8. The Future (2011)
Miranda Julys first film, Me and You and Everyone We Know, was the kind of indie hit that should have established her as a dominant voice in the world of film. Yet somehow, her vastly superior second feature, 2011s The Future, managed to fly pretty far under the radar. The Future isnt as charming or as ripe with hip humor as her debut, but what it does have is a much stronger sense of purpose, coupled with a willingness to dig deeper into questions about the meaning of relationships, maturity, and desire, and individuality. The film opens with a young couple trying to adopt a cat from a shelter, but by the time it reaches its conclusion, the laws of time and space have been bent, incredible coincidences have taken place, and both characters seem to have accepted their place, for better or worse, within the universe. Julys film is certainly strange, but it has the perfect tone to get us inside the mind of her characters. We see the world as they do, and learn as much about ourselves watching the film as they do participating in it.