Cat Person (2023)

Cat-Person-(2023)
Cat Person (2023)

Cat Person

“Cat Person” reveals the perils of becoming entangled with a man whose idea of romance is Han Solo kissing Princess Leia in the asteroid belt. But how can you be expected to spot such a teeny-tiny red flag? Margot (Emilia Jones) is a 20 year old college student who works part time at the concession stand of a local arthouse theater. She loves movies. She meets one of the regulars, Robert (Nicholas Braun), a tall, awkward guy. He’s older than she is. Something about him piques her interest. He feels the same way about her. They have an unsuccessful first “date,” which they don’t even call a date, and then engage in a text-only relationship that consists entirely of flirty banter no dick pics, no sex talk until they see each other again.

The opening scenes of “Cat Person” are involving, subtle, extremely well observed and beautifully played by Jones and Braun; from an outside perspective, it’s clear that these two people probably need to spend more than five minutes together to figure out if they like each other. Their relationship was backwards. The texting was so exciting, but then she noticed all these little things about him that annoyed her when he got there in person with his big body (ditto for him; “Cat Person” is from Margot’s point of view). All the scenes between Jones and Braun ring true if you’ve dated around at all, you’ll recognize it; if you’ve ever gotten swept away by texting with someone only to have it fall apart in person, you’ll recognize how this feels and director Susanna Fogel has such a light touch that even the “fantasy” moments land, like when Margot tries to picture what Robert does for work (Braun appears as construction worker/grave digger/office drone) or imagines Robert in therapy, talking about this smart, sexy girl he just met. It’s such a human and funny way of showing that the beginning stages of a relationship mostly happen inside your head.

And then, everything changes. The movie becomes completely unrealistic and implausible, drawing from a bottomless well of horror/erotic thriller clichés that could easily kill the audience’s suspension of disbelief. It wouldn’t be quite so mystifying if the source material Kristen Roupenian’s short story of the same name weren’t already so widely known. The ending of the short story arrives at around minute 80 in the film, but “Cat Person” has another 40 minutes to go. Everything after this point is an invention by screenwriter Michelle Ashford, and not only is it hackneyed, it also squanders Roupenian’s story’s discomfiting power. Why make up such wild things when you’ve got a short story that was everywhere, as everyone who was even half-alive in December 2017 will remember?

On Dec. 4, 2017, “Cat Person” was published in The New Yorker. Short stories don’t usually involve much fanfare, but with “Cat Person,” there was no missing it. Really: You couldn’t miss it if you tried. I struggled to think of an equivalent. Maybe Annie Proulx’s 1997 story “Brokeback Mountain,” which also ran in The New Yorker? Word spread about “Brokeback Mountain,” too (without social media!) Shirley Jackson’s 1948 story “The Lottery” prompted what her publisher called an avalanche of letters, readers mistook it for reportage; they didn’t seem to know it was fiction; one asked. “Are you describing a current custom?” People thought “Cat Person” was a personal essay. Context matters: “Cat Person” came loping along in tandem with the first months of #MeToo.

Its subject matter isn’t new (Mary McCarthy did it in “The Group”; Rona Jaffe did it in “The Best of Everything”), but it’s always timely. “Cat Person” is about the messy business of male-female “courtship” rituals, full of misread signals, unspoken apprehension and disregarded warning signs.

The film does capture some of the original’s spark, especially when it allows itself to be funny. It works really well as a comedy or at least an almost-comedy of manners, there aren’t many manners on display here. The way Robert is a know it all but a passive aggressive one: It’s funny! When Margot tells Robert that her favorite movie is “Spirited Away,” he can’t just say no when she asks if he’s seen it; he has to say, “I haven’t, but I know the director.” Oh, Robert. Their first kiss is truly terrible! How can this middle aged man not know how to kiss properly? The way Margot rationalizes staying in a terrible kissing relationship with a passive aggressive weirdo annoys her best friend (Geraldine Viswanathan), who has her own complicated thing going on as the mod of a feminist message board. There are laughs here.

However, the sex scene was quite possibly the funniest and most eye-opening scene in the film. In this moment, Fogel really taps into the awkwardness that is inherent to all of us but rarely ever shown on screen and does so through a daring stylistic choice which should be seen rather than told. It’s amazing! The sex scene just keeps going! It’s unbearable but also funny. Fogel and Ashford find a way to explore what’s happening in somebody’s head during terrible sex not only after it, but while it’s still happening and you already realize you regretted it before. This is such an important moment that it could have been its own short movie. However, “Cat Person” takes everything underneath the story up until now and makes them literalized afterwards, which kills off some of that oh my god I’ve been through this feeling from the original.

The sex scene captures why everyone dropped everything to read this short story in December 2017 so accurately.

For More Movies Visit Putlocker.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top