The entirety of 10 Million Hours a Mile is disturbing, with no letup in its onslaught of faceless children on tricycles, creepy peep-show customers, and unhappy family members who want to kill each other. Filmmaker, playwright, and editor of the zine Snarla,
Miranda July sports a blond, frizzed-out Afro and a very dark, ugly view of the world.
July can do a wide range of voices and characters, and her monologues are entertaining in a look-at-that-clown-passed-out-in-his-own-vomit sort of way. "How's My Driving?" is an exhilarating 11-minute-long piece that builds to a Twilight Zone-like ending, where Rachel Carns of
Kicking Giant and the Need pounds out a frantic drumbeat, while
July debates the merits of driving or walking. "While I'm driving I always know that I'm going to die in a car crash and that's so simple. It just makes me feel relaxed, like I can be myself," she says. "Hotel Voulez-Vous," the least creepy track, is about a child trying to prevent his parents from having him by telling them beforehand that it's a bad idea.
Miranda July will undoubtedly inspire listeners to hop on the rickety carnival roller coaster that might very well kill them. ~ Adam Bregman