‘Beyond Tomorrow’ Celebrates The Life Of Roy Scarfo [FilmQuest 2022 Review]
Sharai Bohannon
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Beyond Tomorrow is a documentary about the idea of the future as explored through the life and art of futurist illustrator Roy Scarfo. Director Brett Ryan Bonowicz does a great job of painting a picture of the person Scarfo was. We get a sense of how much his family loved him as they share their stories about him. When it comes to celebrating the subject, the film nails it.
Beyond Tomorrow starts off trying to balance the focus between Scarfo’s life and art. Then, about midway through it completely leans into him as a person. It turns into a more somber affair and at times feels like we’re watching loved ones eulogize someone. At points, it even feels too intimate. I wished we could let them grieve privately and go back to talking about his work.
However, this almost-invasion does lead to a particularly touching moment from one of Scarfo’s sons as he talks about loss. Because he was born so late in Scarfo’s life he was very aware of his dad’s mortality. However, it didn’t necessarily buffer the realities of Scarfo’s battle with pancreatic cancer or time in hospice care. He tells a story about his dad working up the strength to walk from his room at hospice to the car. The hospice told him he couldn’t go home because he wasn’t able to even make that walk. He did it because he wanted to go back to his home of forty years for one last holiday with his family.
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One of the biggest issues with Beyond Tomorrow is the way any momentum is constantly squashed. Whenever there is a build-up to something exciting, the transitions swoop in to ruin it. Because we’re going down memory lane for most of the documentary, it’s amazing to get to something of particular interest. But to have that interrupted by a silent and long montage feels mean each time it happens. We have a few points of interest too. Mostly when people a little removed from the subject discuss his work in the grander scope of science fiction.
One interviewee described a “deep nostalgia for a future that never happened.” I wanted more time to analyze that concept because it’s so familiar and important to Scarfo’s work. There was no follow-up though. However, they went on to talk about the societal need to colonize everything. Which led to Bezos and Musk catching strays for their space mess. This was one of my favorite moments in the film. My other favorite moment is a story told by Scarfo’s relatives about an unusual man that contacted their father. Whether he was an alien or a rando with a very weird watch that happened to know too much, is left up to us. However, it’s also a nod to Scarfo’s art that people sought him out to talk about his vision of the future.
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Beyond Tomorrow is an insightful look into the life of the man behind the art that most of us have taken for granted. The film also picks up some interesting threads from that work. However, I did wish we had more time for stories of other randos that saw his work and contacted him. Or more commentary on how we didn’t get the future Scarfo drew and that sense of nostalgia that comes with it. That future was a hope that was lost. There’s so much more to mine when discussing his artistic legacy. On the flip side, we have the internet, so we can all follow the threads started here and talk among ourselves.
Let me know if you have seen Beyond Tomorrow at @misssharai.
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Beyond Tomorrow
Summary
It’s a touching tribute to the life and work of a beloved artist. It’s just not always sure if it wants to focus on the life or the art at times.
