Review of Future Weather (2012) by David S — 05 Feb 2013

In a recent excellent Cinebanter review, the protagonist of this film is described as "depressed about moving in with [her grandmother, after the sudden departure of her mother," and as a bookish adolescent who "turns to science for comfort and becomes borderline paranoid about the state of the ecosystem." While that fine reviewer couldn't recommend the film enough, something about what she said didn't jive with my experience of seeing it at the Hampton International Film Fest, when it was first "unfolding" in the US, an occasion which allowed me to talk to its marvelous director/writer at the conclusion of the show. It was my sense that the film is less about the absolute vulnerability of the dispossessed young than the resilient power & rational flexibility of a consciousness coming of age amid, as James Hansen says, our grandchildren's storms. While there is an emotional (ie., mildly explosive) scene in which the activist-to-be, played expertly by Perla-Haney Jardine, is venting much of the confusion & frustration of a life unsupported, call that moment of high-drama borderline or paranoid almost certainly misses the mark that Miss Deller hoped to leave. My sense of what she was trying to project is that these ARE ecologically profoundly unsupported times & that most of us, "selfishly" walking around in our bubbles---relationships, income, tasks, desires, perhaps most in ascendance---have to be nudged away from our individualist habit(at)s BY some measure of noise & light! Indeed, in the putative scene, the apotheosis of expression that this critic felt exhibited borderline/paranoid behavior actually represents what I would call the budding, intense awareness of a human mouthpiece for a mute problem in a gray period within the history of nature.

Indeed, Miss Deller is a deft and subtle enough writer & film-maker to have been able to weave the socio-economic woes of an adolescent "empirically" grappling with torment into the larger fabric of her cognitive, & finally collegial, culture-passion. It's THIS odyssey, more than out-and-out suffering, that's at the heart of the film: how one starts alone, yet accompanied (eg, the metaphoric maternal classroom), & yet how one thrives by achieving a middle course that's inherently social (if artisanally lonely). The careful observer of the film will note how Lauduree negotiates her many relationships via truth & sincerity, but also how her perspectives on others evolve as she unselfishly realizes the attentive value of specialists, hobbyists, enthusiasts...dare I say, cineastes? That coming-of-age challenge, narratively, was, to my mind, masterfully overcome by an eventual solution to an early riddle the movie poses: to kiss, or to be kissed; or ... well, Whether To Kiss At All! Neither spoiling nor alerting here as to what THAT might mean, but one of the most touching aspects of _Future Weather_ is how mothers almost always find their ways back to their children: however unlikely, however haltingly, however far, futile, or unclasped. And since nurturing is, essentially, what saving the planet or sustaining our life-giving environment is all about, the only thing that remains borderline about this film is the question of whether the mass of humanity will become educated enough---indeed, this is the Light that that disruptive scene takes greatest pains to shed---about the verifiable realities of what's before us. Beyond her own "math/science" background, & what appears to be a generational influence of the technical arts, it's anyone's guess as to where Jenny Deller's windy city vision hails from, or how far it can go in the world. But it doesn't take a rocket scientist (although some, like dear Homer Hickam, blend affectionately with us laity!) to know that absorbing this tale is to become intimate with an experiment in human-science, & that if more impressionable youth attend it, fewer minds entering our workforce or going into public service are likely to remain "hid" among the ignorant, indifferent alcoves of, say, private TV. Indeed, I left more illuminated about the ways of extended family, & more "taught" upon the virtues of Men of Good Advice, than I would had I wasted a sawbuck on _2016: Obama's America_ , another kind of future weather all together! For films that are DESIGNED to brainwash, by turning us so, return us to the unquestioned provinces of all-too-familiar belief.

Now I may be paranoid in thinking that the only real fear we have more than 6 mos. into this "indie" release is that it may not be fully nationally distributed by a studio interested in something more than sex, violence, political intrigue or superheroes. But if there are healthy things to BE paranoid about, then I'm happy to claim such fate as my momentary illness.

~DJS.