Film Review: CAT PERSON: A Thought-Provoking Dramatic Film Led by a Brave Performance from Emilia Jones [Sundance 2023]

Cat Person Review

Cat Person (2023) Film Review from the 46th Annual Sundance Film Festival, a movie directed by Susanna Fogel, written by Michelle Ashford and starring Emilia Jones, Nicholas Braun, Geraldine Viswanathan, Isabelle Rossellini, Hope Davis, Christopher Shyer, Liza Koshy, Josh Andres Rivera, Melissa Lehman, Isaac Powell, Jeremy Gill, Kyle Selig, Liz Colon-Zayas, Michael Gandolfini, Donald Elise Watkins, Fred Melamed, Camille Umoff and Sammy Arechar.

Consider director Susanna Fogel’s new film, Cat Person, a Fatal Attraction for the “Me Too” era with its extremely disturbing premise which becomes exhausting to watch at times. That’s because the two central characters are very mixed up in terms of what they think they are doing in a “relationship” that is based on the need for companionship more than anything in the realm of romance. The movie stars Emilia Jones and Nicholas Braun, two considerably good performers, and their work here (Jones’s especially) will keep viewers wondering which character is right in their assessment of the relationship at hand in the picture.

The movie opens with an unintentional giant advertisement for Icee, the crushed ice drink that is available at many movie theaters across the country, theme parks, etc. A young female movie theater employee named Margot (Jones) stands in front of the Icee machine as she gets ready to serve people at the concession stand. In walks a mysterious man in his 30’s named Robert (Braun) who orders a popcorn and Red Vines. This makes for some banal conversation as Margot informs Robert that Red Vines aren’t a big seller. She should have tried to sell him a drink instead. Soon, the two characters are texting each other and getting to know one another. He says he has cats but, later on, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Things get off to a pretty rocky start with the mismatched couple. At Margot’s college, Robert ends up kicking a door that closes which locks them in a science lab. A tank with spider-type creatures breaks and Margot’s professor, Dr. Enid Zabala (the always phenomenal Isabella Rossellini) gets upset. Why was Robert there in the first place? Margot should have known better. It begins to get complicated when the couple engage in sex where we hear Margot’s thoughts on the subject as the act is occurring. She wants out but doesn’t know how to tell the awkward Robert who doesn’t seem to know any better.

From there, the movie takes the stance of a 1987’s Fatal Attraction type picture in terms of its twisty plot. Margot’s best friend, Taylor (the charismatic Geraldine Viswanathan) breaks up with Robert for Margot via text message. Everything seems OK at first. Then, Robert sees Margot out with friends one night and things spiral out of control in the tradition of the 1987 film. It would be hard to think that Robert could be as vicious as the Glenn Close character was in Fatal Attraction but the movie surprises us by unveiling some dialogue from Robert that is pretty frightening in its excesses. His actions don’t help us side much with him either.

The whole idea of a film like Cat Person in the “Me Too” era is very worthwhile. The sexes can become confused about relationships and they probably have been since the beginning of time. What Cat Person does extraordinarily well is paint a picture of the signs that someone isn’t interested in a romantic relationship through the character of Margot and her actions towards Robert. It also shows how a man can run away with romantic thoughts that aren’t based in any sort of reality through the character of Robert.

What the film doesn’t do so great is bring the story to a satisfying conclusion. When things seem to wrap up nicely, the movie adds a typical Hollywood ending but not of the happy conclusion variety. It just seems to predict that Margot may repeat her mistake again which defeats the lesson she is supposed to learn during the course of the movie.

That being said, Jones is fantastic at adding confusion and awkwardness to her character who is obviously very smart but she’s a bit thrown by Robert for reasons the movie never makes totally clear. Robert is charming to a point but why would Margot take such huge risks to connect with him outside of the movie theater? Still, Jones excels in her role making us ultimately sympathize with her until the rather silly ending arrives. Braun succeeds in making his character difficult to get along with for Margot. The audience won’t like him too much either throughout the movie thanks to Braun’s spot on performance. Had we sympathized with Robert, the movie wouldn’t have worked so well. While Braun’s Robert has some good characteristics, they are outweighed by the bad by the time the movie gets to its climax.

Cat Person is the type of movie that can emerge from a festival and become a word of mouth indie hit. It certainly has a premise which will stir up controversy and conversations. With that on its side, it’s easy to recommend Cat Person as a movie to initiate the debate on dating and when it’s best to walk away from a relationship that can become toxic. This is also a movie that will continue Jones’s launch to stardom which started with her work in the fine film, CODA.

Rating: 8/10

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