2023 Directed by Susanna Fogel
College student Margot meets 33-year-old Robert at the movie theater where she works. After a casual flirtation at the concession stand, they carry on conversations through texts. As their perceptions of each other collide, events spiral out of control.
Elizabeth Banks Gino Falsetto Max Handelman Michelle Ashford Susanna Fogel Daniel Hank Shana Eddy-Grouf Rachel Henochsberg Anna Marsh
Roni Pillischer Shaun Brennan Ryan Collison Leslie Bloome Jeff Pullman Eric Hirsch Chris White Tim Obzud Curtis Henderson Connor Nagy
essential succession viewing gotta cover this on the podcast (new episodes of “succ off” every monday)
I really liked this. Margot (Emilia Jones) is a college student and works at a movie theater where she meets an older man, Robert (Nicholas Braun) and they begin a “relationship” (so to speak). From Margot’s perspective we occasionally see her fears play out on screen in the moment illustrating the threat assessments that have been trained into her every day life. It’s so much that her best friend sarcastically quips “Being a girl is so fun!” This also makes dating incredibly awkward as evidenced by Margot and Robert’s courtship. From cringe comedy, rom-com to thriller, Cat Person doesn’t always successfully balance all of the tones, but I really loved the exploration here. Love Emilia Jones even more after this. She’s excellent. Braun is similarly perfectly cast. This will likely be divisive, but I tend to love those kinds of films. (unless we’re talking about Skinamarink of course).
2023 Ranked
Sundance 2023 Ranked
Degrees of Kevin Bacon: 1
1. Hope Davis and Kevin Bacon in Flatliners
CAT PERSON seriously stressed me out. Susanna Fogel skillfully conveys the fears & anxieties of modern dating by placing us in her lead character’s headspace. Emilia Jones & Nicholas Braun’s uncomfortable chemistry starts off sweet, then turns to cringe before finally morphing into a true paranoid nightmare. I’m sure many will unfortunately relate to this which makes it all the more terrifying while raising some important questions about how we can and do connect nowadays. It will be interesting to hear the different perspectives on this one.
Oy vey. With hindsight I don’t think there’s any way to put this to screen properly but so many decisions were made to make it worse than bad. Good casting, bad music, horrendous invented ending. We’ve got to start keeping track of when the contemporary Subversive Feminist Thrillers began and stop them ever happening again. FWIW I really liked Promising Young Woman and can anticipate the parallels, but I think that film got it right and this one kind of has no clue. Feels dated and reductive of both men and women - no feminist society exists in which every man is the enemy! Want to write more about this but gonna have a little stress dream or two first!
jesus christ. longest 2 hours of my life. all the subtlety of a brick to the face. promising young woman for people who are too worried about how “lonely” young men are these days.
manages to simultaneously take 2 wildly opposing stances on patriarchal violence & incel culture and execute them both in a way that is cartoonishly on the nose, corny, and kinda offensive. cinema is dead, maybe?
friends asked what happens in the final act (not in the original story) and i couldn’t stop laughing while explaining it over voice note cuz it just felt like i was making shit up as i was talking. fogel’s other movie, the spy who dumped me, i also could not stop laughing at — but in the best way. watch that instead ?
Cat Person is almost unbearably - yet authentically - uncomfortable, cycling through nearly all of the anxieties women have with dating in the digital age by placing us directly in the perspective of Emilia Jones’ Margot so we experience the movie in her mind. A scorcher.
