FILM REVIEW: The Future

When you hand an artist a crayon they will draw you their world and in Miranda July’s case, her world teeters between the desire to be animalistically wild and domesticatedly digital as illustrated in her new film, The Future. The plot focuses on a thirty-something couple Jason (Hamish Linklater) and Sophie (Miranda July) as they deal with a very relatable mid-life dilemma and its consequences, but its framed through several very surrealistic elements such as the film’s narrator, the couple’s adopted cat Paw Paw who is awaiting the couple’s return at the veterinarian clinic.

Much like July’s first film, the wonderful Me And You And Everyone We Know, the film is infused with her special sense of creativity, humor, and whimsy as the characters deal with their own loneliness, sexuality, and commitment issues in their attempts to find themselves. July wrote and directed the film in addition to starring in the leading role and manages to succeed in producing a very idiosyncratic and original film which prevails even amid its utter strangeness at times. The film was originally born out of one of July’s recent performance pieces and puts July in a class with filmmakers like Spike Jonze and Todd Solondz who manage to marry the avant-garde with the everyday in a signature way. The Future is a film which represents the time we are living in with all its glory and bemusement yet centers on a classic narrative and while your parents may still think it’s too strange your friends are likely to love it.

From: Short&SweetNYC