Catfight

This certainly won't be everyone's cup of tea but I quite enjoyed the sheer nihilistic futility of it all. Catfight is certainly original and takes on a narrative that keeps you guessing right to the end. There are some great digs at the pretentiousness of modern art and some gloriously violent fight scenes. You may hate it but it's definitely worth a try if you enjoy black comedy.

Raaaaaaaooooh! Yes, there is a "Catfight" going on (even more than one), and it lasts a long time. The black & blue comedy "Catfight" stars Sandra Oh and Anne Heche as two former college frenemies who reunite and end up knocking the lights out of each other. Sandra Oh plays Veronica, a trophy wife who is against her teenage son's wishes of becoming an artist. Anne Heche plays Ashley, a struggling lesbian artist who moonlights as a caterer. When Veronica and Ashley unexpectedly see each other at Veronica's husband business party, the claws come out and they both end up in some sort of violent punch drunk love; OK, maybe not love. Consequently, there is a punch domino effect of their brawl and brawls that turn each others life completely around; which I won't spoil cause you will punch me in the face. Writer-Director Onel Turkel pulls no punches in directing the movie with "over the top" farce; which sometimes pleasures your guilty bones while at other times it's too much to take. Nevertheless, I strangely was compelled by the antics of "Catfight"; especially with one particular scene with Veronica's looney aunt who names trees. Both Oh and Heche were excellent in their energetic roles. However, Alicia Silverstone as Ashley's lesbian lover seemed clueless to me. "Catfight" will not make it to 9 lives of reinvention but it's still worth the punch. **** Good

There's a really good movie in here, trying to escape and transcend the trashy selling point of girl-on-girl violence. When it comes, it is shocking and over-extended, in a way that can only mean someone is getting a kick out of it, thus cheapening the film and taking it perilously close to Russ Meyer, "Faster, Pussycat" territory. Then there's the lesbian couple, who don't get violent but who do a lot of tongues, again unnecessary and overdone. Underneath it all is a fresh and original take on family relations, mother-daughter jealousy, pseudiness in the art scene, etc.

Cat claws are joined by rock, brick, hammer, wrench, tire iron and more as a pair of self-important and toxic narcissists sink their fangs into each other. Ashley and Veronica are from opposite sides of the political spectrum yet both share an unquenchable hatred for anyone who attacks their image. Veronica (Sandra Oh) is a caustic and drunken gold digger married to a businessman making insane profits from a war in the Middle East. She encourages her son to be anything other than a useless artist. Ashley (Anne Heche) is a sadistic painter whose apocalyptic view of war tolerates no blasphemies, including and not limited to the "false color" blue. Her partner is a clueless snob who, like herself, rejects anything that isn't a carbon copy of her own fluctuating views. Ashley and Veronica are former college acquaintances, now in their forties, who meet at a party. Soon they enter into a bitter, knock- down and bone- crushing brawl in the stairwell. This won't be the only fight. In their all-consuming rivalry they risk losing everything. The heat of a fire consumes all the fuel and air before it dies.

Catfight is fueled by dark humor and a realistic portrayal of narcissistic personality disorder. Narcissists believe that money, success and power entitles them to treat others like trash. Yet narcissists are useful to the world because they see through all its fallacies (the greatest sinners make the best preachers). Ashley and Veronica are self-absorbed, have no empathy for others and treat their assistants more like servants and machines than persons. They are too broken to reveal their wounds to others though, which is why they never truly heal.

The violence in Catfight is really brutal and vastly different from other cinematic fight scenes. The female on female fighting is just one aspect that makes the fight scenes different. Other nuances include creative brawling tools and settings, compelling themes and characters, and great acting. Anne Heche and Sandra Oh are versatile, capable actors that are adept at this type of satire. Catfight's director, in the question and answer session after the film, said that Anne and Sandra had different, but equally effective, styles of preparing for the scenes. One actor was methodical in planning and preparation, and the other was energized by each passing moment. World premiere seen at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival.

I think it was Kapuscinski who wrote "war is but a series of revenges with an untraceable origin", then there´s Gandhi and his famous "eye for an eye and the world will go blind". Some might despise this film for being such an obvious allegory but it´s just too rich. It might lose some balance at times between its despicable characters and their meaning but nonetheless, it does work on both levels, personally and globally. A tight structure allows the film to expose its point with sharpness and confidence. It´s able to settle years of war debate in a 30 seconds piece of dialogue. It goes from social critique to symbolism to downright comedy in a matter of seconds, totally in control.

Comically, it works, oh yes. There´s something oddly funny about two people grudging obsessively over the years. I think "The Duellists" had a lot of unintentional humor. This one embraces the absurd concept. It ironically glorifies violence featuring ridiculous punch sound effects and it never gets too close to the character´s misfortunes. It´s a comedy, first of all.

Conceptually, it stays neutral, and that´s no joke. Aggresions and affronts are equaly terrible on both sides. That is extremely important not to lose its validity. One can argue that Catfight has a few missteps but it´s certainly not clumsy. Better than that, it´s absolutely hilarious.