Cat Person

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.

On multiple occasions, while watching this movie, I asked myself where they were going with this and if it really made sense, and then in the end, I would give it a resounding YES. The writing is a top-notch non-tradition take on the thriller genre. It seems like it's this innocuous modern film making a mess at first look; the whole process is giving a wink to the audience, and my interpretation was that if you're a male watching for his and you're getting frustrated, then you need to finish the whole thing because it's a wink to The Y chromosomes in the audience.

Emilia Jones Is the female lead; I remembered her from "Lock and Key," a forgettable role; as an actress, she doesn't emote enough for my purposes. She always looks a little bit lost and depressed. Maybe that's just the roles she's taking or the condition of her generation. Likability isn't a takeaway in this performance; her best friend/ roommate is painful to watch; every role I've seen this actress is in one word...Insufferable!

Nicholas Braun, this is the only thing I've ever seen him in besides his succession role. GREG was my favorite character on the show in many ways. This very authentic, quirky, dry sense of humor will take him a long way in this business. He will be a working character actor, AKA William H Macy or John C Reilly mold. It was interesting to see him in a different type of role. Though it wasn't all that different from Greg's season of succession, it was a departure. I liked that his character was a cinephile, a massive Harrison Ford fan, which I can identify with because I grew up being a significant fan of his until he destroyed his career. The emasculation and killing of all the beloved characters that made him a legend was a travesty.

I'm looking forward to Braun's next role. Hopefully, it'll be a complete departure from Greg, but this was a step in the right direction.

Overall, I was pleased with this film; sometimes, I don't like many "fantasy thinking setup shots" constantly using that trope because it's typically a cop-out, but it's essential in the context of this story. It's nice that the Genre that has been Done to Death has a fresh voice-Cat Person's Director Susana Fogel.

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.

College student Margot meets and flirts with a guy a few years older than her at her place of work, a cinema. The pair soon start a deep connection, via text, but reality doesn't quite match up to fantasy.

There are several meanings of the term cat person, one meaning I wasn't aware of, someone who can't differentiate between real life sex and porn.

First of all, getting to see this film proved to be something of a challenge, I had to travel over an hour, as it was never shown locally, a real shame, this film is well worth seeing.

Very intriguing, suspenseful, and pretty original, I can't think of many films like it. It's a film of two halves, there's comes a point where there's a real switch up, it goes up several gears.

Now, most of the reviews I've read follow the same sort of view, poor Margot, terrible and predatory man, I'd just like to give a different view point.

First off, Margot made most of the running, bombarding Robert with promises, without even truly knowing him, she got what she thought she wanted out if him, then discarded him when she got bored, maybe it's a generational thing.

The film doesn't actually make out that Robert is the guilty party, there's one scene in particularly where Margot realises, she got it wrong.

Had something happened to Margot in her past? Was she reliving a past trauma through him?

Emilia Jones and Nicholas Braun are both excellent, and credit for his casting, I don't mean this in a derogatory way, but he's not a muscular jock or a male model, he's a good looking guy next door, it made the story all the more believable.

That music, fire! So many great tunes, years since I last heard Sophie B. Hawkins.

Is it a film about consent, life choices, or using people? You decide.

Excellent, 8/10.

Cat Person. I don't understand the poor reviews for this film. I watched it on the recommendation of Mark Kermode (potentially pretentious film critic) who loved it and suggested his side kick Simon (Everyman) Mayo would love it too. So why the poor scores on rotten tomatoes and IMDB? I was intrigued. And after watching the film, Kermode was spot on. Margot, who works at her local cinema meets Robert, a regular cinema-goer at her place of work. She thinks he's a little strange. He's a little awkward but likes her and asks for her number. She acquiesces. There then follows a series of text message exchanges. They form a 'relationship' without having properly met. Margot gets images of how it's going to play out when they finally meet. And most are not good ones. Robert thinks that this might be the start of something special. And they eventually meet and it doesn't go according to plan. But how much of this is real and how much is imagined from their text history? No spoilers here but the interpretation of this film may not be as clear cut as either Margot or Robert might think. It is narratively simple yet its interpretation is, for me at least, purposefully ambiguous. And its all the better for it. An intriguing 8 out of ten.