THE FUTURE

The Future, written and directed by the elastic-limbed, indie enfant terrible Miranda July, is a solemn and eerie treatise on growing old but staying still; on death, isolation and disillusionment; all told with July’s characteristic joie de bizarreness. Couple Sophie (played by July herself) and Jason (Hamish Linklater) adopt a cat, Paw-Paw, but have to leave it with the vet for a month while it recuperates from an operation. The Future is told from the perspective of the feline, narrated in July’s raspy, childlike drawl. Paw-Paw watches as the couple resolve to give up the internet until their pet is returned; as they slowly drift apart in search of new meaning for their days; as one embarks on an affair, the other a friendship with a moon-faced, elderly widower selling appliances. Much like time, The Future is unstable, full of trickeries and sometimes prone to dreariness and melancholic optimism. But at its heart is something pure and touching. (AB) ****