Rarely does one find a film that seamlessly weaves laugh out loud humor, sly meta- elements and heartfelt emotion into one production. This is one such film.
Miranda July, the director as well as one of the leads, is apparently a creative inferno. She directs, acts, writes (a novel, and two collections of short stories), does performance art, sings. I was not surprised to find that she has spent time in Portland, Oregon, as this film has some of the sensibility of the Netflix series Portlandia, with all of its earnestness combined with self-satirizing glee.
It’s also rare to find a film where randomness works, not appearing studied or overreaching for effect. Here, quirkiness is clearly born from a genuinely eclectic and energetic mind, one which delights in finding no subject too small for examination, and which rewards the viewer with insight and humor at almost every turn.
After seeing The Future, I quickly followed up by watching her earlier film Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005), which also has many delightful moments, and which also stars July, but which is less of a tour de force than the later film. Both of these feature-length films are currently available on the Criterion Channel, which is also showing some of her shorter films.