Good start, but then it gets ruined

Don't Believe the Hype

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

I was fortunately able to see this film free with my Amazon Prime membership. Though I like Hamish Linklater, I would not have or am grateful that I never saw this film in a theater. Maybe it is an inspired indie film piece. Maybe it is artistic film festival fare. All I felt was that I could not keep watching this film and turned it off after less than a half hour but returned to watch it in parts until the end. I was actually looking for an escapist SF film that would be fantasy and uplifting. Not since "Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind" had a film so depressed me. Maybe I don't understand indie flicks or comedies that are really something else but funny. Here is a wacky urban 30-something couple existing in their world and making a mess of it. They decide to adopt a cat but can not handle the responsibility so they suddenly decide to do what they feel -- which is selfish, pointless and ultimately irresponsible. The only SF factor was the ability to stop time and the universe suddenly is in a mannequin challenge. The depressing part is their lack of genuine feeling and mutual love for each other and obviously for the cat. It is a modern world where they are more into their laptops more than each other. Today, the same may be said of smartphones where people ignore each other except through typing which is what I am doing now. More depressing. What does the real future hold in store for human interaction? The future, yeah, right.

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.

I gave this film a 7 because of the emotional response to the cruelty demonstrated by the characters in the film.These characters destroyed the hope of an innocent being.I had more feelings for the poor cat than I did for either character. That their complacency and cruel disregard for the promise of unfulfilled hope they gave to this poor animal led to an innocent beings death.Truly despicable that they should allow such innocence to perish because of their stupidity and selfish disregard for life.Both characters should have perished in the end for the cruel ending they brought upon an innocent creature who's hopes were destroyed by an undeserved death.To allow to die through false hope is terribly cruel to an innocent creature.

Indie cinema once provided a vital antidote to the formulaic output of the mainstream. Today, however, it encompasses a very particular style and set of audience pleasures. One can scoff at Hollywood's 'if it has enough explosions, they will come' approach to filmmaking, yet successful indie films seem to function in much the same way. The palette is different, but it is no less predictable: quirky characters, hand-held-camera work and an off-beat soundtrack.On the surface, these indie flicks appear to be doing something infinitely more complex and interesting than their mainstream counterparts, yet pseudo-intellectual references and non-linear storytelling usually hide a conventional and simplistic narrative. Miranda July's The Future appears to be the very definition of modern indie cinema's vacuity.This film - July's second feature as writer, director and star – tells the story of internet addicts Jason (Hamish Linklater) and Sophie (Miranda July), who, previously contented with their menial existences, are forced to rethink their priorities. The pair decide to adopt an injured stray cat, thinking that he will only hang on for another six months or so anyway. The vet soon informs them that if little 'Paw Paw' bonds with them he could well live on for another five years. Sophie and Jason are faced with the realisation that, if this turns out to be the case, they will be 40 by the time they are once again free from responsibility.With 30 days remaining before Paw Paw is well enough to be brought home, Jason and Sophie quit their jobs in order to pursue a higher calling, reasoning that at 40 they will be too old to do anything meaningful with their lives. So Jason volunteers for a local plant-a-tree foundation and Sophie decides to record herself doing different dance routines and uploads them to YouTube.The film opens with the two sat on their couch, tapping away on their respective laptops. They begin to talk about the virtues of having a miniature crane to fetch them beverages and whether or not Jason has the ability to freeze time. Such inane dialogue continues throughout the film, alongside more morose conversations about the pressures of growing older.As with 500 Days of Summer and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, an off-beat indie aesthetic tarts up a rather vague meditation on love, life and aging. That the film takes place in a typically kitschy vintage world helps give it a feel of portraying a meaningless hipster dreamscape.Yet beneath all the thrift-store clothing and kooky haircuts, something genuinely odd is going on here. After Jason and Sophie fail to find fulfilment in their new way of life, the film takes on a more surreal tone: Paw Paw performs philosophical monologues, Jason sparks up a conversation with the moon, and in one arresting scene, Sophie is consumed by a yellow t-shirt and dances around the bedroom almost hypnotised.For the most part, the film's stranger features seem designed to satisfy a hipster audience that will lap up pretty much anything that appears vaguely artsy. However, its ability to mystify rather than offer blatant symbolism is something to be applauded. All too often indie films wrap up as neatly as Hollywood blockbusters, yet here July has crafted a genuinely perplexing and open-ended work.At times, July in fact appears to mock her audience, as Sophie and Jason are in many ways a comic send-up of the sort of empty-headed lefty scenesters who worship the ground her vintage brogues walk on. For instance, when Sophie quizzes Jason as to why he cares so much about environmentalism, given that he spends most of his time indoors on his MacBook, he replies that he likes to know nature would still be there if he ever chose to venture outside. Moments like this bring some self- awareness to the film, and give you a little more license to enjoy The Future despite its apparent pretension.In many ways, Miranda July is the embodiment of everything that is wrong with indie cinema. Yet, The Future is, if nothing else, a different kind of filmic experience, and that's something that most independent productions fail to provide.