Review of The Future (2011) by Nick D — 14 Aug 2011

I think Miranda July has a very singular cinematic style that most people dismiss away as twee, which to me is a very superficial dismissal, because it gets no deeper than her characters softly eccentric clothing and homemade art projects, and ignores the complex webs of relationships she created in "Me, You, And Everyone We Know" and which she creates again in "The Future", which no includes characters that aren't human, and events impossible.

Quitting your job in the worst recession in decades because your a month away from getting a sick kitten that has made you suddenly aware of your impending adulthood/responsibility/death is just as possible as freezing time with your thoughts, talking to the moon, or stepping out of your life and into your fantasy kept suburban wifedom, in the world of "The Future" all things are possible.

Cats are dreaming of life in your house, and imaging how perfect everything there must be, but the future is made of nothing more than dancing-in-your-room youtube videos and door to door solicitations for trees.

But maybe its the looming of the future itself, its shadow across the surface of what responsible lives are supposed to resemble that drives these characters from their simple "twee" little hipster child-lives, into ruin and despair.

But ignoring the future, is no better, nor is trying to make the present stand still. What begins with all the makings of a typical meet-cute sidewinds into magic realist study of fears of parenthood/adulthood(the characters are in their late 30's) like "Eraserhead" dressed as a date movie about kittens, poor sad kittens.

more later...