Movie · 2019 · Fantasy, Comedy, Drama · 1h 50m · PG · English
Curator score: 0.1/10 (59.8K ratings)
You will believe.
Overview
A tribe of cats called the Jellicles must decide yearly which one will ascend to the Heaviside Layer and come back to a new Jellicle life.
Ratings
Curator score: 0.1/10
IMDb: 2.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 19%
Metacritic: 32
TMDB: 4.1/10
Director
Tom Hooper
Production
Universal Pictures, Perfect World Pictures, Working Title Films, Amblin Entertainment, Monumental Pictures, The Really Useful Group
Cast
Francesca Hayward, Judi Dench, Idris Elba, Jason Derulo, Jennifer Hudson, James Corden, Ian McKellen, Taylor Swift, Rebel Wilson, Ray Winstone, Larry Bourgeois, Laurent Bourgeois, Laurie Davidson, Robert Fairchild, Danny Collins, Naoimh Morgan, Steven McRae, Mette, Daniela Norman, Jaih Betote
Where to watch
Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads
Curator Review
Verdict
A spectacularly misguided studio musical that can be fascinating as a disaster, a curiosity, or a camp endurance test. It’s not a good movie in any conventional sense, but its sheer audacity, star wattage, and uncanny visual choices make it memorable for the right kind of viewer.
Best for
camp-movie devotees
musical-theater obsessives
fans of so-bad-it’s-compelling spectacles
viewers who enjoy big-budget oddities
late-night group watch audiences
Skip if
you want coherent storytelling
you dislike uncanny visual effects
you need polished musical adaptation craft
you have no tolerance for tonal chaos
you’re looking for a straightforward family fantasy
Overview
Cats is the rare studio film that feels less like a finished object than a public experiment gone feral. The plot is thin even by musical standards, but the movie’s real subject is its own bizarre existence: a parade of performers, digital fur, and theatrical commitment colliding in a way that is often baffling and occasionally hypnotic.
Worth noting
What makes it endure is not quality but force of personality. The cast throws itself into the material, the production design creates a queasy alternate reality, and the whole thing has the energy of a prestige project that accidentally wandered into nightmare territory. If you approach it as a conventional adaptation, it’s a failure; if you approach it as camp, it becomes weirdly watchable.
Bottom line
This is not an easy recommendation, but it is a distinctive one. For viewers who like their cinema strange, overcooked, and impossible to forget, Cats offers a singular kind of entertainment: not pleasure exactly, but astonishment.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Patrick Willems · 7889 likes
There's no way I can give this any kind of numerical rating. It transcends "good" or "bad." It's a deranged nightmarish vision committed to 100% by everyone involved. It should never have been made, but I'm so glad it was. One of the best times I had in a movie theater in 2019. I'll probably never watch it again.
Sara Clements (1★) · 6330 likes
“Cats are not dogs” clearly since all dogs go to heaven and this is definitely hell
Lucy (0.5★) · 5472 likes
i’m gonna be really honest with you guys... this was the most fun i’ve ever had in my entire life
Mike Ginn (0.5★) · 4950 likes
I kept thinking how funny it would be if I killed myself in the middle of the showing so I whispered to my girlfriend, “you know what would be funny right now?” And she said, “If you killed yourself?”
Karsten (1.5★) · 4456 likes
The way I escaped the theatre as soon as the words “Written and Directed by Tom Hooper” appeared.