Haven’t been renting many movies since a majority of THE BLOCKBUSTER VIDEOS in the greater Cincinnati area, including the location in my own neighborhood shut down. I’m just not into what is needed for a monthly commitment to NetFlix either... NetFlix seems like a drag to me... But sometimes I get a hankering to watch a movie cause I really like a good movie. I like all different kinds of movies of many different types... So after a few discussions with my compatriot T-Wray I decided to give the ever-present eyesores known as REDBOX a try.
To be honest, I seen REDBOX as just as much of a drag as NetFlix for different reasons... But because I like many different types of movies I figured that the somewhat limited selection at any given Redbox location would still offer up something I wanted to watch...
So with this in mind, Julie and I prioritized some of the ideas we had that could be featured in Redbox... We chose a location of Redbox, on a Saturday evening in conjunction with a stop at the neighborhood Kroger’s to pick up some evening snacks (delicious store-brand, oven baked crispy delicious Corn-Dogs for me).
The espionage Mossad thriller THE DEBT, which we dint know was out yet or not, topped our list. Also included were BRIDESMAIDS (Julie and I are big Kristen Wiig fans), and the highly anticipated greatness of FUBAR (placed firmly back into my mind via a reminder by Brighty) that I also seen as a long shot hope... We had open minds too in anticipation of something that wasn’t necessarily popping into our minds at the moment...
THE DEBT wasn’t out... BRIDESMAIDS was out of stock... FUBAR wasn’t available... With a guy waiting behind us flipping his keys in his hand impatiently awaiting our selection (which I later figured is the protocol for these vending machines) I plead the case for a movie that I was surprised to see listed...
No, they didn’t have FUBAR but they did have THE FUTURE.
I had just ran across the trailer for THE FUTURE only days before on YouTube. The movie featured Miranda July, who I was somewhat familiar with from her performance art and the ME, YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW movie, with a strong showing from Hamish Linklater from The New Adventure of Old Christine (as seen in the associated picture included in this article) The trailer was intriguing enough... We would soon learn that the long, loud sigh we heard while choosing THE FUTURE we heard wasn’t, in fact, the celebration breath of the key flipper behind us, it was the vending machine itself celebrating that someone FINALLY chose THE FUTURE.
THE FUTURE is not what I would deem uncomfortable cinema (i.e. GUMMO, HAPINESS, L.I.E.) but what I would call difficult cinema (LOVE LIZA, SYNEDOCHE NEW YORK, SOUTHLAND TALES). The differences between the two are hard to see for most, and this isn’t the place for me to really get into such a thing right now… Trust me, the differences between uncomfortable and difficult cinema, exist within my mind, but really, both self-genres usually represent one common thing with me, a great movie! Ultimately, I liked THE FUTURE. It was a great movie. Edgy, great dialogue. Excellent acting, dialogue and strong production values. I felt a bit as if I was living high on the hog watching a movie with sub-titles again (one of my main gripes of buying bootleg movie, even rips)
THE FUTURE is about a young ego-centrical, self-centered couple whose fragile life falls apart in under a month spent in anticipation awaiting the adoption of a cat. The movie perfectly depicts how fragile and desperate these times are... How making a good decision is not so much a difficult thing to do, but it takes something that people in this movie just don’t have. They quit their jobs and sort of self-destruct (softly) all because of this cat they have chosen to adopt.
These times that surround us are desperate ones indeed. I can understand the feelings depicted in this movie. I feel, as if I get something from this movie… Life can be so futile sometimes. Its no stretch to feel like everything is beyond our control... But sometimes, as easy as it may appear that planting a tree, or being able to stop time might help, just doesn’t cut it. ll me out-there (its OK) but there is a certain symbolic beauty about a child digging a hole (trench/grave?) in the yard during a routine grill-out... “Just wave back,” she said... Where does the fine line of survival become self-destructive?
Bear with me… I’m really trying to get to a point here.
Things wont be better if they can’t be better... Things can’t be better until we want them to be better. THE FUTURE documents that moment just after you give up, just before it all falls apart... Like any good movie I watch, I’m left with subtle, quirky questionings that I may get on Julies nerves about questioning, searching for a deeper meaning of what exactly it means to wear gold chains and how much someone could possibly measure in physicality how much they love furniture... I mean really KNOW the love of furniture... I said it earlier, but I will say it again: I liked this movie, really liked it. I’m not gonna rub up against it in that sort of way... But it was worth a $1.28 rental fee to see.
I’m left with my first REDBOX experience being a good one, but now I just have to get the movie back there... The pressure is on, the moon is of no help to me and I could use a good time stopping as insurance right about now.
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