Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

SunnyHello Nice effects though.

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

ThurstonHunger And like grit in the oyster. We get a pearl, but i don't think this movie is the pearl, instead check out the semi-companion book, "It Chooses You" which deals with her trafficking in the PennySaver (is that really still going in LA?) Or really trafficking with the people who traffic in the PennySaver, including a wonderful story of the non-actor in the film who tries to sell a used hair-drier. He died during the making of the film, but his memory, as captured by Miranda describing her visits to him, will live forever (well in my short forever at least).It sounds like Miranda went through a rough break-up, and I think used this film as a cathartic release (or aimed the arrow at herself) but the cheating that happens here feels wrong and stupid, perhaps like all cheating, and the fact that the couple seem like Yin and Yang matching Miranda's, I don't know just felt like talking to someone who went through a bad breakup and there's nothing you can do.And I don't normally associate Miranda with any form of hopelessness. But this film has it in buckets.There are plenty of quick quirky bits that you expect from her, as she retains her precociousness into the precarious air of middle age. That seems as wrong as someone cheating on Ms. July....Of course there is still the orange sweater/shirt dance, that's like some kind of Noh ritual. And reading the messages board here, and the concern over the cat as a barometer to seeing the movie after seeing a preview is something that feels like Miranda would value (and maybe she anonymously included some comments herself).Not since Schrodinger's cat has so much importance hung on a feline.Maybe Miranda can make a film where homeless people become pets? That might raise the hope levels around here?

Rob_Taylor So, I need to stop watching these so-called "art" films. They inevitably make me hate them, no matter what the supposed subject materiel is.This, I think is why I have a problem with them: They are uniformly marketed as something other than what they are. In the case of "The Future", the synopsis is this:"When a couple decides to adopt a stray cat their perspective on life changes radically, literally altering the course of time and space and testing their faith in each other and themselves."It's also billed as a scifi movie, and the synopsis seems to support that. It all sounds quite interesting, right?Wrong! This movie doesn't deserve to wear the label scifi. There's no science in it and the only fiction is in the horribly bad marketing. So I should blame the distributors for how bad this movie is, I guess?Wrong! The blame for this mess really needs to lie with Miranda July. I've never come across her work before and now, I guarantee I'll never do so again. Writer, Actor, Director. She's all those things in this movie and it shows.... Shows that some people should stick to one thing and not try to Doc Savage their life and be fantastic at everything, because, quite frankly, she isn't up to the jobs.The writing is childish because the characters are intensely unlikeable. I suspect that may be the point - to make the audience hate them, but making unlikeable characters only accomplishes one thing in any form of storytelling - to alienate the audience. Once you've done that, it doesn't matter what the rest of the story is about, because the viewer just doesn't care.Her acting is also weak. I understand this was her vision and by donning all these hats she got to make it how she wanted, but damn! As far as entertainment goes, this wasn't so much of a dropped ball as more of a ball punted into the distance off a cliff! It's pretentious nonsense full of "clever" symbolism, using the cat as a kind of conscience for the characters. However, the two characters could never exist in reality because of their inherent flaws. They would never succeed at anything, even surviving to adulthood would be beyond them! To call them ineffectual would be liking suggesting that a saucepan made out of chocolate would be fantastic! And, like that saucepan, the characters would not last long.There's nothing here that fits the traditional role of a movie. I'm beginning to suspect that film isn't a proper medium for such efforts. Whether that will dissuade Ms. July from further stunningly boring efforts to make a point to an audience that mostly just wants to be entertained is anyone's guess. I doubt it.It also galls me that scifi (my favourite genre) is being saddled by these movies since it allows the writer/director to apparently throw any crazy sh*t at the screen and hope it sticks. That isn't what scifi is about!All in all, if you are looking for an entertaining movie, don't stop here! You'll be disappointed. If, on the other hand, you are looking to throw away ninety minutes of your existence in an unsatisfying endeavour, I would suggest going to the coast and commanding the rising tide to turn back would be more fruitful than watching this "film".And now, in the interest of balanced reporting...SUMMARY FOR ART LOVERS: A wonderful exploration of the neuroses of two desperately unhappy people, with commentary by their cat. Woot!SUMMARY FOR NORMAL FILM-GOERS: Unsatisfying, pretentious drivel featuring hateful characters and leading to a frustrating and deeply annoying end. Trim your toe nails instead.

Henny Morgan I watched this last night with no expectations, only the brief synopsis given. My history with 'quirky' indie dramas has been pretty hit (Napolean Dynamite) and miss (Eagle Vs. Shark), but i can happily count this oddly charming and original work among the hits.WRITING: Written by (, directed by and starring) Miranda July, the script plays interestingly with the themes of the passing of time, preserving what time we have, and creating your own, while crossing seamlessly between drama, psycho-study, romance and no-frills sci-fi. This is pulled off very well, as you see the characters, spaces and events around the protagonists reflecting the way the feel, the way they want to feel, and the way they appear, all the while mixing up the continuity of the time they see passing before them. There is genuine emotion in the writing, most significantly is the heart-wrenching plot point involving the waiting a cat must do before adoption, possibly the most engaging part of the film. However, the main character (Sophie) is quite unlikable, and so we sometimes lose focus of why she is doing what she is, and occasionally the script falls into traditional indie clichés like vague existentialist conversation and quirky character habits, but these matter little in an overall very well written piece.CAST: There were no performances that were noticeably bad, but only one that stood out to me above the rest. All the supporting performances were good, including a very endearing Joe Putterlik (I believe this was his only acting performance, but he does a great job). Miranda July is watchable, but as her character is so unlikable, it is difficult to really feel for her, although her turn as the voice of the cat is very good, and this is where her performance really kicks up a notch. The far and away best performance however is from Hamish Linklater, who evokes genuine sympathy for the care-free yet somehow stressed layabout he portrays.DIRECTING: Not a whole lot was really stand-out, but not badly directed. This is where the majority of the indie feeling comes from, and at times it feels overwhelmingly indie-ish, with drained colours and strange imagery, which is once again pretty hit & miss, as i felt occasionally uncomfortable, but quite often amused. But once again, the best part was the story of the cat, which is shot in long takes of its paws, and what it sees through the bars of its cage.OVERALL: These parts add up to an unconventional, relaxing, but engaging drama that takes a little while to warm up to, but contains very impressive writing, a great performance from Linklater, but most importantly the highly emotional internal monologue of a cat.

MaximumMadness Miranda July. I have a lot of respect for her as a human and an artist. She's a fantastic example of a strong-willed female artist (something the world takes for granted), and she has an admirable body of work behind her. But her filmmaking has left something of a sour taste in my mouth, mainly personified by her second feature-film, the subject of this review- "The Future."The film is an example of something I've noticed over the past few years, mainly following the phenomenal film "Juno" by Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody. I call it "Indie Syndrome", where films try too hard to be quirky and of an "Indie" mindset. And it shows and hurts a lot of films. (Particularly movies like "(500) Days of Summer", which tried so hard, it felt like a parody of the "indie" style.)July stars as Sophie, and Hamish Linklater stars as Jason, Sophie's boyfriend. They are essentially a self-absorbed, self-important, self-promoting, pretentious couple. They're the sort of people who think their crud don't stink, and think that life as they know it ends at 40. The main conflict of the story begins when they rescue a cat (off screen) that they name "Paw Paw", whom is staying at the vet clinic for a month. Sophie and Jason plan to return after the cat's stay at the clinic to adopt him, but in the meantime, they become over-fascinated and over-fearful of the idea and responsibility of caring for another living thing. Things are exacerbated by the fact that if they don't adopt, Paw Paw will be put to sleep due to overcrowding, turning the poor cat into a sort of McGuffin/Time Bomb story thread.In the meantime, while trying to re-evaluate their lives and relationship and responsibility, a series of increasingly bizarre vignettes, skits and sub-plots commence, which is where the movie falls apart. Everything from Sophie cheating on Jason, to a bizarre living t-shirt that she sees crawling along the road, to a humorous but overblown subplot about Sophie starting a YouTube dancing video series is explored. But too much of it doesn't gel together, and feels forced.All the while, the film occasionally cuts back to Paw Paw (actually at times a human being in a cat costume for no real reason), who narrates the story in an insidiously strange, high-pitched voice using simple, child-like logic and language. (Although, be warned, the cat isn't the only non-human character to speak.)This is an exceedingly hard movie to review. The production is, to its credit, very competent and well-made. July's direction is perfect for this type of film, and from a dialog standpoint, her script is halfway decent. Costume and production design is great, and the ethereal music choices are fascinating. The acting is also very decent.But it all boils down to that "Indie Syndrome" I spoke of earlier. It's near impossible to take this film as seriously as July and the cast want you to take it. The film reaches a point where you'll scream if it doesn't stop being so "Indie" and weird... but then it just gets more "Indie" and weird. It's hard to sit through at times. (And I'll admit, I did a lot of fast-forwarding while watching it, just so I could see enough key scenes to write this review) By the time Paw Paw is on his second or third narration (with that voice that makes you want to strangle the poor cat), or the ump-teenth scene focusing on Sophie's dance video, or the hundredth-or-so scene where the couple says or does things implying they see themselves as way more important than they are, you'll want to scream. This film, for all intents and purposes, ruins itself by trying too hard. July really should have gotten a more traditional screenwriter to do a ghost-second-draft that removed all of this forced, contrived nonsense that she seems to have thrown in only to appear quirky, artsy-fartsy and weird. I hate to over-use this word, but July made this film way too pretentious, and it hurts the work.I'm giving "The Future" a 5 out of 10. It's not terrible. In fact, some of the scenes are exceedingly well-done, and without spoiling it, the ending is actually very poetic and well-written. But it tried way too hard to be artsy and weird, and it hurt the film overall.