Oh blog, what do I do with you? So many conflicting ideas confronted by a writing that feels more like a lead boot than a hawk. Until I figure it out, here’s a movie review of a movie that should be seen by you. It’s still playing at the gorgeous Harvard Exit theatre if you are in Seattle. This movie comes as a cool lake in vast dry summer of blockbuster sequel mania. While you read it, you can play this song from the film to enhance your experience.
Paw Paw, a talking cat recovering from a broken paw waiting to begin the life it has always wanted fueled by a month of hopeful dreaming and expectation is the narrator of Miranda July’s new film. Interstingly enough it works as one part of an attempted idea prompted by the question of how we confront time and confront ourselves as people who are seen as reflections of our past seeking redemption in the future.
Miranda July, writer, actress, director, performance and conceptual artist, after her much acclaimed, “Me You and Everyone We Know” has recently launched her second film “The Future.” July graced the cover of The New York Times Magazine several weeks ago in which an article tackled critics of July, writing her films off as twee (which may have started with The Village Voice’s review of her films). Reader’s comments on the article ran the gamut between love, hate and those who question the media hype surrounding what is “only” her second film, but what most critics may not take into account is the way MJ uses her creation in a broad range of artistic disciplines to lend depth to subsequent projects where concepts, questions and themes bleed from performance to page to screen to blog. All of this also makes way for July’s unique vision that combines whimsy, vulnerability and an underlying desire to connect, sincerely, with her audiences.
With that, “The Future” is centered on the break up between Jason and Sophie who have decided to adopt a cat four years into their relationship. The cat is also the narrator of their story and is part of a magical world where the moon talks, shirts walk, and coincidences merge into fate. This magic, though, are points or snapshots like miracles among a modern American world in bathetic July style. Both Sophie and Jason work jobs where, nicely put in July’s words, there is no need for them to let others see their soul. She is an apathetic children’s dance teacher while he a generic call center technolgy troubleshooter who works from their apartment. The plot is set in motion after deciding to adopt a cat whose foot is broken and must heal giving the couple an entire month of ‘freedom’ before taking on the responsiblilites of joint cat custody. In the interim, Sophie, who decides to create 30 dances in 30 days, is chronically distracted from her task by watching other personal dance videos of random people on youtube and Jason by coincidence (or is it fate?) goes door to door selling trees to fight climate change. From there the film moves forward toward an idea of an unexpected future when Sophie decides to begin a sexual relationship with an older middle aged banner salesman in their upper middle class suburban home fueled by an unyielding desperation which takes the Jason and Sophie’s relationship off the rails into unchartered, unexpected territory where temporality simultaneously halts and continues independent of our protagonists’ agendas.
Okay, here’s my endorsement: Go see this movie. Check out the blog for this movie. http://thefuturethefuture.com/ Whether the story or characters sound intriguing there are definite cinematic jewels to appreciate. The colors and tone throughout the film are lovely, and the details are superb where the camera moves from peculiar or random object to object. The camera will also freeze on a frame so perfectly arranged that as an audience member, you can appreciate the still as a photograph in a gallery. What else? MJ has a wonderful physicality that she uses throughout whether it be the choreography of a very artful masturbation scene or a prolonged ‘dance’ within an oversized shirt, the physicality gives an interesting interpretation of character psychology, ah maybe that’s not entirely true, but more importantly these moments let an audience move into another sphere where linear intepretation can rest and where the vulnerability of the character becomes poignant through a perspective that never becomes trite and never alienates the viewer but subsequently draws our imaginations and senses closer to the action. Fans of Miranda July continue to be moved by her work because of her fierce determination to produce art that takes risks, creates a sense of community mindedness of our connection with and toward others and offers new perspectives in filmaking and artmaking in an industry that rewards box office cash (as most of us have witnessed all summer long).
If anyone’s out there, what life among movies have you seen during the summer months. What makes it important to you?
