Showing @ Cameo Cinema, Edinburgh, until Thu 24 Nov
Miranda July has made a real name for herself over the last ten years, successfully experimenting in the performance art, film and story writing fields. Her newest venture contains all the indie elements of her last film Me and You and Everyone We Know, but steps up the pace in this surreal, distorted rom-com. Over the hill and scared of it, Sophie and Jason (July herself and Hamish Linklater) decide to adopt a cat for a few months to signify a change in their life before reaching middle age. Yet the pressures of treading water in a uniform Los Angeles apartment begin to test the strength of the couple’s relationship, threatening their past, present and future.
July’s quirky plot finds itself assisted by playfully surreal moments throughout. Jason’s ability to stop time coupled with July’s voiceover narrating the dialogue of the cat affords the film a freedom to mess around with the rom-com narrative. This does mean however that the film feels polarised, as the clichéd indie moments feel like (500) Days of Summer while the refreshing character relationships – and pressures upon them – reminds of Richard Ayoade’s Submarine. So While July has created a quite powerful symbolic journey through middle-aged love, it feels like she’s still finding her form in what is a worthwhile exploration of the romance genre.