Sundance 2023: The Atrocious and Annoying Clumsiness of the 'Cat Person'

Is that really dating these days? ! I can not believe it. I don't want to believe it. It can't be real. Can he...?? I'm not one to be very negative about a movie, but I have to get rid of that. Cat Person is bad, really bad. It's one of the worst movies I've seen at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, not necessarily because the direction is bad, but because the whole movie is wrong. I didn't think they could extend the grimace and awkwardness of the original (from New Yorker] story so much and make it even more awkward. But somehow they made it… It's such an uncomfortable watch. The movie just features boring silly grimaces for two hours with absolutely nothing interesting or worthwhile to add or explore or consider or think about. I'm shocked at how messed up this movie is. It's not really about toxic masculinity, it's actually about a young woman who keeps making incredibly stupid choices and never learns from them. Her best friend constantly tries to stop her from making mistakes, but she never listens to her… Never.

Cat Person is directed by Susanna Fogel, bringing to life the infamous story of a young woman trying to date a slightly older man. This is her second feature film as a director, after a lot of television work, and mostly writing scripts before that. Emilia Jones stars as Margot, a college student who works at a small arthouse movie theater in town when she's not in class. That's where she meets this grumpy, very tall guy named Robert, played most awkwardly by Nicholas Braun. He asks for her number and for no good reason, she gives it to him. The rest of the film unfolds from her difficult point of view, as she begins a text-based relationship with him, eventually leading to a number of seriously weird and terrible dates, and a night of bonding that's painful to watch – that's exactly when everyone is going to be screaming during this movie. Everything about his experience is a mess. Yeah, obviously it's supposed to be a story from the perspective of a young woman making those mistakes, unable to understand or make sense of the hundreds of red flags or whatever. It might be fine for the first half, but at some point I thought she would come to her senses and learn something from going through it all.

There are some shocking inconsistencies with the film: is it horror? Is it a comedy? What is it anyway? Why do we have to sit for two hours watching her try to date this painfully stupid guy? And by trying, I really mean trying, because they're both terrible at everything. Wait - that's ALL of this movie? ! Seriously?! When do we see anything else? Although there are characters who say sensible things (her best friend, even the cop), they are consistently ignored throughout. The movie doesn't even have a clear idea of ​​what it's trying to say in adapting the otherwise amusing New Yorker article. The horror touches are added because of course she's super scared and everything with men is horrible. They're almost played for laughs, which is weird because the rest is so gritty and creepy it's not even funny. Is this how people really act these days when it comes to dating? In my own experience, I've had a few fun flings with texting, but anyone with a brain quickly learns that it's all nonsense and you have to get to know someone in person< /em>. This should have been explored more, but the film stretches too long without any valuable lessons to offer.

If someone looks and says “this is exactly like my real life dating experiences”, I wonder if maybe they need a serious reality check. Nothing that happens in the film is realistic - it's exaggerated melodrama for cinematic purposes. No one should be so naive and careless, especially young women. The film fails miserably in trying to remind women not to fall into this trap and go down this path like she did, as it frustratingly tries to turn the awkwardness of it all into a corny horror schlock. made for television. He fails to get us to sympathize with none of the characters. Her best friend Taylor, played fiercely by the rather talented Geraldine Viswanathan, is the only one to offer intelligent and reasonable advice. But she's treated so badly by Margot throughout the movie, without even a single moment of reconciliation or understanding at the end, I don't know how anyone would...