'CODA' star Emilia Jones plays a 20-year-old college sophomore who starts flirting with an older guy, then realizes he might be a serial killer, for all she knows, in a look that invites reflection on gender dynamics.
In the twisted and ambiguous Sundance story Cat Person, two bachelors half a generation apart see their relationship very differently. Even the word "relationship" is relative. Margot (Emilia Jones), a 20-year-old sophomore, works at the concession stand at a repertory theater, where she flirts with a patron who looks somewhat like a young Nicolas Cage. She is not a young “Valley Girl”. More like "Wild at Heart"-was Nicolas Cage, minus the charisma. Margot describes him as "tall, dark and... troublesome" to her roommate. Still, she's intrigued enough to give him her number. The two start texting, what might aptly be called "mixed texting," and things get complicated.
Director: Susanna Fogel
Writers: Michelle Ashford, Kristen Roupenian
Stars: Hope Davis, Emilia Jones, Nicholas Braun
Director Susanna Fogel, co-writer of "Booksmart," about the coming-of-age of Generation Z, likes it complicated. In 2017, "Cat Person" originated as a fictional entry in The New Yorker, but quickly became something more. Long before anyone thought to adapt it for the big screen, Kristen Roupenian's tale struck a chord with the culture, which was already grappling with its understanding of seduction and consent. "Cat Person" was published two months after the magazine published Ronan Farrow's exposé on Harvey Weinstein, and just weeks before a woman accused Aziz Ansari of "the worst night of my life."
Open to conflicting interpretations from any perspective, "Cat Person" invited debate, squarely taking on the gray areas of modern dating. Fogel and screenwriter Michelle Ashford ("Masters of Sex") make the surprising decision to treat the material more like genre fare than traditional rom-com, where the meet-and-greet isn't cute and what follows isn't the idea of a quote from nobody movie. Three years on from "Promising Young Woman," we've been given a movie that's funny in some places, terrifying in others, and almost destined to be a reference point in future discussions of courtship, a notion that here has become commonplace. late to campus. at night with Fruity Pebbles and a Slurpee. We're a long way from "Say Anything," but a lot closer to reality, and that's saying something.
Near the beginning, Fogel introduces a quote from "The Handmaid's Tale" author Margaret Atwood, which hits so squarely in the nose that it nearly gave the movie a black eye: "Men are afraid women will laugh. women are afraid of being killed by men." Although some might take issue with that assessment, as written, the movie begins to feel like an exercise in proving Atwood right. To that end, Margot is prone to to "Ally McBeal"-esque flashes of fantasy and fear, going as far as an extreme scenario, such as being attacked by Robert, the Red Vines-buying movie buff she's been texting, only to abruptly come back to sanity. Normally played for laughs, this sitcom cliché takes on a new look in the way Fogel uses it, the film's strategy of pandering to the "what if he's a serial killer?" Margot Anxieties Repeat e l enough trick and the public will start to be skeptical.
That's a healthy attitude to have here. Fogel presents “Cat Person” as Margot's subjective experience, implying a certain lack of self-awareness. Margot initiates the flirtation at the concession stand, half-stalking him from the back of the theater and bypassing the hard-to-reach games, exchanging hundreds of text messages, which multiply on the screen like bacteria in a petri dish. . Robert is older, knows what he wants, and has a full-time job, all of which suggest a power differential. But youth and beauty give Margot an edge she's only just discovering, and this awkward, somewhat pathetic, bad kisser guy is something of an experiment.
Ashford has done an admirable job of expanding the short story, adding a wild last act, and fleshing out Margot's world to include a best friend, a mother, an R.A. and a teacher (Isabella Rossellini) who serve as a sounding board for some of her doubts. Rossellini in particular is a nice touch: a teacher who sees potential in the otherwise pretty hard on herself Margot, and whose expertise in the mating habits of certain insects draws on the arthouse legend's "Green Porno" project. .
Watch Cat Person 2023 Movie Trailer
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