Facebook is so awash in shared quotes and clever little sayings attached to graphics, ranging from heartwarmingly New Age to hipster snarky, that few make an impression beyond the time it takes to read them. Still, every now and then you'll hit one that sticks; for me, it was one of those faux 1950s greeting cards with the slogan "Pretending to be a functional adult is so exhausting."
I laughed, but it got me thinking: What exactly is a "functional adult"? These days it's hard to say. The middle-class professional who just saw his pension raided and his mortgage foreclosed? The thrice-married step-mom on mood-disorder medication? The NEET liberal-arts major who's still living in his parents' basement five years after graduating? We flail in the waters of change, sans stability.
In "The Future" — the 2011 film by actor/director/writer Miranda July, best known for "Me and You and Everyone We Know" — we meet a 30-something couple in Los Angeles. Jason (Hamish Linklater) temps taking tech-support calls at home, while Sophie (July) teaches children's ballet classes. They live a low-maintenance lifestyle in their cozy, ironically decorated apartment, have identical haircuts, and are so deep in their slack that they sprawl across their sofa, legs intertwined, each with their face buried in a laptop as they teasingly argue about who should get up and get a drink for the other.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.