The Future (2011)

Excellent but underrated film

The acting in this movie is really good.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

And like grit in the oyster. We get a pearl, but i don't think this movie is the pearl, instead check out the semi-companion book, "It Chooses You" which deals with her trafficking in the PennySaver (is that really still going in LA?) Or really trafficking with the people who traffic in the PennySaver, including a wonderful story of the non-actor in the film who tries to sell a used hair-drier. He died during the making of the film, but his memory, as captured by Miranda describing her visits to him, will live forever (well in my short forever at least).It sounds like Miranda went through a rough break-up, and I think used this film as a cathartic release (or aimed the arrow at herself) but the cheating that happens here feels wrong and stupid, perhaps like all cheating, and the fact that the couple seem like Yin and Yang matching Miranda's, I don't know just felt like talking to someone who went through a bad breakup and there's nothing you can do.And I don't normally associate Miranda with any form of hopelessness. But this film has it in buckets.There are plenty of quick quirky bits that you expect from her, as she retains her precociousness into the precarious air of middle age. That seems as wrong as someone cheating on Ms. July....Of course there is still the orange sweater/shirt dance, that's like some kind of Noh ritual. And reading the messages board here, and the concern over the cat as a barometer to seeing the movie after seeing a preview is something that feels like Miranda would value (and maybe she anonymously included some comments herself).Not since Schrodinger's cat has so much importance hung on a feline.Maybe Miranda can make a film where homeless people become pets? That might raise the hope levels around here?

I can't decide if this film was good or horrible, the problem is that which way i sway depends on Miranda July's intentions. If she set out to make a story about two of the most loathsome characters not in a horror movie, whom you want to end up together, solely so that they have to suffer each other for the remainder of their days. with the added extra that you feel compelled to punch the next hipster you come across, then she has done a very good job. However, I can't shake the feeling that although she was intending for the couple to be unlikable, she did want us to have some level of sympathy for them. Sorry, not feeling a thing. The only person i felt sorry for was the daughter of Marshall, and the cat obviously. The cat is the star, and Ms July shows her talent with the way she presents it's thoughts and moods. So if she was trying to highlight the human race as a plague upon the Earth, then kudos to you. Otherwise, stop the world, i want to get off.

A retarded couple decide to adopt a cat and arrange to collect one from a sanctuary in a month's time when it has finished medical treatment. They are warned that if they fail to collect on time it will be euthenized. Realising that this awesome responsibility will mean the end of their old lives they decide to live the next month as if it is their last. He quits his old job and finds an even worse one, while she quits hers and seeks fame as an internet sensation, failing miserably. She either consoles or punishes herself for this with a shallow sexual relationship with an older creep who makes his young daughter dig her own grave then buries her in it up to her neck at night. Her depressed boyfriend consoles himself by confiding in an octogenarian philosopher, and the moon. They are both so absorbed by their own pathetic little problems that they miss the deadline and the cat is put down.The cat knows nothing of any of this, only that it is going to be adopted some time in the near future. In its occasional monologues to us it describes its joy at knowing that soon it will be taken home by a kind, caring couple and that it will never be cold, or wet, or hungry, or lonely ever again. After death it describes its surprise at finding itself, in spirit, still in the same cage, apparently for ever.I'm a cat lover and this broke my heart. As soon as the film finished I found my cats and made a huge fuss of them to cheer myself up. They thought I had gone soft in the head.Samuel Becket wrote plays about people like this, infuriating because of their inertia, their complete inability to move forward with their lives and find joy, or even authentic misery. His plays only make sense to me if I decide that these are not characters but thoughts inside someone's head. His plays are about unproductive thought, the ideas that stop us from finding the will power to seize control of our own lives and instead make us weak and passive. The pathetic 30-something couple are a circular internal monologue that cannot be defeated through discourse, an ego game that can only be abandoned altogether by an act of will. The cat is a baby, a better job, a better house, a move to another town, or anything that promises the possibility of change, unless it is forgotten about because the thinker cannot rise above his/her ego games.The cat is The Future.Cat lovers: does that help you to feel any better?

Directed, scripted and starring by Miranda July, The Future is a film that has been selected for the Berlin Film Festival in 2011 and the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.The story revolves around a couple that proposes a change in your life. They hate their jobs and the idea of adopting a cat makes it arise a new way of life. However what is proposed as a change eventually becomes routine. The fear of failure and responsibility makes the personality of both becomes complicated and often result surreal. The time is always the reason for the changes. The fear of an uncertain future and nonconformity with the present makes it parodies on numerous occasions the fact of stop the time. Specifically, the period in which Sophie and Jason are prepared to adopt a cat is the time when the personality of both becomes strange. There are surreal elements and nonsense conversations that show complex emotional states. The failure in work and routine makes Sophie feel prisoner to her feelings. The figure of Sophie has no splendor. It is a figure off and apparently weak. Her look is sad and never denotes happiness. In the same way the character of Jason is strange. He is the partner of Sophie and lives with her in a small flat and messy. His way of understanding things is similar to Sophie. Both fear the passage of time and want to be free. Marshall's character represents the freedom for Sophie. The way in which both are known is strange and simultaneously comic. Sophie looks out the window screaming and tries to listen to Marshall. The scene reflects a comparison: Sophie appears as imprisoned in her own home and as the only escape she has the window that looks out for help. The fact that the cat, paw paw, has a voice allowed to know their feelings and desires. The image is of an animal that is locked behind bars waiting for a change in his life, hoping in this case to be adopted. The comparison is similar to Sophie. Both are locked and desire freedom. The passing of time is also reflected in this character and appear feelings like frustration or even desperation to be adopted.It's a surreal and complex film. The argument at first is easy but when the acts are performed we can see each character's feelings. We can see a lot of nonsense and abstract scenes. Adopting a pet is just an excuse for the change. I would like to highlight the rhetorical conversations about the passing of time, old age or the future. Personally I find this film hard to understand. There are many situations that make no sense as the act of talking to the moon, giving life to a shirt or the fact stop time. I think film is not made to be enjoyed, but it raises very philosophical thoughts on life. The emotional charge of the characters leads to surreal situations and even extravagant. These situations, in my opinion, have more weight than the argument itself.