I had no idea Susanna Fogel’s “Cat Person” was even out in theaters. This one should have reached a decent audience and stirred up debate amongst movie audiences.
Studio Canal invested $12 million to produce “Cat Person,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to mixed reviews (I liked it!). It then got bought by Gialto who distributed the film theatrically last Friday. The reception was crickets.
A Matthew Belloni Puck News article had originally mentioned that Netflix offered to buy the film for $5 million, but with no theatrical prospects.
The film, which features some of the most awkward sex you will ever witness on-screen, is based on the mega-viral New Yorker story of the same name. It stars Emilia Jones as a 20-year-old sophomore college student, Margot, who embarks on a brief relationship with Robert (Nicholas Braun), an older man who frequently visits the movie theater she works at.
It’s a provocative movie about consent, clear-headed communication and the unwritten rules that come in the messy discomfort of sex — a modern-day movie that asks uncomfortable questions not many others dare tackle.
As mentioned, critics had none of it when it came to this provocative movie. “Cat Person” has a 52 on Metacritic and is 45% rotten on RT. Once again, the critical community got this one wrong, very wrong. This is a highly entertaining movie with a lot on its mind.
I almost wish that Netflix would have picked it up, it would have been the perfect platform for it, theatrical or not. Hopefully “Cat Person” gets reassessed in the future.
For once, Fincher walked into a movie wanting to keep things lean. Five, maybe six takes per setup. That was the plan. Then Tarantino heard about it and lost his mind.