AMERICAN CATS: The Good, The Bad & The Cuddly (2024) opens today

Comedian Amy Haggart (Full Frontal With Samantha Bee) looks at the cats in America, focusing on the drive to declaw the cats.

A funny and amusing film with a very serious under current AMERICAN CATS has some really great things in it. The trouble with the film is going to be how you react to Haggart and he acerbic snark. As much as I was enjoying the images and the discussion I  found I didn’t much care for Haggart’s personality. She simply rubbed me the wrong way.

My reservations aside this film is worth a look.

Kedi (2016) Milwaukee Film Festival 2016

Without a cat Istanbul would lose its soul.

I’ve been trying to come up with a clever way to review KEDI but ultimately it comes down to asking you a single question: Do you love to watch cat videos?

If you don’t love to watch cats being cute then skip this post and this film and go do something that involves blowing things up.

If on the other hand you love cat videos then make your way to the Milwaukee Film Festival and buy a ticket and be ready to ooo and ah for 80 minutes.

KEDI is a gorgeously shot film that is a love letter to Istanbul and all of the cats that live there. This is the film that the Turkish government should be sending out as advertising because the city looks so amazing and the people appear to be so friendly that I wanted to book a flight just to see the city, never mind the cats.

As for the cats they are an adorable bunch. We watch as they run all over the city, take care of their own and are tended to by the various inhabitants of the city. It’s a joy to see so many people care for such loving creatures. Its also a joy to just watch the cats go through their paces.

Seriously this is serious cat porn and anyone who gets lost watching cat videos for hour needs to see this. Why do they need it because since the film is a documentary, and thus a serious examination of cats in a city, cat video addicts can watch the film and not feel shame for wasting time. They can proudly claim it’s a real film and not just a you tube clip.

Yes fellow cat video lovers it’s come to this…

Highly recommended for anyone who loves cats. Those who hate cats need not apply


For tickets and more information go here
The film's website is here

ADDENDUM: KEDI has just been picked up by Oscilloscope and will be released to theaters in 2017

Lil Bub and Friendz (2013) Tribeca 2013

This is porn for people who love cat videos.

This is an amusing 65 minute look at Bub, other Internet cats, meme's and people making a buck from pictures from their cats. If you love cute things this film is for you.

There are two ways of looking at this:

If you don't like or don't care about cat videos then this is a very messy, slightly disorganized film that doesn't know what it's about. Covering too much material in too short a time the film is little more than a series of puff pieces blown up to feature length. Yes the cats are cute but it doesn't really say much of anything except cat lovers can be compared to serial killers (I'm not making that up).

If you do like cat videos then you'll have a great time looking at cute cats and people talking about cats. If you've ever wanted to see You Tube Cat videos on a big screen you'll be in heaven. Its wonderfully like a bunch of You Tube videos with just a bit more substance.

Ultimately this isn't a deep meaningful film, it's a film about cute cats and the crazy people who love them.

I liked the film, but wish there had been an editor and not an assembler. The film really is a collection of bits that are kind of connected by Bub's story.  That said I still had a good time. If you like cats you will too.

And in the interest of full disclosure I present a warning: this film contains language of a possible onjectionable nature

While this is kind of almost a perfect family film it comes with one possible drawback: There is a great deal of profanity in one part of it. I'm not talking hell or damn but shit and fuck (lots of them). Its around the sequence on marketing that the film goes from G or PG to R rated purely for the number of times certain words are used. I personally don't care but I know some parents who do and I can't in good conscious recommend the film to them even though I know their kids would love it. Because the language is only in one sequence I noticed that it was there simply because the words are not heard anywhere else in the film. I wouldn't have said anything except that as you can see by the ad which I stole from the Tribeca Tumblr is going to be shown at a family event.If you don't mind the language do take the kids.

ADDENDUM: After writing the review I spoke with Juliette Eisner producer of the film. I was told that the film was not put together with any audience in mind and that it was out together as they thought best with no thought of the language. Julie said  that the attention and size of the screenings its getting at Tribeca happily shocked them.