REVIEWS The Future REVIEWED BY DAVID D’ARCY
What would you do if you had 30 days to wait before adopting a terminally ill cat from an animal shelter? In The Future, a Los Angeles couple finds the lives they choose to live can be as monotonous as the life they decided to escape. Miranda July’s new feature, starring the direc-
tor/writer and Hamish Linklater, is numbing, quirky Sundance fare which also screens in com- petition here in Berlin but could charm her indie fans in the US and Europe. That fanbase will broaden if The Future plays widely at more inter- national festivals, as will the film’s theatrical expo- sure in Europe. In the US, The Future’s future is very much on the arthouse circuit. July and Linklater play Sophie and Jason, a
dance teacher and tech-support helper who live in a tiny apartment and hate their jobs. In planning to adopt a sick cat, they realise it will mean sacrificing their freedom, so they decide to enjoy their time in the month before taking home the animal. In her script, July targets a generational
dilemma epitomised by the life and anxieties of Sophie and Jason. How do young people who haven’t lived the lives they wanted to live do so as they face the inevitability of ageing? To bring a new perspective to these perennial questions, July includes narration by the ailing cat,
COMPETITION
US. 2011. 91mins Director/screenplay Miranda July Production companies Razor Film, GNK Productions, Film4, The Match Factory, Haut et Court, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, FFA International sales The Match Factory, www.
the-match-factory.com Producers Gina Kwon, Roman Paul, Gerhard Meixner Cinematography Nikolai von Graevenitz Production designer Elliott Hostetter Editor Andrew Bird Music Jon Brion Main cast Miranda July, Hamish Linklater, David Warshofsky, Isabella Acres, Joe Putterlik
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Paw Paw, in a high, scratchy voice. It reminds you that cats which talk to people can be more annoy- ing than people who talk to cats. July and Linklater bring a mundane realism to
their portrait of the couple, yet the film meanders when their efforts to redefine themselves step into surrealism, with Sophie initiating an affair with a 50-ish man and Jason seeking the counsel of a widower who composes erotic limericks. Instead of the wonderment of small moments,
most of what we get is the banality. Close-ups give the audience plenty of opportunities to explore the subtleties of July’s facial expressions. July is also
appealing when she talks to the camera of Sophie’s perplexity and acts out the frustrations of a dancer who struggles to put her movements on YouTube. Yet The Future gives us fatalism, rather than the
delicate freshness of her first feature, Me And You And Everyone We Know (2005), while cinemato- grapher Nikolai von Graevenitz gives the couple’s torpor an appropriately gauzy look. Meanwhile, production designer Elliott Hostetter gets the Los Angeles atmosphere just right.
SCREEN SCORE BETA CINEMA AT EFM 2011 COLOURS IN THE DARK
Anita and Fred, happily married for 50 years, need to start imagining their ending in an uncompromising way.
DIRECTOR Sophie Heldman CAST
Bruno Ganz, Senta Berger, Barnaby Metschurat, Carina Wiese, Leonie Benesch
SCREENINGS
TODAY | Feb 12th | 3:00 p.m. | CinemaxX 12 Monday | Feb 14th | 9:30 a.m. | CinemaxX 12
“Bruno Ganz and Senta Berger are wonderful together”
★
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n 20 Screen International in Berlin February 12, 2011
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