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| Miranda July's "The Future"/Courtesy of Roadside Attractions |
Opening today (August 5, 2011) at the ArcLight, Hollywood.
All romantic relationships evolve. When there’s a crisis, there’s also drama. Performance artist, author, blogger, screenwriter and director Miranda July’s second film "The Future" investigates one of those pivotal moments couple’s face: when the future seems pre-destined and mapped out. Her approach, mixing abstract and literal, with sci-fi elements and a very engaging talking cat that narrates throughout, results in an original film that’s hard to summarize but emotionally true.
Although some of the film’s pivotal scenes were filmed just south of Sunset on Parkman Avenue, July does not try to make the Silver Lake location or the city a character in the film. Rather, "The Future" stays internalized and focused on character. “I’m never a huge place person,” she said. “I can barely find my way around and I’ve been here for seven years,” said July, who lives in Silver Lake. She finds it telling that when the film’s location changes to Tarzana, “it could seem like another planet. And that’s so L.A., and is so different.”
Inspiration for the film came from a sudden break-up and the utter devastation of being broken up with. The desire to stop time was a feeling that July wanted to address. “While nothing in the movie is literally true, I was trying to capture the anxiety of those new feelings and the finiteness of time,” she said.
Perhaps the most fantastical element to the film is a talking cat named Paw Paw, whose predicament weaves the film together. Paw Paw is quite the memorable feline. Protected by her own enthusiasm, July felt pretty bold about her talking cat. “You can’t hide it or downplay it,” she surmises. “And now we have the cat in the trailer.”
