Nowadays, if something becomes a viral sensation, it’s likely to be turned into a movie. That has turned out to be the case for Cat Person, based on the extraordinary Kristen Roupenian short story in The New Yorker that had everyone discussing modern dating horror stories. Susanna Fogel’s film was one of the buzz titles to emerge at Sundance earlier this year, and finally it’s ready to open in theaters to see if it’s truly the cat’s meow.
Starring CODA breakout Emilia Jones and Succession‘s Nicholas Braun, the film centers on college sophomore Margot, who goes on a date with the awkward Robert, an older man. However, the Robert she meets in real life isn’t like the guy she talked to online. For one thing, he claims to be a cat person…but where are the cats at his crib? Is he really giving off bad signals, or has Margot just been burned by sketchy dudes too often?
Fogel, who most recently helmed The Spy Who Dumped Me, directs from a script by Michelle Ashford. Others in the cast include Geraldine Viswanathan, Hope Davis, Fred Melamed, Isabella Rossellini, Michael Gandolfini, Liza Koshi, and Isaac Cole Powell.
Cortland’s review out of Sundance was very positive, saying the film “not only has bite, it has claws.”
Here’s the synopsis: When Margot, a college sophomore goes on a date with the older Robert, she finds that IRL Robert doesn’t live up to the Robert she has been flirting with over texts. Cat Person is a razor-sharp exploration of the gender divide, the quagmire of navigating modern dating and the dangerous projections we make in our minds about the person at the other end of our phones.
Cat Person opens in theaters on October 6th.
