This Thursday at SFMoMA, Miranda July will introduce her second feature-length film, The Future, a highly anticipated "antiromance" about a couple contemplating cat adoption and all its looming responsibility. This seemingly simple decision comes to seem terrifying, inspiring them to fixate on (and seek out) the lives they've always wanted but not yet achieved. It even encourages transgressions.
Full of quirky devices, such as voiceover from the soon-to-be-adopted cat, conversations with the moon, and one character's ability to freeze time, The Future heightens reality as only Miranda July can -- with that humanity that distinguishes the whole of her output.
Although her people are eccentric, terrifying, and misguided by their odd logic, they are still deserving of empathy, symbolic of our softer selves maybe: the me of me, the you of you. They are characters who mishandle their relationships, live their lives awkwardly, but go on trying, because: why not? Hers are characters who go on after all, and if they can do it, how can we be so wrong?
July does what she does without force but with conviction. Her avant-garde experimentation, and tendency for whimsy may come off as frivolous, twee, or self-indulgent to some of her critics. (How is it that when artists go on being artists, we balk when they appear to have indulged themselves?)For the haters and lovers alike, this cheat sheet on Miranda July (which is in no-way an exhaustive list), and her unrelentingly heartfelt works - this is for you.
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