MOVIES

PREVIEW – Miranda July’s “The Future”

Quick Facts: won a Caméra D’Or at the Cannes Festival and the Special Jury prize at the Berlin Film Festival (both in 2011); shot in Los Angeles and Santa Clarita, Calif.; alternate title: “Satisfaction.”

In an independent film scene which has been stagnant of late filmmaker Miranda July is a breath of fresh air. The Berkeley, California-born, filmmaker who reminds one of a more sprightly Michel Gondry mixed with a dash of Todd Solondz, is also a performance artist and a writer.

We were first introduced to her mad but enticing world of relationships gone afield and quick-thinking observations on daily life in her 2005 debut feature film “Me and You and Everyone We Know” (2005).

Her sophomoric effort “The Future” (which she acts in as well as direct) got great reviews at Sundance, Berlin and SXSW and will be released on July 29.

Sophie (Miranda July) and Jason (Hamish Linklater) live in a small Los Angeles apartment and have jobs they hate. They adopt a sick cat who will need round-the-clock care. Terrified by their impending loss of independence they quit their jobs, disconnect the broadband and set out to pursue their dreams.

But as the month slips away, the two find themselves living in different realities. Sophie and Jason must reunite with time, space and their own souls in order to reconnect. Using elements of magical realism—a talking cat who narrates his own sad tale, a living t-shirt, and strange negotiations with the Moon and stopping time —the film creates its own universe. With bleak but hilarious twists it draws us to the bittersweetness of this moment.