Cat Person

Premiered at Sundance, Cat Person is based on the viral New Yorker short story of the same name, as a college student played by Emilia Jones navigating a new romance, red flags, and horrifying turns. Tonally, this film is unsettling from the beginning, as Margot's mind wavers between fantasy and foresight, reading the tea leaves of text messages, favorite movies, and behaviors to determine if a new love interest is a quirky boyfriend or a dangerous threat. One particular scene is extraordinarily chilling, first uncomfortably comically to viscerally frightening themes about consent and sex that I've never seen in film. The final quarter of the film amplifies the tone beyond the rest of the film, ending awkwardly, which prompts me to wonder how it aligns with the story version.

Cat Person is a very sharply observed, darkly funny, and insightful dissection of modern dating and the complications and fears it can lead to for women.

The story is told from the perspective of college student Margot, as she embarks on a relationship with the seemingly decent Robert. For the most part the story isn't overly original, but it's more the perspective and creativity in telling the story that stands out, really allowing you to get into the mind of the character.

It achieves this through a solid script that balances dark comedy with serious drama and social commentary, as well as engaging lead performances from Emilia Jones and Nicholas Braun.

My only real complaint is that the pacing is far too slow throughout the film. It easily could have been twenty minutes shorter and had even more impact as a result.

Despite this I thought this film was great. Good concept with brilliant execution and a couple of solid lead performances to boot.

I wasn't a fan of director Susanna Fogel's work on Booksmart which she wrote, and the Spy Who Dumped Me which she also directed but this film shows impressive progress in her skill-set.

To the reviewers that got upset because they thought this film was anti men, the film was not anti men. It showed what the female characters feared, not what was real. It showed how the situation was partly of their own making, from their expectations and prejudices, as well as what the guy brought to it. It didn't judge but it left it open for us to do it.

The film was masterfully and tightly directed, lots of detail, subtlety and thought provoking scenes. It avoids black and whiting the complexity of where western society has taken itself in establishing relationships with other humans. The message was pretty bleak but we get insight into why it got that way, and there isn't really any finger pointing and blame attributing, (although it appears to side with the female lead it doesn't let her off the hook at all and the ending leaves it very open) as we do get a reasonably balanced understanding of the failings of all parties.

The direction was just really well done, and supported by insightful and nuanced performances from the cast, especially Emilia Jones who goes in the deep end after her stint in the Lock and Key series which she was also good in, & her award winning role in CODA, but this is next level.

There are many disturbing social observations in this film and it's great to have a movie made that dares to drift from the cartoon guns and violence fare we normally get. The film doesn't really deliver answers but it certainly identifies some of the problems.

I'm still thinking about the implications well after viewing it.

I saw this as part of an Odeon Screen unseen showing so was completely and literally in the dark about what I was going to see. Well I was pleasantly surprised. It's a tale about 20 year old Margot and her bouncing around the excitement and misunderstandings of relationships and how communication, expectation and reality can all blow things up.

There were times whenn I expected the story to go down a sinister route but then was I being manipulated by the opening quote?

Worth your time. This is just a privileged view into a 20 year Old's life which reverberated with me on many levels. If you approach this as just that then you won't be disappointed.

I went into this movie expecting this crime story with a huge plot twist and it wasn't even close. I wasn't exactly disappointed though because I actually enjoyed most of the movie. It was just the ending that let it down for me.

So the first half of the movie I totally understand.. as a female who dated for years before settling down I found myself laughing at the awkward situations the movie reminded me of. There is this fear, stress and complete awkwardness to modern dating. The movie captured that spot on. I can't speak for other women but I found myself relating completely to both of the main characters.

When it got to the end though I felt like there was just this desperation to make the movie end on a shocking note but it just didn't fit the rest of the movie. Id of rated it higher if they went their separate ways and learn from the mistakes they made.

(P. S Robert was definitely on the spectrum and Margot's super "woke" best friend really annoyed me.)