 | MOVIE DETAILS • Name: Are We Not Cats • Year: 2016 • Country: USA • Director: Xander Robin • Main cast: Michael Patrick Nicholson, Chelsea Lopez, Michael Godere • Runtime: 78 minutes • Production company: F • TRAILER |
Mike Hostench (the subdirector of the Sitges Film Fest) came to present this movie on the third day of the festival. He said he was very excited to do so, and explained that, as part of the programming committee, they receive around 3.000 feature films, and he was lucky to be assigned to watch Are We Not Cats, since for him was one of the 6 best films screened at the festival this year.
Are We Not Cats, who received a Special Mention (Noves Visions PLUS) in Sitges, is a very sensitive and personal film about addictions. So personal, that the main character is inspired by the director himself. But he’s not the kind of junkie you could imagine, not at all, and his drug is not “hairoin”, but just hair. He presents us a loser (has lost literally everything) in concatenated initial situations that are explained in a way that, even if they are very dramatic, they still have a magic funny side that give him and the movie a sympathetic feeling (surely Michael Patrick Nicholson’s acting is related to this impression). We kind of care about the young man, and we’re with him when he tries to start again his life, with a last-minute-given truck, driving and sleeping, alone, in a cold winter. The same sympathy appears for the female character, a well found also lonely Chelsea Lopez. A simple and aesthetic narration, an action taking place in weird corners, with even more rare characters, and intriguing photography according to the story, make of this film a special piece of intimate cinema.
From my point of view, it looses a bit the rhythm towards the end, which makes me wonder if the adaptation from a short film signed by the same Xander Robin was completely necessary… but anyway, it’s not up to me to judge since I haven’t had the chance to see the short, and also the running time of this feature is short enough for not loosing its north. The lonely world of both characters, surrounded by poverty and resignation, discovered through comedy, horror and romance, and filmed as a low budget production, certainly deserves a try. You may be touched, and you may even love it.
RATE: 6,5/10
IMDB URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5325492
