There’s always plenty to be said in favour of taking a distinctly unusual premise and building an unconventional film around it, which challenges conventions about storytelling and character. On occasion, such an approach has resulted in truly striking, in some instances genuinely groundbreaking cinema. However, it can also result in works that simply feel tedious, self-indulgent and ultimately just a bit pointless. I’m afraid to say that, for me, writer-director Xander Robin’s Are We Not Cats very much falls into the latter category.
This is the first feature from US filmmaker Robin, and looking over his IMDb credits I’m not surprised to find that it was originally made as a short back in 2013. It’s easier to envisage the concept working better in that format than it does at feature-length, as – even at only 78 minutes – Are We Not Cats feels unnecessarily drawn out, padded with long silences and extraneous sequences which add virtually nothing to an already insubstantial narrative. That having been said, it’s readily apparent that Are We Not Cats was never intended to be your standard plot-driven film, so it’s feasible that viewers with a greater affinity for mumblecore than myself might find it agreeable enough.
Michael Patrick Nicholson (who also appeared in the original short, but may be better known for We Are Still Here) is Eli, a young man enduring a streak of bad luck; as we meet him, he loses his girlfriend, his job on a garbage truck, and his home, as his parents are selling the house. With his few possessions piled into the back of an old removals truck given to him by his father, Eli starts living on the road, sleeping in the truck, taking on any cash-in-hand work he can find. Circumstances lead him to some place far from home, where he winds up crossing paths with Kyle (Michael Godere) and his girlfriend Anya (Chelsea Lopez). In the days ahead, a curious connection builds between Kyle and Anya, centring largely on an unusual shared habit: they both like pulling their own hair out and eating it.
To acknowledge the strengths first: Are We Not Cats is well acted all around. In addition, Robin and cinematographer Matt Clegg have certainly given us a handsome film, with a gritty and natural look that really conveys the coldness and starkness of the locations. This somewhat bleak visual element, not to mention the sparse dialogue, contrasts greatly with the largely soul-driven soundtrack, adding up to a self-consciously odd, and ever-so indie atmosphere. Once again, if that’s your cup of tea then you might find plenty to enjoy from Are We Not Cats. On the other hand, its art house pretences and featherlight plot might prove off-putting and tedious.
The hair-eating device is largely understated until the final act, when events twist in a vaguely more horror-oriented direction; but given how grounded and naturalistic the action has been up to that point, this is a somewhat unconvincing development, and to me smacks rather of a too-little too-late effort to command the audience’s attention after an hour of self-indulgent meandering. It doesn’t help matters that the character of Anya feels dangerously close to that painfully played-out Manic Pixie Dream Girl archetype, of which we’ve seen all too much in American indies in the past 20 years, and which lends Are We Not Cats an air of generic indie boy romantic fantasy. Not that there’s necessarily anything inherently wrong with a bit of indie boy wish fulfilment; I just feel I’ve seen more than enough of it.
Those with a particular love for your classic American indie art house might derive some pleasure from Are We Not Cats, but as I think I’ve made abundantly clear, it really didn’t rub off on me at all. And one other thing that’s worth noting: if memory serves, we only see one actual feline for all of a few seconds, so cat lovers might wind up feeling a wee bit cheated too.
Are We Not Cats opens in select US cinemas on 23rd February, via Cleopatra Entertainment.