics without overt moral resolution, which a 2007 Observer review critiqued as an exercise in shock value amid perversely tender tones.[116] These choices drew reader backlash for glamorizing taboo impulses under the guise of psychological realism, with forum discussions highlighting how the collection's episodic structure amplifies unease by juxtaposing such elements with whimsical absurdity.[115] July's 2024 novel All Fours extends controversies into adult relational dynamics, centering a 45-year-old woman's erotic affair and perimenopausal awakening, depicted with graphic detail on bodily changes, infidelity, and power imbalances in intimacy.[117] The narrative's explicit sex scenes and quasi-fantastical elements, including a misrepresented Quaker couple in a sexual context, elicited mixed reactions, with some book club selections deeming it polarizing for its unapologetic embrace of female desire amid domestic stability, labeling the content "useless" or overly provocative.[118][119] While July defended the work as granting permission for life-altering risks, detractors in reviews argued it indulges solipsistic fantasies of disruption, potentially endorsing relational upheaval without causal accountability for consequences like family fracture.[120] Across these works, July's thematic insistence on raw, unfiltered human connections—often involving asymmetry in age, consent, or emotional maturity—has fueled debates over whether such portrayals illuminate isolation or irresponsibly eroticize vulnerability.

Personal Life

Relationships and Marriage

Miranda July married American film director Mike Mills in the summer of 2009 at his home in the Nevada hills.[121] The couple welcomed a son in 2014.[122] Their relationship, which July described as having begun with an instant connection, involved collaborative elements reflective of their shared artistic backgrounds in independent filmmaking.[121] In July 2022, July publicly announced on Instagram that she and Mills had ended their romantic involvement some time earlier, while continuing to co-parent their child and reside together most of the time as "fond pals."[123] This arrangement followed discussions about non-traditional marital structures, including July's proposal to Mills for temporary separations to pursue individual experiences, as detailed in profiles tied to her 2024 novel All Fours, which draws loosely from these personal dynamics.[124] By 2023, July had moved into a separate rental property a few blocks away in Los Angeles, though the pair maintained proximity for parenting.[125] July and Mills formalized their divorce following the 2022 separation, with both entering new romantic relationships by mid-2024; July has since described the process as amicable and liberating.[126][8] No prior marriages or long-term relationships for July are documented in public records or major profiles.[127]

Family and Parenting

July and filmmaker Mike Mills welcomed their only child, Hopper, in February 2012.[10] July has described the experience of early motherhood as profoundly transformative, likening it to a "reset" that made her feel "new in the world again" and reignited her creative motivations amid the demands of parenting.[128] In a 2015 interview, she noted balancing infant care with writing her novel The First Bad Man, which involved adapting her routine to accommodate breastfeeding and sleep deprivation while maintaining artistic output.[128] July's reflections on parenting often highlight its emotional and psychological intensity, including the "claustrophobia inherent in being a mother in a heteronormative family," a theme she explores in her 2024 novel All Fours, which draws from her midlife experiences of domestic routine and personal reinvention post-childbirth.[129] In her Substack writings, she has addressed the ambivalence of parenthood, asserting that it is "valid to not want children, especially if you'll be the birthing parent or you have a male partner," emphasizing the uneven burdens often placed on women.[130] She has also contemplated the post-drop-off solitude in co-parenting scenarios, framing it as a moment for self-reckoning amid ongoing family responsibilities.[131] In terms of child-rearing practices, July has prioritized gender-neutral upbringing for Hopper, fostering an environment deliberately free of imposed gender stereotypes to allow self-determined identity development.[132] This approach aligns with her broader artistic interrogation of family bonds, as seen in projects like the ongoing video series F.A.M.I.L.Y., where she collaborates with participants to unpack interpersonal vulnerabilities within familial contexts.[133] Her work frequently recurs to parent-child dynamics, portraying them as sites of mutual exposure and reversal, where adults confront their own childish dependencies.[134]

Philosophical Views on Self and Society

Miranda July conceptualizes the self as inherently fluid and subject to periodic reinvention, particularly during life transitions such as perimenopause, which she describes as an "existential state in which her identity must once again be refashioned."[135] In her novel All Fours and related discussions, she portrays midlife as a phase demanding the release of outdated structures, emphasizing "anarchistic potential for self-invention" amid disruptions like the COVID-19 pandemic, where individuals can dismantle rigid personal narratives.[136] [8] This view aligns with her advocacy for pursuing desires and novelty to counter self-imposed limitations, viewing change as both risky and essential for authenticity, as seen in her reflections on altering family dynamics through honest renegotiation of relationships.[117] Central to July's philosophy of self is a commitment to "maximum emotional honesty," which she distinguishes from mere autobiography by channeling raw vulnerabilities through fiction to expose "prejudices, ego, wild hopes, and absurd failures."[135] [8] She critiques internalized societal expectations, such as women's self-directed disdain for aging, arguing that embracing these shifts—rather than concealing them—fosters genuine self-discovery and counters diminishment by midlife.[117] This process involves amateurism as a form of "fruitful innocence," ignoring conventions to access deeper truths, and prioritizing pleasure as a guide to redefine one's "bedrock" amid existential confusion.[8] [135] Regarding society, July perceives it as a collection of norms ripe for interruption through personal agency and interpersonal risk, as in her interactive projects that catalyze collective "nation-building" via shared vulnerability.[136] She highlights how external events, like political shifts, exert "psychic" influence on relational structures, urging resistance to gendered biology that drives individuals "against the flow of traffic in this life."[135] July advocates for communal reframing of taboos, such as menopause, through open dialogue among women, which builds confidence and reveals shared midlife realities, potentially fostering broader societal acceptance of reinvention over conformity.[117] [135] Involving others remains "scary" and "dangerous" yet vital for human connection, challenging elitist divides between "smart and special" individuals and "regular people" in favor of transformative encounters.[8]

References

  1. Miranda July - IMDb
  2. About – Miranda July
  3. Miranda July: Acclaimed Filmmaker, Artist & Writer
  4. Miranda July - Goodreads
  5. Where to begin with Miranda July | BFI
  6. Richard Grossinger: Biography
  7. Lindy Hough - North Atlantic Books
  8. Miranda July Turns the Lights On | The New Yorker
  9. Me and You and Miranda July and Berkeley - Berkeleyside
  10. Miranda July: 'I had some rough episodes when I was younger
  11. Miranda July: Besting Herself - DAMN Magazine
  12. Miranda July | Art21
  13. Miranda July's new novel 'The First Bad Man' is the latest chapter in ...
  14. Miranda July – the importance of Portland | Another Bouncing Ball
  15. The Music That Made Miranda July | Pitchfork
  16. Anatomy of a Zine: When Magazines Go Indie | TIME
  17. Miranda July on Riot Grrrl | The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage
  18. The CeBe Barnes Band, self-titled 7″ record, released by Horse ...
  19. Margie Ruskie Stops Time | Miranda July with The Need
  20. https://www.discogs.com/release/3220993-The-CeBe-Barns-Band-The-CeBe-Barns-Band
  21. An Interview with Miranda July - Believer Magazine
  22. Miranda July | Spotify
  23. The Binet-Simon Test by Miranda July (Album - Rate Your Music
  24. Only Connect: The Many Lives Of Miranda July - Focus Features
  25. The Binet-Simon Test | Miranda July
  26. NEW SOCIETY - Fondazione Prada
  27. Love Diamond - Miranda July
  28. Miranda July: No One Belongs Here More Than You
  29. Miranda July - The Past and The Future | Huck
  30. Miranda July performs Wexner exhibit finale - The Lantern
  31. Performance Work - Miranda July
  32. Miranda July in “Friends & Strangers” | Art21
  33. Miranda July Shares Her Vintage Feminist Film Archive
  34. Miranda July Videoworks: Volume 1 - DVD Exotica
  35. Miranda July Videoworks: Volume 1 | Video Data Bank
  36. Miranda July – Home
  37. THE AMATEURIST - Miranda July
  38. https://mirandajuly.com/nest-tens-short-film-27-minutes/
  39. https://mirandajuly.com/getting-stronger-everyday-short-video-7-minutes/
  40. Miranda July - Video Data Bank
  41. Miu Miu Women's Tales #8 - Somebody - YouTube
  42. Miranda July on Nichols Canyon | Gagosian Quarterly
  43. Me And You And Everyone We Know - Variety
  44. Me and You and Everyone We Know Awarded “Originality of Vision ...
  45. Me and You and Everyone We Know | Rotten Tomatoes
  46. https://www.criterion.com/films/29112-me-and-you-and-everyone-we-know
  47. The Future - Miranda July
  48. Sundance 2011: Miranda July Steps Into The Future
  49. The Future | Rotten Tomatoes
  50. KAJILLIONAIRE - Miranda July
  51. 'Kajillionaire': Film Review | Sundance 2020 - The Hollywood Reporter
  52. Kajillionaire | Rotten Tomatoes
  53. https://filmmakermagazine.com/19398-the-future-director-miranda-july/
  54. Miranda July on Kajillionaire, Instagram Filmmaking, Creativity and ...
  55. No One Belongs Here More Than You | Book by Miranda July
  56. Miranda July - Granta
  57. No One Belongs Here More Than You: Stories - Amazon.com
  58. No One Belongs Here More Than You - Miranda July
  59. Miranda July (Author of All Fours) - Goodreads
  60. The Metal Bowl | The New Yorker
  61. The First Bad Man | Book by Miranda July | Official Publisher Page
  62. The First Bad Man - Miranda July
  63. The Daily Texture Of Life Becomes Art In 'The First Bad Man' - NPR
  64. She Wrote the First Great Perimenopause Novel
  65. All Fours by Miranda July review – larger than life - The Guardian
  66. Miranda July | Official Publisher Page - Simon & Schuster
  67. It Chooses You - Miranda July
  68. Learning to Love You More - Miranda July
  69. https://www.publishersweekly.com/9783791337333
  70. Doing Nothing Isn't Enough, by Miranda July | The New Yorker
  71. Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005) - IMDb
  72. https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/me-and-you-and-everyone-we-know-2005
  73. The Future (2011) - IMDb
  74. "Portlandia" Cat Nap (TV Episode 2012) - IMDb
  75. Miranda July - YBCA
  76. Margie Ruskie Stops Time, a collaboration with The Need, 7
  77. 10 Million Hours A Mile | Miranda July - The Binet-Simon Test
  78. The Drifters (sound installation), commissioned for ... - Miranda July
  79. Young Filmmaker Tells Hollywood It Can Wait - The New York Times
  80. Sound And Vision: Miranda July - ScreenAnarchy
  81. sound works at le son 7, berlin, germany - Miranda July
  82. Learning To Love You More
  83. Miranda July: Eleven Heavy Things - Los Angeles - MOCA
  84. Somebody: A New Messaging Service by Miranda July - New Museum
  85. Somebody (app) - Miranda July
  86. The Paradox of Belongingness in the Short Fiction of Miranda July
  87. No One Belongs Here More Than You - Loveliest Book Group
  88. Me and You and Everyone We Know | Film Review
  89. On Infinity in Miranda July's 'Me and You and Everyone We Know'
  90. “Kajillionaire,” Reviewed: Miranda July's Astounding Metaphorical ...
  91. Con Artists and Love Stories: Miranda July on Making 'Kajillionaire'
  92. The First Bad Man – Miranda July | Full Stop
  93. Miranda July by Feliz Lucia Molina - BOMB Magazine
  94. https://criterion.com/current/posts/6922-me-and-you-and-everyone-we-know-performance-rites
  95. All Fours Summary, Characters and Themes - Books That Slay
  96. Miranda July's No One Belongs Here More Than You: A Study in Art ...
  97. The Unconventional Writing of Miranda July
  98. Miranda July – doyenne of art-house chic or epitome of trendy ...
  99. Miranda July - United States Artists
  100. Miranda July - The Short Story Project
  101. Miranda July - National Book Foundation
  102. https://substack.com/home/post/p-160815138
  103. Miranda July's All Fours Acquired by STARZ - Vital Thrills
  104. Box Office: Miranda July's “The Future” Leads Strong Batch of Indie ...
  105. Miranda July - Awards - IMDb
  106. Filmmaker Interview: Writer/Director/Actor MIRANDA JULY - SAGindie
  107. Miranda JULY - Festival de Cannes
  108. Announcing the 2025 Guggenheim Fellows
  109. I Have Seen 'The Future', and It Basically Sucks - High-Def Digest
  110. All Fours - The Aurorae Review
  111. All Fours by Miranda July : r/books - Reddit
  112. Movies - review - Me And You And Everyone We Know - BBC
  113. Me and You and Everyone We Know review (2005) Miranda July
  114. Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005) - User reviews - IMDb
  115. No one belongs here more than you by Miranda July - Reddit
  116. Miranda July's Perversely Sentimental New Venture - Observer
  117. Miranda July talks 'All Fours' -- and the risks and rewards of ... - NPR
  118. Miranda July misunderstands Quakers - by Mark Oppenheimer
  119. All Fours by Miranda July | Goodreads
  120. 'The risk was worth it': All Fours author Miranda July on sex, power ...
  121. Miranda July Is Totally Not Kidding - The New York Times
  122. A Love letter by Mike Mills - DCM Stories
  123. Miranda July on Instagram: "Home is several things that seem to ...
  124. 'I was in a kind of ecstatic freefall': artist Miranda July on writing the ...
  125. In Conversation With: Miranda July - ELLE
  126. Miranda July: “I am so happy. I mean, truly not every woman's ...
  127. Miranda July Wrote Herself Out of a Midlife Crisis With 'All Fours'
  128. A two-part interview with Miranda July on love, writing books, babies ...
  129. Standing on the Cliff of Motherhood: On Miranda July's “All Fours”
  130. Whether to have kids (weather to have kids?) - Miranda July | Substack
  131. Your child has just left for their other parent's house
  132. This Is What It's Like to Raise a Gender-Neutral Child - VICE
  133. F.A.M.I.L.Y. (Falling Apart Meanwhile I Love You) – Miranda July
  134. A Celebration of Miranda July's Oddball Parent-Child Relationships
  135. Miranda July on Emotional Honestly, Art-Making ... - The Yale Review
  136. Miranda July: 'There's so much anarchistic potential for self ...
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