Baby Cat (2023)
Out of the 8(!) or so paid or free movie streaming services I use semi-regularly, my Tubi algorithm has to be the purest expression of my madness. On other streaming services, I watch some mainstream/major releases. That leaks into my suggestions, along with the bigger streamers constantly pushing their original movies or expensive franchise acquisitions on me. Not Tubi. My Tubi recommendations are a melange of Z-grade horror and action, exploitation movies, and true oddball shit drawn from their deep well of trash and orphaned media. What other streaming service would suggest multiple Doris Wishman movies to an unsuspecting viewer? That is how my wife and I ended up on Tubi in the middle of the night, staring at the streaming tile for Baby Cat (2023).
The plot description: “When Dana moves into her new apartment she falls in love with the building’s cat but the cat is actually an adult woman in a costume.”
My wife said, “That can’t be a real movie.” I replied that it is probably either an alt comedy or some fetish shit. We looked at the image of the attractive lady in her “cat” costume, and assumed it was photoshopped to look sexier. Or heck, it might even be a completely unrelated actress/costume/image! That advertising bait and switch goes back to at least VHS covers, but seems to be even more common in streaming listings. In need of answers, our curiosity clicked the Cat.
“Is this a real movie with that plot?” Yes!!
“Is it an alt comedy or some fetish shit?” Yes!
“Is the cover image accurate?” Yes! That is the Cat (Fawn Williams), but in a shocking turn of events, the cover image has been altered to be LESS sexy than the actual movie. They photoshopped over the cleavage window in her tiny top to make it less revealing.
Dana (Natalie Cotter) just moved to the city for a new job. That job consists of a deranged boss in an empty office yelling at imaginary co-workers (except for one other happily unhelpful guy played by Chris Spinelli, who reminds me of Paul Reubens crossed with Tim Robinson). Home might be even weirder. A gorgeous woman (Fawn Williams) crawls around Dana’s new apartment building in a skimpy underwear “cat” outfit, rubbing up against people’s legs meowing and purring. All the other residents say just to act like this is normal. Eventually, out of loneliness and exhaustion she starts treating Cat like a cat, and companionship starts to develop into something more. That relationship (and the movie) is weird, funny, hot, and surprisingly sweet.
This is a no-budget, lo-fi affair from writer/director Scott Hllman. The overall cheap video look (that I saw someone else describe as “sub-youtube”) and amateurish feel will probably be enough to scare away most viewers, even the ones who would click on Baby Cat in the first place. After opening credits with what looks like AI cat art, it immediately hits you with some of the worst green screen compositing I have ever seen. As the movie goes on, they keep finding so many new and jarring ways to fuck up the backgrounds that I quickly realized it was an intentional goof. Every time Dana opens her apartment door, the “outside” is a surprise. At one point it almost becomes a jump scare, as you see a “giant” walking behind the actor on screen!
There are lines of dialogue that first seem off or poorly written that become jokes through repetition or callbacks (“Have you ever seen so many drugs?!”). The acting ranges from charming (shout out to non-binary performer Socks Whitmore as the sitcom-style “cool guy” neighbor) to amateurish to Tim & Eric-level bizarre “where did they find this person?” Occasionally there are scenes where flubbed lines or dialogue recording/mixing is a mess or just incomprehensible. Those felt like actual production/post-production problems, but most of the movie’s “flaws” seem to be intentional fuckery that only gets funnier as it goes on. There is a running subplot about a vigilante killing drug dealers straight out of an action B-movie. That is depicted almost entirely through stock footage, voice over, and scenes of a few actors in dark rooms talking to each other about it. I mostly appreciated the gag, but sometimes it goes on too long, making it the only real drag on the 88 minute runtime.
All that affected humor and anti-style makes it even more surprising when the movie reveals its heart. The central pairing goes from surreal comedy to sexy fantasy to tentatively starting an actual relationship, all without betraying its kinky roots. There is a pivotal scene where Dana’s mom comes to visit, and all of sudden Dana and the audience start to see this as something more than just a fetish fantasy. The best way to get at my emotions is to make me let my guard down (in this case with silliness and sexiness), and by the end I was invested and found it really sweet.
This might be the biggest disparity between how much I enjoyed a movie and how many people I can actually recommend it to. This is funny, original, and horny IF you can tolerate cheap-ass, amateurish movies, appreciate weird comedy, and enjoy a side of light kink and sex. Even then, it takes a while to get on its wavelength. My wife spent the first 20 minutes or so saying some variation of “What the FUCK is going on? What IS this?” but we kept watching. By the time the credits rolled, her final review was “5 out of 5 stars, #lifegoals.” So there you go.
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