In 2005, performance artist Miranda July made waves at Sundance with her film Me and You and Everyone We Know, which deservedly won a jury prize for “Originality of Vision.” This year’s Sundance marks her highly-anticipated return with The Future, an even odder but equally unique look at human nature and life in California.
July and Hamish Linklater play Sophie and Jason, a long-married couple who have fallen into a rut and feel they want to do something for their future. Instead of trying to have a baby, they’ve decided to get a cat, but the one they find has an injured paw and has to remain in the hospital for a month. While they wait for it, he takes a job as a door-to-door environmental advocate and she starts having an affair.
The fact we’re able to compress the film’s complex plot into a couple sentences is quite astounding as there’s a lot more to what the duo get into in trying to create something for themselves, but with fewer characters than July’s first film, The Future allows her to focus on these two very specific people. It also delves into science fiction territory at times, though it’s done, as with everything July does, in a truly unique way. The fact that much of the film is narrated by the cat should be a giveaway.
ComingSoon.net sat down with Ms. July the day after the film’s premiere for the video interview below.
