将来2011

Emanated from a piece of performance art, US indie scenester and filmmaker Miranda July’s sophomoric feature THE FUTURE (her third one KAJILIONAIRE would arrive 9 years later in 2020) adopts a cosmic conceit of warped time to dissect a quotidian relationship in disengagement, but once that move is done, July fails to conjure up anything even remotely droll or profound like her flash-in-the-pan debut ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW (2005).

An L.A.-dwelling, mid-30s couple Sophie and Jason (July and Linklater), decide to adopt an injured stray cat, it takes one month before the cat can be fully recuperated and assigned to their care. So during the holding pattern, emboldened by the pending new perspective (the cat is obvious a dry run of a baby, and the film is concatenated through a warped feline voiceover, as if it were a stillborn narrating its own sad destiny), they both quit their routine jobs (she is a children’s dance teacher and he is a tech support), and embrace something more meaningful or challenging, to prepare entering another phase of life that means a point of no return to hem, but that preparedness becomes ever so elusive and a disillusioned Sophie begins an affair with an elder widower Marshall (Warshofsky).

The time-warping part is fantasticated right before Sophie’s intending confession as Jason refuses her to do so by squarely stopping the time, and in a paralleled universe, Sophie vividly experiences her new bourgeois life with Marshall, until she is jolted back to her past by the presence of “shirty”, her favorite mustard t-shirt now becomes an ambulatory costume and creepily slithers into her bedroom.

After Jason sets the time back to normal (thanks to the instruction with a talkative moon), Sophie returns to their apartment, what awaits them is either a reconciliation or a final goodbye.

The signs of their 4-year co-dependency’s unraveling are shown earlier on where familiarity is normalized and ossifies their co-habitation (Jason can’t be arsed to get up and fetch a glass of water to Sophie, small gesture always divulges deep fissure underneath), and the temporal trick is tacitly previewed as a mischief that presages the later sea change.

All quirks but no sparks, THE FUTURE is middle-of-the-road among fringe filmmaking, an innovative brainwave could rarely be expanded into a feature-length corker without proper appurtenances, July’s fey spirit continues, but THE FUTURE is half-baked and fizzles out with a whimper.

referential entries: July’s ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW (2005, 8.6/10); Noah Baumbach’s FRANCES HA (2012, 6.6/10).

初恋多半是面向对象的自恋——

据我所知，木心的这首俳句多半源自他的初恋：他少年时有个文字交的朋友，通了五年信，没见面。她是湖州人，全家信基督。她的中学、大学，都是教会学校，每周通一信，她字迹秀雅，文句优美。后来他们在苏州吴东大学会面，幻想破灭，再后来她转入南京神学院，信也不通了。因为《旧约》没有能使她爱他，因为《新约》没有能使他爱她。再再后来，木心的文学课开讲，旧事重提，心里忽然悲伤了。毕竟他们曾在五年之中，写信、等信二百多次，一片诚心。

看过《爱情我你他》的观众或许能够体会到，米兰达在那部一鸣惊人的处女作里想要表达的主题正是人与人之间「一片诚心」的交流。

等人，总是蠢——

蠢都是资深的——

木心的读者大概都知道，木心是等人的。是的，睿智的木心也无可救药地「蠢」过：年青时在上海，新得了一位朋友，品貌智力都很好。某日谈到上海人无聊，半点小事就引一堆路人围观。正说着，对面马路霎时聚集十多人议论什么事，那朋友疾步过去看究竟，木心就冷在路边，他说：等，这真叫孤独，又不好意思就此走掉，呆等了好久，那朋友才尽兴而归。

后来他老了——意识到：自己老被人仍在路边——这条路，叫做艺术之路——实在比较好的朋友，可以等等，等他从彼岸兴奋归来。再后来自由了——他发现：跑去看热闹的人，就此消失在热闹中，不回来了，所以大大减少了等的必要。再再后来，他将这种资深的「蠢」转化成了他那带有「智」感的文字。

我好久没有以小步紧跑去迎接一个人的那种快乐了——

木心这首俳句不仅幽幽道出了现代人的困境，同时也不禁令我们这些被困在系统里的「冷血动物」扪心自问：我多久没有因为一件引起内心强烈「共鸣」的事情冲动或者犯糊涂了？我多久没有被一件精致又真诚的艺术品感动了？我多久没有跟随自己的直觉行动或者按照自己的意愿生活了？

作为一个现代人，我有没有为一种认同的价值理念付出和努力过？我会不会像《阳光小美女》那样，为了实现自我价值而勇于冲破规则纵身一跃？

在一个追求他人认可、强调自我价值与社会期待互相匹配的时代里，那些自愿放弃世俗道德标准，主动拥抱自我价值尺度的人怕是会被当做「神经病」吧？显然，在《正常人》看来，活在《将来》里的男女主人公就是一对怪咖：他们双双裸辞，然后一个成了《夜色行动》的志愿者，一个成了《钢琴教师》的接班人。对于《将来》的生活，这对文艺青年还有个小目标：领养一只会思考的猫。

事实上，米兰达这部极具反思意识的作品正是由这个被困在笼中等待被救赎的「人脑」来讲述的。显然，这是一个因「一时冲动」而产生了自我意识，又因「一时糊涂」而产生了自我批判意识的女性视角，而她的「出轨」则是对既有的「幻想世界」秩序抑或固定的「拟真人生」模式的挑战和破坏。

如果人的「意淫」在《爱情我你他》里还只是因害怕「见光死」而必须躲在黑暗里的一种声音，那么米兰达在这部智慧之作里更进一步——让这种似有还无的声音在漫长的等候中平静地死去——从医道或者人道角度，赐予《将来》之人真正的自由。