Let's see... "Josie and the Pussycats is like a Twinkie." No, I used a food reference to start my Punisher review.
OK, OK, cat references... "Hairball." No, I used that in my Garfield review. Dang!
Umm... "Josie and the... Wussie-Cats!" Wow, not only is that lame, it doesn't make any sense.
Well, lack of a pithy opening aside, obviously Josie and the Pussycats isn't great art. It's not even a great movie. And, to be honest, no one really intended it to be.
It's pretty fluffy and formulaic (maybe Twinkie will work...) but when that's all a movie is aspiring to be it's hard to really come down on it.
Based on the Archie/Hanna-Barbera characters from the 70's, Josie is basically a way for teen/tween girls to break up an afternoon of shopping at the mall and giggling about boys.
It's actually cast quite well. Rachael Leigh Cook stars as the red/orange/pink-haired spunky guitarist and brings the requisite level of mousy cuteness. Tara Reid plays drummer Melody Valentine with a sexy saccharine smoky stupidity that's honestly so good you have to wonder. And Rosario Dawson rounds out the trio by stealing most scenes as sassy bassist Valerie Brown.
Alan Cumming and Parker Posey are both unfortunately simply out for paychecks as the crafty do-badders looking to use the Pussycats to hide subliminal messages to control the nation's teenagers' spending habits.
Parker especially turns in a performance that makes me embarrassed for her. Where is the Dairy Queen community actress or the crazed catalog snob I loved so much in recent Christopher Guest films?! You can do better Parker.
Anyway, as frothy as the movie is, it actually takes a misstep and tries parody/show us the dangers of product placement and trend chasing.
Article comments
1 - Dave Nalle
I have to mention that the music in the film is damned good pop for something written for a movie like this and performed very well by Kay Hanley who also writes some excellent songs.
2 - DrPat
I was dragooned into taking my nieces to this movie one afternoon, then toally surprised to enjoy it. I thought Posey's character was typical of her, with that snidely superior self-centeredness that every Parker Posey role seems to become.
I bought a copy for my daughter to put aside for her 3-year-old. It'll be just right for her by next year, I think...
3 - Marty Dodge
Well the cartoon was pretty rubbish so its no surprise the movie based on it isn't up to much.
4 - visualsimplicity
It's a fun flick. Just don't over analyze it. It's a great flick with a lot of inside jokes to the original cartoon. I mean, why was the manager's sister there anyway?
5 - NancyGail
Thought Alan Cumming was perfectly cast since he is good at bad.
6 - Thomas M. Sipos
I thought Alan Cummings and Parker Posey were excellent, the only consistently enjoyable elements in the film.
I also thought it had a great idea (a satire of commercialism and MTV video stylistics), but while the film started out strong, it ran out of things to say after some 15-20 minutes.