The author Terry Pratchett, who has a quote for everything, once said this about Lord of the Rings: “J.R.R. Tolkien has become a sort of mountain, appearing in all subsequent fantasy in the way that Mt. Fuji appears so often in Japanese prints. Sometimes it’s big and up close. Sometimes it’s a shape on the horizon. Sometimes it’s not there at all, which means that the artist either has made a deliberate decision against the mountain, which is interesting in itself, or is in fact standing on Mt. Fuji.”
Molli and Max in the Future, the debut feature by Michael Lukk Litwak, is indeed standing on a mountain, and in this case – because this is a romantic comedy, not a fantasy – that mountain is When Harry Met Sally. It might be set in the future, it might have interstellar craft, robots, fish people, black holes, space witches and a “trash dimension”, but this smart, snappy (a blessed 93 minutes, including credits) and endearingly lo-fi space comedy has Nora Ephron and Rob Reiner’s genre-defining rom-com running through it like writing through a stick of rock. Our heroes have a meet cute, run into each other randomly every couple of years, have a blow out, decide against being a couple, become best friends and, well … look, technically telling you what happens at the end is a spoiler but … you’ve surely worked it out, right?
While it is, unavoidably, sometimes a bit of a tribute act, it’s really rather a good one. Knowingly invoking a classic like this is dangerous territory. In the worst cases you’re just reminding the audience that there’s a better film they could be watching (I’m casting severe side-eye at the recent Exorcist: Believer here), but when it works – and it does work here – you get to channel some of the energy and charm of the original and reflect it outwards.
Of course, you also need to bring your own bottle of wine to the party. In this case it’s the sci-fi setting. Litwak has turned the “silly sci-fi” knob up to 11 and then snapped it off so it stays there. We have magic space crystals, a polyamorous demi-god squid, giant mech fights, pan-dimensional demon beings (one of which is running for president of the universe via a reality TV show) and an all-consuming black hole which will destroy everything unless everyone stops eating cheese. Which they won’t. 2001: A Space Odyssey it isn’t. It’s all very silly and that’s no bad thing. It’s done with a light touch, a generous heart and a big imagination.
Even so, the whole thing wouldn’t work if its central duo didn’t have great chemistry and real charm. Zosia Mamet (who you’ll recognise from tons of stuff, I promise) is wonderful as uptight “space witch” Molli, delivering her zingers with unexpected little twists and pushing genuine pathos into the emotional grandstands that come with this territory. SNL alumni Aristotle Athari as Max is doing less heavy lifting, but offsets Mamet beautifully. The pair really work, and it’s their energy that papers over some of the cracks caused by occasionally wobbly pacing, a lack of budget and admirable over-ambition.
While the sci-fi is enjoyably silly, the social commentary aims a little higher. Molli and Max does a decent job of exploring modern relationship dynamics, even if the wisdom and observations Nora Ephron found in 1989 are still remarkably applicable in the far future: some things, apparently, are eternal. There’s also an attempt to explore and skewer some modern societal phenomenon: social media, populist politics, attitudes to climate change, drippy spirituality, dating apps, COVID … the nods are, if we’re honest, a little too thinly veiled, and there’s perhaps too many ideas here to really cover anything in any depth, though the observations about personal responsibility pack some punch. A lot of reviews have mentioned Futurama or Rick and Morty as a comparison, but if we’re looking to the world of adult animation it’s BoJack Horseman that gets closer in tone. That show, however, had six seasons to explore its bitter ideas about self-awareness. 93 minutes isn’t quite enough to do them justice.
Still, as we’ve said many times, in an age of reboots and remakes let’s not be too harsh on a movie that has too many rather than too few ideas, especially one that knows how to homage rather than merely photocopy its inspirations. Molli and Max is fun, silly, smart and it takes some big swings, even if they don’t all connect. Perhaps the most exciting thing here isn’t the movie itself – which tries to make a charming virtue of its low budget with reasonable success and wears its influences on its sleeve – it’s the potential in Michael Lukk Litwak. There’s real imagination here, and a way with dialogue that’s funny and elegant. Despite the nods to Ephron, it’s clear there’s a unique voice at play. This could well be his Clerks. Give the brain behind this story a decent budget and a big platform and he might come up with something very special indeed. Cute and smart in its own right, but more importantly, a hell of a calling card for its director. We should await his next move with great interest.
