Cat Person (15)

Twenty-year-old college student Margot works behind the concessions counter of her local multiplex between her anthropology studies. She gives her number to 33-year-old patron Robert and the pair volley pithy messages. When Margot and Robert meet again, his awkwardness jars with the quick-witted, "old-fashioned gentleman" he portrays online and Margot nurtures nagging concerns about the viability of a relationship.

LondonNet Film Review

Cat Person (15) Film Review from LondonNet

Dating is a minefield and it’s impossible not to sustain injuries in a modern era of right-swipe validations, where first impressions are nurtured by stalking social media accounts and red flags are repeatedly ignored to forge in-person connections, however transitory. Kristen Roupenian’s 2017 short story Cat Person in The New Yorker perfectly distilled those concerns and her 7,000-word fiction went viral, sparking feverish debate – particularly along gender lines – about the pressures and social niceties of connecting for the first time. The story ended, memorably, with an incendiary barrage of text messages and screenwriter Michelle Ashford appropriates the same hand-typed grenades for a provocative film adaptation…

Unfortunately, the bombshell is dropped around the 90-minute mark and Ashford invents an entirely different ending that propels characters into a hoary horror thriller of dangerous obsessions with one predictable and unpalatable outcome: violence. Before Cat Person leaves a nasty taste in the mouth, director Susanna Fogel orchestrates delicious sequences including the most hilariously excruciating and relatable sex scene you’ll see all year and a gleeful, stomach-churning desecration of a rom-com staple – the first kiss. Intimacy coordinator Olivia Troy and actors Emilia Jones and Nicholas Braun portray moments of vulnerability with a toe-curling realism that eludes the film’s frenzied resolution.

Twenty-year-old college student Margot (Jones) is charmingly unskilled in affairs of the heart after a break-up from her boyfriend Clay (Isaac Powell), who is fully embracing his asexuality after a brief flirtation with same-sex relationships. To help fund her anthropology studies under the imperious Dr Enid Zabala (Isabella Rossellini), Margot works behind the concessions counter of her local multiplex and she passes time by making snarky remarks about the customers via text with best friend Taylor (Geraldine Viswanathan), commenting that one patron “looks like a best friend in a Judd Apatow movie”. He turns out to be 33-year-old Robert (Braun), who asks for Margot’s number. She obliges and the pair volley pithy messages.

Margot eventually breaks Taylor’s two golden rules of texting: never message twice and always leave one text unanswered every day to assert control. When Margot and Robert meet again, his awkwardness jars with the quick-witted, “old-fashioned gentleman” he portrays online and Margot nurtures nagging concerns about the viability of a relationship. Her doubts (drolly visualised in punchy fantasy sequences) are exacerbated by a troubling incident on campus, which Margot fears may have been engineered by Robert.

Cat Person is two-thirds of a polished discourse on 21st-century courtship but the script’s extensive additions to Roupenian’s short story dull the lustre. During golden moments, Jones and Braun are a strangely believable mismatch and bold stylistic choices heighten the impact of dark humour. However, an incredulous final 30 minutes should have been neutered. This cat gets sour cream.

– Jo Planter