Miranda July's 'The Future' And 'Bobby Fischer Against The World' [Sundance Mini-Reviews]

With three sets of eyes darting all around Park City for the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, and several days of films still ahead, it's almost physically impossible to write full reviews for everything we see. So, here's the first Sundance Mini-Review post which will feature shorter capsule reviews of films and maybe even some video blogs.

After the jump, you'll read short reviews of The Future by Peter Sciretta and Bobby Fischer Against The World by yours truly.

The Future – by Peter Sciretta

I kinda love Miranda July's 2005 feature film debut Me and You and Everyone We Know. And like many other indie film geeks, I've been waiting six years for July to complete her follow-up, The Future.

While her first film was filled with a child-like wonder, a story of divorce and beginning again, The Future is a bit more serious in tone. Like Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York, The Future is an artist's deep meditations on growing old and all the scary possibilities an undefined future may hold. That isn't to say that this meditation isn't handled with July's trademark quirky humor. For example, the thirty-something couple at the center of the story are planning to adopt a dying cat rescue in a month, and July brilliantly cuts back and fourth to monologues from the caged cat, waiting for his new home.

Jon Brion's (who most probably know from the Paul Thomas Anderson films) beautiful score strangely feels connected to Michael Andrews's composition for Me, You and Everyone We Know. This is a film that requires time to process, and possibly multiple viewings — a second viewing is most definitely in my future.

/Film Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Bobby Fischer Against the World – by Germain Lussier

If you're one of these people who only know the name Bobby Fischer because he had a movie with his name in the title, then you are going to enjoy the HBO Documentary Film: Bobby Fischer Against the World, produced and directed by Liz Garbus. The film documents Fischer's entire life, specifically highlighting his World Championship match in 1972.

It features rare archival footage and interviews all in an attempt to explain why the man who ended up becoming one of the most famous people in the world was the paranoid recluse he was. And if you didn't know that about Fischer, the movie might be a shocker. But most everything about Fischer is common knowledge and while the film makes some interesting hypothesis into Fischer's mental state, it never reaches any new or mind-blowing conclusions.

/Film Rating: 6 out of 10