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Cat Person is one of those films based on someone’s short story you’ve never heard of, in some New York newspaper, and initially sets the scene by quoting Margaret Atwood: “Men are scared that women will laugh at them. Women are scared that men will kill them.” – Well, that’s set the dating scene back a century.
For our couple, Robert (Nicholas Braun – Poltergeist (2015 remake)) takes a trip to his local fleapit, buying food from Margot (Emilia Jones, brilliant in Brimstone, and if you weren’t aware, also the daughter of ‘The Snowman‘ singer Aled Jones), who works at the cinema’s concession stand – clearly dolled up as an old-style cinema, since the Odeon crams together tickets AND food, which is a royal pain if you just want a ticket and DON’T want to speak to a machine…
He always buys popcorn and Red Vines, never says please, and seems too old for her, with a 15-year age gap in the actors, him being 35, and her at 20.
Elsewhere in Margot’s life, her best friend, Taylor (Geraldine Viswanathan), tries to help with her relationship woes, while at college, Isabella Rossellini (Enemy) has a neat – but brief – turn as Dr. Enid Zabala, who’s very much into the study of ants and has a huge colony in her lab. Margot also has an overactive imagination, picturing Robert talking to a psychiatrist about dating her, plus wondering what he does for work, as well as some nefarious activities he might get up to.
But then, Robert is creepy AF, with so many red flags from the start, and is just plain weird, especially when he apparently ghosts her early on, and since he described himself in his dating bio as a ‘cat person’, where are the cats?
Cat Person has a lot of great music tracks, even if they do seem a bit random at times, varying from David Essex’s Rock On, to the theme tune of Zorba the Greek. However, some scenes go on way too long, you could easily cut out around 15-20 minutes, and overall, it does feel rather a mixed bag. Still, it’s worth a look.
Cat Person is in cinemas now, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, Kristen Roupenian‘s
paperback book is available along with other short stories.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 118 minutes
Release date: October 27th 2023
Studio: Studiocanal UK
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 6/10
Director: Susanna Fogel
Producers: Helen Estabrook, Jeremy Steckler
Screenplay: Michelle Ashford
Short story: Kristen Roupenian
Music: Heather McIntosh
Cast:
Margot: Emilia Jones
Robert: Nicholas Braun
Taylor: Geraldine Viswanathan
Dr. Enid Zabala: Isabella Rossellini
Kelly: Hope Davis
Ernie: Christopher Shyer
Beth: Liza Koshy
Officer Elaine: Liza Colan-Zayas
Peter: Michael Gandolfini
Dr. Resnick: Fred Melamed
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.