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The Future

United States, Germany

2011

91 Min
Color
1.85:1
English
  • Currently 3.3/5 Stars.
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DIR Miranda July

EXEC Sue Bruce Smith

PROD Gina Kwon, Gerhard Meixner, Roman Paul

SCR Miranda July

DP Nikolai von Graevenitz

CAST Miranda July, Hamish Linklater, David Warshofsky, Isabella Acres, Joe Putterlik, Angela Trimbur, Mary Passeri, Kathleen Gati, Oona Mekas, Erinn K. Williams

ED Andrew Bird

PROD DES Elliott Hostetter

MUSIC Jon Brion

Berlinale (Competition), Sundance (Premieres), San Francisco (New Directors), Melbourne (International Panorama), Helsinki (Indie Jewels), London (Film on the Square), Stockholm (Competition), Ghent (Competition), São Paulo (New Directors), Mar del Plata (Busco mi destino), CPH PIX (American Indies)

Synopsis

The Future begins one afternoon on a sofa. Sophie and Jason, a 30-something couple in Los Angeles, realize that in one month, their lives will change radically when they pick up a stray cat they’re adopting. Wanting to take advantage of their fleeting freedom, they quit their jobs, disconnect their Internet, and pursue new interests, all of which literally alter the course of time and space and test their faith in each other and themselves.

Miranda July’s work slips and slides whenever you try to pin it down. A truly original voice, she has an uncanny intuition for playful, figurative storytelling. The Future is narrated by a cat. One night Jason freezes time and talks with the moon. Sophie decides to settle with an older man in suburbia as if she were shopping for a potential future: trying it on to see if it fits. An exhilarating, funny, and wildly inventive second feature, The Future reflects a profound understanding of the existential fears that accompany relationships. –Sundance Film Festival

Director

Original

Miranda July

Miranda July is a filmmaker, artist, and writer. Her videos, performances, and web-based projects have been presented at sites such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum and in two Whitney Biennials. July wrote, directed and starred in her first feature-length film, Me and You and Everyone We Know(2005), which won a special jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival and the Camera d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Her fiction has appeared in The Paris Review, Harper’s, and The New Yorker, and her collection of stories, No One Belongs Here More Than You, (Scribner, 2007) won the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. In 2002 July created the participatory website, learningtoloveyoumore, with artist Harrell Fletcher, and a companion book was published in 2007 (Prestel). Eleven Heavy Things, an interactive sculpture garden she designed for the 2009 Venice Biennale, is on view in Union Square in New York for the summer of 2010. Raised in Berkeley, California, she currently… read more

Wall

Displaying 4 of 70 wall posts.
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Christopher Smith

4May12

Another ambitious feature does a good job of blending an insightful, character-driven relationship drama with some more fantastical elements - though the talking cat did get cloying at times. July and Hamish Linklater are strong in the leads, and there are a number of fine moments of playful surrealism. Not for everyone, but indie fans with a taste for the absurd should enjoy it. Great score by Jon Brion.

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Ally

17Apr12

Miranda July is a particular type of writer for certain types of people, but once you get into her swing of things, the symbolism in The Future becomes really stunning, especially that which portrayed the indecisiveness and tragedy of life, commitment, and fading youth. The strong parts of the film, though, was the narration of PawPaw and the portrayal of relationships that are at a turning point.

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elouise1979

5Apr12

it has some very important issues of relationships in it but the cat part made a bit too sad. i mean it describes well the fear of commitment, how we're scared of getting bored, how we want to be adored and how we need attention etc. in the first half i was like: are you serious? but i changed my mind during the middle and it's not such a bad movie afterall. it has very good points.

Picture of hakaima sadamitsu

hakaima sadamitsu

26Mar12

Kinda disapointed, but not really a bad Movie. Linklater was really good and the script is actually pretty interesting, but that paw paw shit almost ruined it for me. Also, Miranda can't fucking act. It doesn't get anywhere near her debut feature film.

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Fans

Displaying 5 of 346 fans.

Articles

Our roundup of essays and articles on this film.
W184

Notebook Reviews: Miranda July's "The Future"

By Fernando F. Croce on August 6, 2011

Arguably the strangest study of artistic and parental anxiety since Eraserhead.

read article
W184

Sundance + Berlinale 2011. Miranda July's "The Future"

By David Hudson on January 23, 2011

"Miranda July's new feature The Future revolves around a talking cat, a precocious little girl, a single father, a wise old man, and a hipster

read article
W184

Berlinale 2011. First 8 Films

By David Hudson on December 15, 2010

Ralph Fiennes's adaptation of Shakespeare's Coriolanus is among six world premieres in the first round of Competition titles in the Berlinale

read article

Indie Comedy Auteur Miranda July Has An Eye On THE FUTURE

By Twitchfilm.com on December 17, 2011
Writer-director-star Miranda July made a big impression with her 2005 debut Me And You And Everyone We Know, one of the more awkward romantic comedies of recent years, and now the auteur of clumsy relationships
read on Twitchfilm.com

SFF 2011 Day 5 - Trailer of the Day is THE FUTURE

By Twitchfilm.com on December 17, 2011
Today’s pick for the Sydney Film Festival Trailer of the Day is Miranda July’s quirky THE FUTURE. Here’s what the SFF Program says about the film: Captivating filmmaker, performer and video artist Miranda
read on Twitchfilm.com

MIFF11 - THE FUTURE Review

By Twitchfilm.com on December 16, 2011
The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) is in its glorious 60th year and if the initial below is a review for just one of many diverse films screening. Two disenfranchised people in their mid
read on Twitchfilm.com

THE FUTURE Review

By Twitchfilm.com on December 16, 2011
A couple of weeks ago, I was having brunch with my wife at this German place we know. Some waitstaff’s ipod mix was playing through the speakers and a familiar song caught our attention. It was ’Where
read on Twitchfilm.com

THE FUTURE Review

By Twitchfilm.com on October 23, 2011
In 1992, Leonard Cohen saw The Future, and it was murder. Today, almost twenty years later, we can partake in Miranda July’s vision of The Future, and see that while Cohen certainly wasn’t wrong, the days
read on Twitchfilm.com

SXSW 2011: THE FUTURE Review

By Twitchfilm.com on May 17, 2011
[With Miranda July’s The Future now playing at SXSW we revisit Shelagh Rowan-Legg’s previous review.]Miranda July has a fascination for strangers, and how the comforts of the ordinary life perhaps become
read on Twitchfilm.com

Save the Cat in the Official Trailer for Miranda July's THE FUTURE

By Twitchfilm.com on May 16, 2011
The official trailer has launched at Apple for Miranda July’s adult angst indie The Future. The film, which co-stars Hamish Linklater alongside Ms. July, was a hit at Sundance where Roadside Attractions
read on Twitchfilm.com

Lists

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Reviews

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Mixed Reviews; Beginning of the Future

By Elvia Francis on March 15, 2012

“The Future is, ironically enough, about the present and the longing for the future, rather than the future itself. One line that you’ll find in the trailer is when an old man tells Jason (played by…  read review

Disappointing

By MR. Univers​e on March 5, 2012

When a couple decides to adopt a stray cat their perspective on life changes radically, literally altering the course of time and space and testing their faith in each other and themselves.

  read review

Forum

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Miranda July film

44 posts by 19 people 4 months ago

Miranda July

7 posts by 6 people about 1 year ago