The Future

R

Released Jul 29, 2011

1 hr. 31 min.

Drama

List

72%

112 Reviews

Tomatometer

54%

2,500+ Ratings

Audience Score

In Los Angeles, longtime lovers (Hamish Linklater, Miranda July) make radical changes in their lives after deciding to adopt a sickly stray cat.

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Critics Consensus

A dark and whimsical exploration of human existence that challenges viewers as much as it rewards them.

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isla s

This is yet another quirky/weird indie film that I felt I didn't really 'get' at all. I wasn't especially bothered about (or interested in) the characters and I didn't feel compelled to keep watching, although there is something mildly intriguing about it at times. It features sort of space-y type music which leads me to believe that the film was made with hopes of being regarded as some sort of art-y symbolic film but it doesn't work for me. Plus, what is it with the distorted, almost sort of trippy-ish, the voice of a talking cat - what's that all about?!. Suffice to say, I can't say I felt entertained by it and I wouldn't recommend it, no.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Miranda July's idiosyncrasies and quirkiness are not quite enough to float this meandering movie about ... two characters meandering around trying to find meaning and not finding it. Johnny C had to bail. I gotta go.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/17/23

Full Review

Audience Member

funny for a certain type of person, that person is not me.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

02/27/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I hated this movie. If you hated Weiner Dog, you will probably hate this movie even more like my husband and I did. I thought it was going to be a sweet, quirky movie about a cat who wonderfully changes a couple's lives. No, it is like the feel bad movie of the century. Plus, there are so many moments where nothing is happening; people are shuffling around.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

01/29/23

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Audience Member

This is the kind of arthouse film that makes one want to stick needles in their eyes.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/27/23

Full Review

Audience Member

The movie looks nothing like how the future will really look. This movie was filled with nonsense and unwanted characters and scenes that could have been pulled from the film. From the opening scene with the sickly sounding "cat" (that we find out later in the film) to the talking moon and the unexpected and unneeded superpowers, makes this film thrown into the garbage. While the opening scene really made my face, look confused and curious the opening shot of the two main characters sitting in a green filtered room made me feel uncomfortable and nauseous. To add onto my uncomfortable feeling was the awkward and quirky acting that made no sense in the film at all. The film had no plot to it and didn't make sense to anything that it showed us. The cat that was talking about wanting to go to his/her new home made no sense in this film and could have been happily and easily cut out since the voice sounded grossly sick and most importantly, it didn't help the main characters story at all. The cat was just a random item the director threw in to fill up the movie time to make it longer. When the cheating happened, I thought this was the climax of the film and maybe it will turn around and interesting things will happen, but it didn't, it got weirder and weirder. She lived with the man she cheated with and nothing special happened between them. She was still the same quirky and awkward girl that did strange things and the man just wanted sex which seemed like that was what their relationship was based around, and also, he's in his 50s while she's in her 20s? Isn't that a little weird? Let's not forget the superpowers that made no sense. I didn't understand what he did in the very beginning of the film when he "freezes" her and why she was still talking to him when she was frozen. Was she pretending? His powers never get explained in the film which I would have liked for them to add some interesting things to it. What I didn't get is when he stopped her at night when she was going to tell him she was cheating. He stopped her for almost the same time he did in the beginning but three days didn't go by at that time. So, why did so many days go by the second time he did it at night? Was it because of the moon? Was it because it was at night? Also, what's with the moon? This was the first time we even heard about the moon talking to this guy so why put it in at the very end of the movie to leave us questioning it? It makes no sense. Like how the movie started us with questions, it ends with even more questions making us say, "this movie is not worth seeing".

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

01/27/23

Full Review

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Miranda July

Director

Hamish Linklater

Jason

Miranda July

Sophie

David Warshofsky

Marshall

Isabella Acres

Gabriella

Joe Putterlik

Joe

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Deborah Ross

The Spectator

Didn't get it. Might have got it if I'd concentrated more, but I lost the will. Readers, I'm not proud of this, but will say it anyhow: I was baffled.

Aug 31, 2018

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AV Club

Rated: A-

Jan 22, 2013

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Jan 22, 2013

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Jason Adams

My New Plaid Pants

Somehow there is narration by a cat wearing a little cast on its leg and it is a beautiful and a heartbreaking thing

Jan 14, 2022

Full Review

Jordan M. Smith

IONCINEMA.com

The Future doesn't escape its shortcomings, but it is a surreal success non-the-less. July remains an indie icon, fearlessly pursuing her own visions.

Rated: 3/5

Nov 19, 2020

Full Review

CJ Sheu

Critics at Large

[T]he film is so distinctive and eloquent in style that ... [the two protagonists] are utterly compelling to watch as they relinquish their lives to fate and whimsy.

Jun 30, 2020

Full Review

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Synopsis

In Los Angeles, longtime lovers (Hamish Linklater, Miranda July) make radical changes in their lives after deciding to adopt a sickly stray cat.

Director: Miranda July
Executive Producer: Sue Bruce Smith
Screenwriter: Miranda July
Distributor: Roadside Attractions
Production Co: GNK
Rating: R (Some Sexual Content)
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jul 29, 2011, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 29, 2011
Box Office (Gross USA): $568.4K

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