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The Future Is Now!

Name: The Future Is Now!
Director: Jim Brown, Gary Burns
Released: 2011
Duration: 91 min

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Representation Score

6.2/10

Good

2011

TV-G

Director

Jim Brown, Gary Burns

Runtime

91 minutes

Average Rating

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New Showbiz Analysis

The film operates as an intellectual travelogue that challenges typical narrative structures. By decentralizing the Western perspective and empowering a female protagonist, it creates a global intellectual inquiry. Bringing together various voices, the film explores the overlap of different identities. While it excels in creating a cosmopolitan setting, its focus remains on philosophical engagement rather than specific identity-based stories.

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Category Breakdown

Does The Future Is Now! have LGBTQ+ representation?

Fair

The film focuses on philosophical ideas rather than romantic or sexual ones. It includes diverse thinkers but doesn't have any specific plot elements centered around LGBTQ+ identities or relationships.

How does The Future Is Now! portray gender?

Fair

A female journalist is the main driver and architect of the narrative. Her active role challenges traditional gender roles by positioning her as the key figure against a passive male character.

How racially and ethnically diverse is The Future Is Now!?

Good

The story adopts a global perspective that goes beyond Anglo-centric views. It includes international figures like Shigeru Ban to create a diverse, multi-ethnic intellectual environment.

How does The Future Is Now! represent religion and culture?

Good

The film emphasizes secular, intellectual exploration over religious or nationalist ideologies. It uses a journey of personal enlightenment to criticize cynicism and traditional societal engagement.

Does The Future Is Now! include disability representation?

Minimal

The available information provides no mention of characters navigating physical, neurodivergent, or mental health disabilities.

Present on Screen

Empowers a female protagonist as the intellectual leader of the journey.
Avoids a narrow Western viewpoint through a global, multi-ethnic framework.
Prioritizes secular, intellectual inquiry over traditional religious or nationalist dogmas.

Limited or Absent

Lacks explicit plot drivers or visible LGBTQ+ identities.
Does not include characters with disabilities.
Focuses more on abstract intellectualism than specific identity-based narratives.

Official Synopsis

A journalist meets “Man of Today” who, while a responsible citizen, is disengaged from greater society. He believes once he’s dead nothing more matters. As an experiment to see if she can turn his pessimistic view around, the journalist sends him on a journey of enlightenment to prove that the future does matter. Travelling the globe, he finds himself in surprising encounters with great minds in the arts and sciences. Starting with an unexpected poetry reading and conversation with experimental poet Christian Bök, Man of Today engages with architect Shigeru Ban, activist Francis Dupuis-Déri, philosopher Alain de Botton, artist Marlene Dumas, novelist Rivka Galchen, leading scientists and a ghost. Will the journalist succeed in turning a cynic into an optimist? Will it matter? What can one person do?

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