I am a masochist. How else would you explain my unabated devotion to art house movies that get into your brain, explode it to pieces and they just let the flotsam and jetsam float there chaotically, without even aligning the scatters into some sort of a pattern? Why do I like movies that few seem to appreciate or at least understand? Why won't I watch blockbusters and enjoy an apocalypse rather than inflicting another one on my poor grey matter? I am talking about the Future now.
It is not another Bothrsome Man, it is not a utopia. It is not Clockwork Orange either, we are not in the future, actually. It is not Fahrenheit 451, there is no ideology and limited societal impact. It is a movie about ourselves, about what we make of our life, about how much or how little we care for things that matter a lot or nothing, like relationships, talent, time... It is a sketch of what we are and what we can be. It is a story about the promises that we make and never keep, forgetting about those whose lives sometimes depend on our promises. "I forgot" sometimes does not cut.
The Future is laden with symbols. Some obvious, some you need to make up yourself. The cat is brilliant. It's everything nice that we concoct in our minds that we desire, that we blame for our failures, that we forget about, that we substitute, that is essential, that is useless, that can rot in hell, that we worship, and that at the end of the day is only as valuable as we dare. The little blond girl in a pink dress digging herself a grave: can you think of anything more provocatively melodramatic? The dance, as a way to set oneself free, and only realizing itself when the main character is constrained. The Moon - eternal and cold - asking for help and being annoyingly wise. The hairdryer, the picture, the trees, the Internet... - the whole piece is an intermittent stretch of symbolic objects, placed there by Miranda July for each and every person to decipher for himself or herself what all those objects really are.
Or is there a need to decipher anything? If you let your exploded brains lie there quietly for some time, they'll get together somehow in a new brilliant paradigm. Because there is nothing to explain or understand: the future is here... it's just distributed unevenly.
It is not another Bothrsome Man, it is not a utopia. It is not Clockwork Orange either, we are not in the future, actually. It is not Fahrenheit 451, there is no ideology and limited societal impact. It is a movie about ourselves, about what we make of our life, about how much or how little we care for things that matter a lot or nothing, like relationships, talent, time... It is a sketch of what we are and what we can be. It is a story about the promises that we make and never keep, forgetting about those whose lives sometimes depend on our promises. "I forgot" sometimes does not cut.
The Future is laden with symbols. Some obvious, some you need to make up yourself. The cat is brilliant. It's everything nice that we concoct in our minds that we desire, that we blame for our failures, that we forget about, that we substitute, that is essential, that is useless, that can rot in hell, that we worship, and that at the end of the day is only as valuable as we dare. The little blond girl in a pink dress digging herself a grave: can you think of anything more provocatively melodramatic? The dance, as a way to set oneself free, and only realizing itself when the main character is constrained. The Moon - eternal and cold - asking for help and being annoyingly wise. The hairdryer, the picture, the trees, the Internet... - the whole piece is an intermittent stretch of symbolic objects, placed there by Miranda July for each and every person to decipher for himself or herself what all those objects really are.
Or is there a need to decipher anything? If you let your exploded brains lie there quietly for some time, they'll get together somehow in a new brilliant paradigm. Because there is nothing to explain or understand: the future is here... it's just distributed unevenly.
Thank you for such a beautiful review..It makes it even more intriguing and desirable to watch the film now! It is also true and shameful, not so many people are able to appriciate or enjoy this type of raw and unchewed piece of art..
ReplyDeleteThank you, Kristina! We should arrange a retrospective of the best art house movies of all times :) Sergey
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