The Future (2011)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Audio Commentary-Director Miranda July Featurette-Making Of-Making the Future (15.47) Deleted Scenes-A Deleted Scene (2.53) Theatrical Trailer-(2.20)
Rating
Year Of Production	2011
Running Time	87:00
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Miranda July
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Miranda July Hamish Linklater David Warshofsky Isabella Acres Joe Putterlik Angela Trimbur Mary Passeri
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	?	Music	Jon Brion

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     When a film begins with a black screen and a voice over narration by a talking cat you know you are in for an unusual experience. Actually, you probably know you are watching a Miranda July movie. For July, who has her lovers and haters in equal measure, is one of the most quirky voices in American cinema. Her 2005 film Me, You and Everyone We Know introduced us to the July persona, a struggling artist whose work may be brilliant or bad, depending on how you look at it. The Future, her latest film doesn't buck that trend.

     July, real name Miranda Jennifer Grossinger, is essentially a performance artist.The Future emerged from some scenes in her one-woman performance Things We Don't Understand and Definitely Won't be Talking About. It is written and directed by July with her performing the lead role (and the cat!). July acknowledges that she is supremely controlling when it comes to her films. At least it means that the success or failure of the film can't be blamed on other hands. By ordinary economic standards The Future was a failure, securing only half of its miniscule budget back at the box office. Creatively it is one of the most debated films of last year, along with The Tree of Life. Is it a lazy , self-absorbed hipster bore or a sparkling thoughtful meditation on relationships? In my view the latter but I can't criticize anyone who simply hates the film.

     The talking cat, Paw-Paw, tells us that she is injured and in an animal hospital. But a nice couple Sophie (July) and Jason (Hamish Linklater) are adopting her. Jason and Sophie have been together 4 years. Neither is quite where they want to be in their working lives. Sophie teaches dance to kids at a LA strip-mall dance studio and Jason is an outsourced help desk operator for an IT company. Adopting Paw-Paw is the first big step towards responsibility in their relationship. It is a temporary step though. Though Paw-Paw is having an operation on her leg they are told that kidney failure will mean that her little life will be cut short in 6 months ... tops.

     When the pair arrive at the animal hospital they get a double shock. Paw-Paw still needs 30 days to recover and the pair will need to keep to a detailed medication regime to keep her healthy. What is more, with love and bonding she might live another 5 years! The fact that their commitment may last for years and not months throws the pair into a reconsideration of their lives. They determine to do something special in the 30 days until Paw-Paw arrives.

     Jason is accosted by a Save the Trees campaigner in the street and becomes a door-to-door evangelist, albeit sometimes half-hearted, for the greening of LA. Sophie observes a work colleagues' You Tube booty shaking dance and decides to set herself an art project - to create 30 Dances in 30 Days. Trouble is ... she can't get past day one.

     Whilst at the animal hospital Jason bought a picture of a young girl and briefly met her father Marshall (David Warshovsky). His number is on the back of the painting and Sophie calls it and begins a relationship with this very normal older man. It is a relationship where absolutely nothing is expected of her. Jason has his own "relationship", befriending an old man (non-actor Joe Putterlik) who was selling a hair dryer in the Penny Saver magazine.

     What will happen in the future? Will Paw-Paw, who dispenses, in puppet form, words of wisdom throughout the film, be re-united with the couple? Will they even be a couple? Will Sophie live a new life with Marshall or will Jason be able to stop time and prevent her from living that life?

     Beneath the whimsy of the inventions - talking cats, talking moons, ambulatory t-shirts, an ability on the part of Jason to stop time is the stone cold sadness of a couple whose lives are adrift. Their expectations, hopes and dreams are all unmet and the future looks like more of the same. The voice-over narration which on its face is twee, with puppet cats paws (including a bandaged one), is philosophical in its intent. This cat knows what it is like to be "outside", in the dark. Many of the critics of the film, whose voices flame the IMDB message boards, criticize the film for its main creations, a pair of drippy hipsters, as though July is asking us to look at them as heroes rather than impossibly damaged goods. To an extent the film compares with the early works of Laurie Anderson where the everyday, looked at from a different angle, becomes dark and threatening.

     July is not really an actor so much as an intriguing presence. Linklater looks like a male reflection of July.Having recently seen him on Broadway in the lead in Seminar (though Alan Rickman in support got the marquee and greatest applause) he is a gifted and eminently watchable young actor. His Jason is a sad faced hipster who realizes that stopping time doesn't bring his woman back.

     The Future is a joy for many reasons. It has the July quirk all over it. Think of a more serious Flight of the Conchords for the very dry humour at the heart of the film. Then combine it with the flights of fancy of Spike Jonze to get an idea how this film progresses. Finally, make it seem quirky and funny on the surface and yet chilled at the core and you have a film that is sometimes difficult to engage with but stays in your memory for days afterwards. As I write I am still trying to work through the film in my head. A tribute to its wonderful maddening effect!

Video

     The Future was shot on the high definition digital RED Camera. It was projected in the cinema at a 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The film comes to DVD in that ratio. It is 16x9 enhanced.

     The film looks excellent despite its miniscule budget. The colours are clear and stable though the colour palette is decidedly on the drab side, a monotone look for monotone lives. The level of detail is pleasing with a sharp transfer and accurate flesh tones.

     There are no subtitles. A pity as the film would have benefitted from them.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
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Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     The core soundtrack for The Future is an English Dolby Digital 5.1 running at 448 Kb/s. This is more than adequate for what is essentially a talk piece. There is not a great deal for the surrounds or the sub-woofer which is reflective of the nature of the film and not a defect of the transfer.

     The dialogue of the film is amazing so it is a pity that it is sometimes lost in the mumbles. Without subtitles it is difficult to find out what was lost. I suspect this was a problem in the cinema too.

     The score is by Jon Brion and consists of small snippets of themes and tones which are quite affecting in their simplicity. July played some of the music although she admits she can't play music.

     There are no technical problems with the sound.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

     There are some interesting extras added to this package.

Audio Commentary - Director Miranda July

     Has there ever been a funnier start to a DVD commentary (July's first) than this one? Beginning to talk she warns the viewers that they are listening to the commentary and not the film, otherwise they may think this is one of those avant garde films where the director does a voice over at the beginning. The she catches herself and says that actually she does do a voice over at the beginning though as a cat!

     July is just as quirky in real life as in her films and the commentary is different from the norm. She does explain the process of getting the film made, pointing out that the German funding meant that a lot of the small roles were German actors, as well as the development of the script. The small things, like pieces of furniture, interest July and she speaks at length about the involvement of non-actor Putterlik, now sadly deceased, who she met through an ad in the Penny Saver.

A Deleted Scene

     This is more than a simple deleted scene. Running for a few minutes it has a life and meaning of its own. Entitled "A Handy Tip for the Easily Distracted" July has fleshed it out, with a musical score. In it Sophie sets up an elaborate trap to prevent her from being distracted by the normal attractants of everyday life - phone, laptop. July says that she cut it from the film because people didn't understand, without the title cards, what Sophie was up to.

Making the Future

     An interesting Making of featurette this consists of interviews with the key cast and some on-set footage. It also features some excerpts from July's stage shows.

Theatrical Trailer

     Features a fair bit of Paw-Paw.

  The Region 1 release has the same features.

     The Future will appeal to devotees of Miranda July and yet there is something about the film which is unnerving. Key critics, like Jonathan Rosenbaum and Anthony Lane, struggle with the work as if it was an alien artefact. What can be agreed upon is that July has an unique voice.

     The film looks and sounds fine though subtitles would have made some of the mumblecore aspects of the film a little easier to follow.

     The extras are interesting and worthwhile.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall