Starring Succession’s Nicholas Braun as Robert and Emilia Jones as Margot, Cat Person is brilliantly acted, and the scene setting is exceptional. There’s a scene where Margot is walking home from working at the Cinema, and after spotting Robert hanging around outside earlier in the evening, she is scared of being followed. Every element is visceral and relatable; how Margot blasts Britney Spears out of her headphones, her panic when her phone dies, the jumping at any sounds, the anxiety. All women have been in this situation multiple times: walking home, alone, in the dark, fearful that the worst will happen.
A lot of reviews for Cat Person, thus far, have panned it with one or two stars. Noticeably, the worst reviews have come from male writers. This, I think, is because fundamentally the film is based on fears women feel and the gendered nature of violence against women. Don’t get me wrong, Cat Person will not win any awards and I’m not sure I can wholeheartedly say it’s a film I enjoyed, but I do recommend watching it. Contradictory, I know.
What it does well and powerfully is show the escalation that women are scared of when they get in situations like Margot’s. Margaret Atwood explained it best (in a quote the film opened with): “Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.” How rejection can turn violent, how saying no often isn’t accepted, how being slut-shamed can get more and more cruel. The film follows the short story to its end, where Margot gets the text “whore” from Robert. Up until this point, it is illustrating all the calculations women go through to avoid being hurt- letting a man down gently, saying yes when you want to say no. Then, it departs from the story and shows what can and does happen to women all the time: where our fears become reality and misogyny becomes violent.
Cat Person is clunky with how it does this, and goes into cheesy thriller mode. It’s effective though, and for days afterwards I was thinking about the Roberts of the world I’ve dated- and how it always felt like I was one step away from being in life-threatening danger. It turns the ‘what if’ into reality, and shows how the version in our heads too often comes true.
It also succeeds in making us cringe, especially at Robert. In the first half, it contrasts the horrors happening in Margot’s head with the uncomfortable realities with Robert. For instance, the most disgusting kiss I have ever seen on screen. Truly truly rotten, hands-covering-my-eyes stuff.
However, the short story’s magic was in its nuance. In its mundanity. Powerful in how normal these interactions are for women, and how many men reading it didn’t see the anything wrong with the relationship. It created conversation and made people think; the film serves up what we should be thinking on a gory platter, and in doing so, loses its appeal.
On my walk home from watching Cat Person, a man crossed the street and started speaking to me. It was 11PM, I was alone, and it was dark. I went into a local shop and waited for him to walk ahead, then I put my airpods back in and played Britney Spears’ best hits on full volume.
Cat Person is showing in UK cinemas from 27 October 2023.
For more from GLAMOUR’s Contributing Editor, Chloe Laws, follow her @chloegracelaws.