Cats

[On Pointe]

The movie Cats opened today,  and even though I have never cared for the Broadway production or the score,  the almost universally bad reviews and low Rotten Tomatoes score piqued my curiosity.  And I wanted to see some dancing on the big screen.  Even though I went early in the day,  the theater was nearly full,  so Cats may be this year's Greatest Showman,  a film that audiences love in spite of the reviews.

Francesca Hayward makes an impressive film debut,  although a lot of her dancing is obscured by choreography that is busy and   overpopulated.  She has a lovely unself-conscious screen presence,  and a sweet voice.  She and Robert Fairchild (billed as "Robbie",  a bad move in my opinion) carry most of the narrative forward,  and do a lot of the solo singing.  Steven Rae's virtuosic turns and jumps were effectively showcased,  but he also did some terrific tapping.  I wanted to see more of the French hip hop duo Les Twins.  Andy Blankenbeuler is the choreographer and it was good to see him properly credited.  Choreographers have been getting short shrift in Hollywood lately.

I do wish the makeup design had been more consistent.  Hayward is so thoroughly whitened she looks almost like a geisha,  but the big name stars like Taylor Swift have just a suggestion of cat face.  Some cats wore shoes and clothing,  some had paws while others had human hands.  I thought that the mice children and the marching cockroaches were hilarious,  although the sight of Rebel Wilson scarfing down a few was a bit off-putting.  Some children will love this film,  while it might give others nightmares.  There is a very diverse cast,  but it was a bit problematic (to me anyway) that the "villain" was played by Idris Elba,  costumed like a black street pimp. It was altogether an odd "uncanny valley" experience.  But it was entertaining.

[dirac]

The critics rave:

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

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Watch the new adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats and you might wonder if director Tom Hooper (Les Misérables) had a personal vendetta against the composer. Did he set out to make the most repellent, obnoxious adaptation he could muster?

The Los Angeles Times

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And there is, to be sure, some representational value to be gleaned from these cats and their singing suicidal Olympics. Given how often the movies tend to stereotype felines as smug, pampered homebodies, there are certainly worse characters one could spend time with, though I am hard-pressed at the moment to think of many worse movies. I say this with zero hyperbole and the smallest kernel of admiration. For the most part, “Cats” is both a horror and an endurance test, a dispatch from some neon-drenched netherworld where the ghastly is inextricable from the tedious. Every so often it does paws — ahem, pause — to rise to the level of a self-aware hoot.

Variety

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“The King’s Speech” director Tom Hooper’s outlandishly tacky interpretation seems destined to become one of those once-in-a-blue-moon embarrassments that mars the résumés of great actors (poor Idris Elba, already scarred enough as the villainous Macavity) and trips up the careers of promising newcomers (like ballerina Francesca Hayward, whose wide-eyed, mouth-agape Victoria displays one expression for the entire movie)

The Seattle Times

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Cats” the movie has dancing in it, too — and some remarkable dancers, including Hayward, former New York City Ballet principal Robbie Fairchild and internationally acclaimed hip-hop duo Les Twins — but Hooper’s so busy moving the camera with every bar of the music, he kills the impact of it. (Blink and you’ll miss Les Twins.) And the choreography, by Andy Blankenbuehler (“Hamilton”), mishmashes every imaginable genre of dance into a muddle. Your eye can never linger, and so the movement doesn’t resonate; it’s just a bunch of people in cat suits jumping around. (This is not, alas, a descriptor that will sell tickets.)

Hollywood Reporter

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But if you recoiled back then at the sight of British acting royalty with their faces stuck onto little furry bodies, or even just the jarring image of cats with human breasts, chances are you'll still be covering your eyes and peering in a profoundly disturbed state through the gaps between your fingers at the finished film. At least until boredom sets in.

I lost track of the furball jokes.

[pherank]

The Beat writes, "Cats is the worst thing that has happened to cats since dogs."

The NYT writer's opening is pretty funny too:

Every Musical Number in ‘Cats,’ Ranked from ‘Huh?’ to ‘What???’
Is this an actual article, or merely one journalist’s attempt to reconnect the pieces of his broken brain after seeing ‘Cats’? Yes.

Edited December 21, 2019 by pherank

[On Pointe]

Lol - you should see the bad reviews!

Here are the stars promoting Cats on the Tonight Show.  Francesca Hayward is amazingly confident singing alongside Taylor Swift,  Jason DeRulo,  Jimmy Fallon,  James Corden and Jennifer Hudson,  which would be daunting for singers with years of experience:

 

[dirac]

I'm not sure if the cast should be promoting or in hiding at this point. I hope this fiasco doesn't sink Hayward's and Fairchild's chances at other movie roles.

The movie has tanked at the box office (cue the litter box office jokes). The few who are going skew older, so perhaps mature viewers familiar with the material shouldn't be scared off. I'm still traumatized by those stills of Taylor Swift with her rack jutting out of her furry cat costume, so I don't think I have the intestinal fortitude to take a chance. 

[On Pointe]

The cast may want to hide,  but they are contractually obligated to promote the film.  I doubt this will hurt Hayward as most of her reviews have been quite good.  Fairchild is largely unrecognizable.

[pherank]

I don't think it's going to make much difference in anyone's career, except perhaps for director Hooper's. Things just move so fast these days in the entertainment business, and there are many more acting venues today than there were during the "golden" days of Hollywood. Failing on, say, an HBO series doesn't mean there can't be success on the Apple TV+ network, Netflix, or on Broadway, etc.

[dirac]

People whose judgment I trust went to see it in the hopes of enjoying some campy frightfulness for Christmas and were somewhat disappointed to find out it was mostly mediocre and a little tedious.

[California]

I attended Cats with three family members who love the stage musical and have seen it many times. They loved the movie! 

I, on the other hand, have never seen the musical, largely because the whole concept of talking/singing/dancing cats creeps me out. So did the movie, but that probably reflects my bias against the whole enterprise.

Hayward could be seen on pointe in fleeting moments with the ensemble, but not most of the time. Fairchild had some nice spins and jumps. MacCrae was his usual fabulous tap-dancing self. The ensemble choreography threw in every genre and was hard to appreciate. 

I gather they all did their own singing and it was pretty impressive. I don't see how major roles for the dancers in this film could hurt their careers.

I guess the message is: if you like/love the musical, you'll like the movie, too. To each his own!

[dirac]

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I guess the message is: if you like/love the musical, you'll like the movie, too. To each his own!

Thanks for chiming in , California. Not sure how true this is, although familiarity with the material and the plot, for want of a better term, probably helps. Comparisons of the movie to the stage show have been generally unfavorable. I would be interested to hear from people who have seen both:

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A word about the dancing. Original choreographer Gillian Lynne died last year, but left an indelible mark with musicals such as “Cats” and “Phantom of the Opera.” Her choreography for this show was a perfect mix of animalism, ballet and modern movement. But much of it has been jettisoned for Andy Blankenbuehler’s (“Hamilton”) more organic street dancing. It’s not only a shame that Lynne’s famous work wasn’t immortalized on-screen, but Blankenbuehler’s new moves are a snooze. He turns “The Jellicle Ball” from a showstopper to a watch-checker.

 

[sandik]

I didn't see the stage version, but the combination of terrible reviews and the chance to see Les Twins was too much to resist.  Honestly, I'm not sure why people are complaining about the basic premise of the work (it's a talent contest to see which cat gets to die/be reincarnated into another life) -- it was the same thing when it was first premiered, and there didn't seem to be much complaining then.  And during the intervening years, we've seen an amazing amount of talent contest programming on television (The Voice, American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, etc). 

I liked what dancing I could see -- like many contemporary dance/music videos, it's hyper-edited so that the camera jumps around every phrase. But as others have commented -- Fairchild and Hayward get the most opportunities, and make what they can of them.  Macrae's tap number was excellent, and I must have blinked at just the right times because I did get a sense of Les Twins beautiful ease.  And I'm a sucker for a Busby Berkley number, even if they're dancing rats and cockroaches!

[BalanchineFan]

On 1/3/2020 at 12:28 AM, sandik said:

I didn't see the stage version, but the combination of terrible reviews and the chance to see Les Twins was too much to resist.  Honestly, I'm not sure why people are complaining about the basic premise of the work (it's a talent contest to see which cat gets to die/be reincarnated into another life) -- it was the same thing when it was first premiered, and there didn't seem to be much complaining then.  And during the intervening years, we've seen an amazing amount of talent contest programming on television (The Voice, American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, etc). 

I liked what dancing I could see -- like many contemporary dance/music videos, it's hyper-edited so that the camera jumps around every phrase. But as others have commented -- Fairchild and Hayward get the most opportunities, and make what they can of them.  Macrae's tap number was excellent, and I must have blinked at just the right times because I did get a sense of Les Twins beautiful ease.  And I'm a sucker for a Busby Berkley number, even if they're dancing rats and cockroaches!

I just came from the film and my issue is that I couldn't suspend my disbelief. Any film should present you with a world that makes sense, even if it's been done before. The same story can be believable one time and truly unbelievable and tedious the next, due to editing, performance, the pacing of the film and numerous other elements. The dancers were good but the choreography didn't do anything but allow them to prance around in their costumes and execute an arabesque or double turn every so often. None of it added up to anything. 

Also: WHAT is with this current trend of emotional actors allowing snot to run down their faces and sit there for an entire song? Please someone, make it stop!