THE FUTURE IS NOW! (Gary Burns, Jim Brown, Canada). 92 minutes. Rating: NNN
Gary Burns and Jim Brown pushed the documentary envelope with Radiant City, a look at urban sprawl that had actors play composite characters to illustrate the increasing homogeneity of the Canadian exurbs.
In their new collaboration, The Future Is Now!, which takes the conceit a step further, a fictional Montreal journalist (Liane Balaban) tries to convince a fictional interview subject (Paul Ahmarani) that he shouldn’t be so pessimistic about the future. The characters – identified only as the Woman of Tomorrow and the Man of Today – visit assorted artists and scientists to discuss coming social and philosophical changes, turning a talking-heads documentary into a more accessible entertainment.
That’s the theory, anyway, but this time around the artifice proves dis-tracting. Much as I’ve enjoyed Balaban and Ahmarani elsewhere, the real meat of this movie is in the interviews.
