Catfight

Man this movie is dark. Did I mention that? It is unrelentingly ugly, and brutal in its view of its characters. They're not nice people and they have a long long way to go to get any sense of redemption, and they're a portrayal of the American psyche. A brutal look at modern day America and its inability to see the wrong footed path and twisted self perception. We don't see many movies made along these lines in our sanitised-made-for-forgettable-entertainment-kicks media world. This film is brave to take that on.

It's certainly got its faults. The sound design and music is pretty unpleasant, or maybe that's the point. The fight scenes are brutal and at the same time comic book with their sound effect CD punch sounds and silly unrealistic choreography and duration. For me they watered down the movie and made it drag. The the unrelenting darkness of the story and almost lack of resolution or forward motion and lesson learned, but again, maybe that was intentional. It certainly doesn't leave a pleasant taste in the mouth and even though the actors do a great job it's had to say that cos you dislike the characters so much.

The good bit is the social satire and commentary going on here. It harks back to 60s and 70s social commentary cinema that we really need now more than every to give us insight into our present world. The near future the film portrays is one that has let itself slip into war, and the draft, and believing it's own propaganda, and the stupidity and uncaring nature of its health system.

It is a funny movie, in that there are comical details in it, but it's not played for laughs, and these aren't laugh out loud moments.

This most certainly is a good film, a brave film, a challenging film, an unrelentingly honest film. Did I enjoy it? I don't know, am I supposed to?

It made me think though.

Cat claws are joined by rock, brick, hammer, wrench, tire iron and more as a pair of self-important and toxic narcissists sink their fangs into each other. Ashley and Veronica are from opposite sides of the political spectrum yet both share an unquenchable hatred for anyone who attacks their image. Veronica (Sandra Oh) is a caustic and drunken gold digger married to a businessman making insane profits from a war in the Middle East. She encourages her son to be anything other than a useless artist. Ashley (Anne Heche) is a sadistic painter whose apocalyptic view of war tolerates no blasphemies, including and not limited to the "false color" blue. Her partner is a clueless snob who, like herself, rejects anything that isn't a carbon copy of her own fluctuating views. Ashley and Veronica are former college acquaintances, now in their forties, who meet at a party. Soon they enter into a bitter, knock- down and bone- crushing brawl in the stairwell. This won't be the only fight. In their all-consuming rivalry they risk losing everything. The heat of a fire consumes all the fuel and air before it dies.

Catfight is fueled by dark humor and a realistic portrayal of narcissistic personality disorder. Narcissists believe that money, success and power entitles them to treat others like trash. Yet narcissists are useful to the world because they see through all its fallacies (the greatest sinners make the best preachers). Ashley and Veronica are self-absorbed, have no empathy for others and treat their assistants more like servants and machines than persons. They are too broken to reveal their wounds to others though, which is why they never truly heal.

The violence in Catfight is really brutal and vastly different from other cinematic fight scenes. The female on female fighting is just one aspect that makes the fight scenes different. Other nuances include creative brawling tools and settings, compelling themes and characters, and great acting. Anne Heche and Sandra Oh are versatile, capable actors that are adept at this type of satire. Catfight's director, in the question and answer session after the film, said that Anne and Sandra had different, but equally effective, styles of preparing for the scenes. One actor was methodical in planning and preparation, and the other was energized by each passing moment. World premiere seen at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival.

A weird and twisted character study of self absorbed, clueless narcissists ad nauseum.

I know, it's supposed to be a clever dark comedy, but having actually encountered more than a few examples of the very characters portrayed here in the real world, it was more like watching the equivalent of experiencing nails on a chalkboard.

I'm not knocking the film, or caliber of acting and direction, quite the contrary. As a film, it's actually a very well created production.

As a sort of snapshot into a world which really exists (well, sort of), perhaps it's a bit too realistic for comfort.

OK, the art gallery fight scene was more than a bit over the top.

Not to deliver any spoilers here, but perhaps an apt description could be summarized as a spectacular reversal of fortune story, mapped into a bizarre parallel universe of quirky characters and seemingly impossible scenarios which are actually all too real, depending upon which version of reality one might encounter at some seemingly random moment.

Not sure how to rate this, might not be for everyone, but it is definitely unique. A cautious seven stars . . .

The best thing about Catfight is that it offers a fairly unique and hard to find change of pace from many of the current crop of teen and young adult comedies.

Also on the plus side, it moves from a clearly satirical base into one of the most bizarre and (arguably) violent little feuds ever filmed (in the history of the medium) between two female characters who, presumably, should know better.

"Adults behaving badly" ... on steroids.

Which of course is its charm.

It also boasts performances from Heche and Oh which are not merely good but extraordinary. No matter how bizarre the character, no matter how over-stretched the script and dialog, these two actresses are fully committed to their portrayals.

It is the job of the reviewer to identify analogs of a story to better compare and contrast the production.

In the case of Catfight, this is not as easy as it looks.

While the overall plot can perhaps find resonances (for example) in something like Bad Santa 2003 (the first one, not the sequel) the overall tone and wickedness of the story, the complete disregard for anything resembling a normal dramatic narrative -- such as for example the over-utilization of "coma" as a continuity device? -- would require a trip back in time to the so-called experimental films of the 1960s.

Overall the final effect is remarkably like a car accident that attracts rubber-neckers, moreso than a cinematic breakthrough that attracts fans.

In other words, it is fun, novel, and interesting on first viewing. Something to tell your friends about.

But whether you would ever want to see another film just like it remains an open question.

There's a really good movie in here, trying to escape and transcend the trashy selling point of girl-on-girl violence. When it comes, it is shocking and over-extended, in a way that can only mean someone is getting a kick out of it, thus cheapening the film and taking it perilously close to Russ Meyer, "Faster, Pussycat" territory. Then there's the lesbian couple, who don't get violent but who do a lot of tongues, again unnecessary and overdone. Underneath it all is a fresh and original take on family relations, mother-daughter jealousy, pseudiness in the art scene, etc.