MindMap-SA Issue 7

ReviewsHunting down thefuturewords bySihle MthembuIs there a filmmaker better versed in the art of casualvoyeurism than Miranda July? Her slow andlabored indictments of the human race seem to begetting more ruthless as she gets older. Her powerlies in her ability to crucify individual charactersand showcase them as being indicative of largermore informal social evils. Perhaps it’s that NewYork cynicism maybe it’s being on the cover oftoo many sub-cultural magazines. Being an alternative posterwoman does have the potential of making one grow inones loathing of humanity both in pockets and on the whole.Whatever it is, it is something that July uses as the strongestpiece of arsenal in her artistic repertoire. She takes all thatquietness and discomfort and channels it to intelligent andultimately challenging works of slightly fanatical cinema.I must state my prejudice in order to relive myself of my criticalburden. I am slightly alarmed by the fact that I like this filmdespite the fact that its plot and premise are not particularlynew. The idea of two people who are facing an inevitable eventin the new future that will change their lives and hence decideto live in the interim. The bucket list anyone? However thisfilm is more about visceral living. People marching throughlife repeatedly doing the same things with the hope that atsome point things will change. Sophie and Jason are a relativelyyoung couple who live together and are internet junkies.Sophie Works as a dance teacher for kids whilst Jason is an operatorthat helps fix computer problems via telephone. The abnormal-normalityof this combination is its most diligent point.The couple find a cat that is injured, send it to a vet and it isdecided by the vet that they should come get it in a month. Thefuture is a film that places high capital on otherness, this ideathat you could be part of something and still be completely outside.As they become aware of this they decide that the monthbefore, “that’s it for us,” Will be the best month of their livesJuly uses a sort of untraditional narration technique in that thecat tells a story by recounting how it first felt when it saw themand its own life as it waited at the vet and it learned to count. Thisis powerful showcase of the linear slow passage of time. WhatJuly is doing here is not allowing the literalism of narration toget the better of her. Instead she has allowed the cat’s life to be aparallel to that of Sophie and Jason and that is a sensitive statementabout the impossible similarities that exist between thingsthat are outwardly incomparable. Sophie’s growing obsessionwith viral dance videos is an indictment on lack of attention todetail, temporary distraction and ultimately a life loved totallyand completely out of focus. As she says in an early part of thefilm something has been due to happen to her for years now. It’sboth disturbing and symptomatic of the culture that she decidesthat the thing that was due to happen to her was that she mustbecome a YouTube sensation. This of course never happensand the gradual disintegration of her personal character findsits momentum although her impulsiveness never loses its grip.This film is about uneventfully walking towards middle ageand the cat is the metaphor for that inevitable process. The fearthat there is this one quiet place that people of a certain age get