Review of The Future (2011) by Nikolai E — 01 Mar 2012

Ordinarily, I wouldn't give a film three stars that I could best sum up in one word as "insufferable," just as ordinarily I would assume that if I grow to loathe and despise the main characters of a film, I should take it that was not the reaction intended by the filmmaker, but 'The Future' is from a planet where they have no word for ordinary.

I'm not saying that's a good thing, but it's pretty clear from frame 1, so at least you know what you're getting into. So, I hated everything about the characters, I hated having to watch them awkwardly attempt to manufacture a listless, boring midlife crisis because they're bored of their listless, boring, awkward lives.

And yet the film is structured so deliberately to invoke these feelings, I have to take it that this was the point, that people like this aren't romantic bohemians who refuse to participate in an exploitative, amoral society, they're just too neurotic and self-obsessed to function outside of their tiny niche or do anything useful for anyone.

It seems kind of depressing, but heck, maybe a few narcissistic slackers will benefit from the wake-up call. But the film has less interesting problems as well, it's either too surreal or not surreal enough, so the surreal aspects sometimes seem crammed in rather than emerging organically.

It also never feels real, maybe it's the pervasive tone of gentle twee preciousness, but the author's hand is felt too strongly for the 'realistic' scenes to escape contrivance, so there's no real contrast when the surreal stuff begins happening.

But if you have a basic aversion to this film because you hate pretentious aging hipster slackers, don't worry, you've already met it halfway.