The Future

The Future, Miranda July's confident sophomore feature film, traffics in the kind of polarizing, precious idiosyncrasies that have come to define her as a writer, artist and general media wunderkind. Thirtysomething Sophie (July) and her equally mop-topped boyfriend, Jason (Hamish Linklater), have settled into a stifling, sexless relationship. When their decision to adopt a sick shelter cat named Paw Paw (voiced by July) forces them to confront the ugly reality of their unfulfilled lives, they quit their dead-end jobs and embark on a month-long, Internet-free vacation to live out their dreams. Though Sophie and Jason are disturbingly relatable in their struggle to reconcile their finite amount of time on Earth with their infinite hopes and goals, their self-absorption is an invisible barrier that prevents the audience from truly connecting with them. With her wide, wondrous eyes, July embodies Sophie's confusion and regret with a blank stare that hides what Paw Paw calls "the darkness"—the wild, gnawing feeling that one will always be utterly alone. The movie's third-act foray into magical realism feels perfectly natural within the quietly weird confines of July's world and offers up some of the film's most striking imagery. The Future isn't just about what happens next; it's an uncertain, ambiguous reminder that the present is just as important.