Welp. The older I get, the more I appreciate the idea that there will ALWAYS be something just around the corner that I couldnt have possibly concieved even in my wildest fever dreams that will manifest whether I want it to or not and proceed to simultaineously give me the strength to take on another day in this hellscape, while also wishing for the societal collapse to happen as swiftly as possible. Todays abstraction from the surrealist ether? ‘Kitty Mammas’.

Now, I initially saw a trailer for this film back in 2022/2023, and bookmarked it because…the plot is COMPLETELY ludicrous…But, i’ve finally got up to it on my ‘to watch’ pile…and I really wasnt dissapointed.

The film is a faux documentary following one ‘Dr. Han’ a disgraced medical professional allowed one last roll of the dice via part funding from the medical board, and part funding by a television network. Dr. Han was formally a reproductive infertility doctor, working in the cutting edge of his field, until an incident (which I wont spoil here) caused the board to revoke his license.

But he’s been allowed to practice once more with an interesting proposition. Han has noticed that a lot people treat their pets as if they were there children. So; Han has decided to see how viable it is to gestate a kitten in a human womb from implantation to full actual birth.

These kittens are slightly genetically modified to allow them to survive and grow in a human womb, AND he’s also modifying them to make them hypoallergenic so that their dander doesnt irritate their host.

The experiement is simple, four women, Sylvia, Rose, Joan and Maria have agreed to be implanted with Cat feotus’s, and will spend the next 90 days gestating the kittens, documenting any side effects and keeping the whole thing a secret from anyone they know, unless they’ve signed an NDA. Once the kittens are born, each woman will recieve 20 grand and they’ll get to keep the kitten, whether they choose to sell it after the birth is up to them.

Naturally, there are multiple subplots, Rose is a vlogger specialising in cat content who acts on and off like a cat with heavy emphasis on her 5 year old main ‘Mister Poof’ who’s decided to get pregnant with her own cats kitten (Because THAT isnt ABSOLUTELY horrifying and sketchy as all hell).

Joan wants to go to law school, but her mum is a hippy who wants her to pursue the ‘arts’ and wont help fund her dream, forcing her into this trial to make the cash to apply for a loan to go to school.

Sylvia is a work from home mum with several kids already who signed up for the trial for the cash (she wants to take her kids to disney) and because she wants an allergy free cat so that her husband (whos allergic) wont have any arguements against it.

And Maria, who’s in a lesbian relationship with her partner Jennifer, who’s in a HEAVY battle with her VERY religeous mother whos DESPERATELY trying to get Maria to go with a sperm donor. Maria wants the money to help part fund her wedding, and the cat is a nice bonus.

But all isnt quite as smooth sailing as it first appears, when a nosey reporter called Daryl comes onto the scene intent on further tarnishing Dr. Hans name and credibility due to a past grudge in which he believes Han stole his wife Theresa from him (Theresa left Daryl for reasons I also wont spoil here) Which is reignighted when Theresa (a vet) agrees to help support Hans work.

Having just sat through ‘Baby Cat’ not too long ago, I was kind of expecting much of the same, but barring one or two brief moments, I was actually quite wrong.

For the most part, this is just a fairly light hearted ‘slice of life’ mockumentary type thing spotlighting all the funny things that happen when women get pregnant, the obsession people have with their pets, plenty of moments of the ladies slowly developing cat traits (such as craving fish and milk from a saucer, nuzzling people, cleaning themselves) and a bit of dry deadpan humour about the absurdity of the situation to boot.

But then contrasting that, the film goes to some genuinely dark and upleasent places at times…It does offer a contrast, but I think they maybe go a little too hard at times for something so gentle. To the point that it kind of pulled me out of things a bit because it genuinely gets a bit icky at times.

Obviously, the elephant in the room is that this is a film about women giving birth to cats…and the best reason given for why the Dr even wants to pursue this venture is that, if its proven to viable, there could…maybe be a market for women who want to birth their own cats?…Its a fundamentle stumbling block really, and if you cant get over that, then this whole films just going to be long, awkward and boring for you. But if your able to accept that this is, just a thing thats happening…I think you may kind of get along with it.

The pacing is kind of on the slower side, but it never crawls. Theres always just about enough going on to keep things moving, the humour as mentioned is the lightest of the light side of things. But it did make me laugh a few times at just how absurd the whole thing is. Theres some passing social commentary on how society views women and womens ‘need’ to have kids. These moments come ABSOLUTELY out of left field, and like a speeding car, it’ll hit you, and speed off into the night before you realise youve even been hit.

I’d say consistently, its decent for most of the runtime pace wise, the acts are evenly distributed and transition really well, though; the transition from the 2nd to 3rd act lands like a wrecking ball because they decide to basically do the ‘all is lost’ trope of storytelling…but HARD CORE. so expect all the women, the dr and his staffs lives to entirely fall apart…

In fact, other than the deeply uncomfortable subject of women pushing cats out of, arguably one of the most sensitive parts of their bodies. that 3rd act is the only part where I feel it kind of comes unstuck really, as we get some VERY dark revelations about Daryl which felt very out of place for the film and kind of killed the lighter mood. Combined with multiple ‘birthing’ scenes that really just pulled the most uncomfortable parts of this movie right to the front and center. Smooth sailing for the most part, but that finale just felt SO weird and jarring.

Outside of that, I felt like all the characters were fairly well written, but had exstensive backgrounds and complexities which was nice. Rose as a character was the only one I really didnt get on with personally. They tried to go with the Vlogging angle, but it feels painfully dated even now, and her character is SO all over the place ranging from cringe to moments I genuinely thought the character had had a psychotic break. I wasnt a fan…Her segments just felt a bit awkward.

The dialogue too is a little bit hit and miss, at its best, its dry, naturalistic and genuinely quite well handled. At its worst? its stiff, unnatural, a little *too* ‘American All stars’ for my taste and cringey.

Its a deeply DEEPLY flawed script, but given the subject, thats kind of to be expected…what did surprise me honestly was just how they managed to keep the thing on the rails and gave an actual sincere attempt at trying to make a story that stood up as a professional end product.

As for the direction and cine? given its supposed to be a faux documentary, I can keep this pretty short and sweet. I feel like it captures the aesthetics of a low budget documentary, however, I do really feel this film suffers from a lack of dynamic cine and range. It desperately needed more coverage, more locaiton B-roll. its a bit overeliant on stock footage and I feel like the edit is VERY inconsistent, with there being at least 2-3 examples I saw where it felt like scene running order was a bit of an issue (for example, Dr. Han will mention something about the ladies, it’ll then cut to 2 of the ladies doing what Han mentioned, then it’ll cut back to Han who changes the subject, before cutting BACK to the other 2 ladies doing what Han mentioned a few paragraphs earlier) while they seem to nail the pacing just about, that running order regularly complicates a film visually that really didnt need to be as complicated as it was here…

Performance wise, there are clear winners here. For my money Stephanie Belding is the best performer in this thing as Dr Hans assistant nurse ‘Pauline’ shes dry, got some fantastic line delivery choices, fantastic physicality. She has 70 acting credits to her name, and I need that to be double because i’d watch her do this schtick in anything honestly. Morgan Kohan may have been given a bit of a dud character (in my opinion) but she plays it superbly, really throwing herself into the part and giving deliveries that ABSOLUTELY match the tone of the character, shes great.

I also have to mention Kathryn Kohut who gets probably the most traditional role here as Joan, an undergrad desperately trying to make a better life for herself, while being held back by her past and her family. I think she gets the best range to work with, some of the best lines in the film, and she does a really solid job. I do have to caveat that however, by adding that her physical performance is a little bit lacking. She doesnt really animate very well, and during her ‘birth’ scene, she seems more bored than in labour.

Paul Sun-Hyung Lee here? for me? is unfortunately probably the weakest element. while I cant fault most of his line deliveries. I feel like the range for this performance just inst quite strong enough, quite often he just comes across as a bit quiet and soft spoken. I feel a little bit more animation to his delivery (to match a decent physical energy) would have really helped take this to the next level.

Add to this a soundtrack thats INCREDIBLY minimalist, consisting mainly of stock tracks that are VERY sparse and pop in in perfectly timed instances as the film requires them and we have a bit of a catch 22 on our hands.

A film that technically is a perfectly sound, if not a little underwhelming, married up to a script that was better than I could have hoped, but unusually dark, unpleasent and downright unsettling in places. I absolutely dont think ‘Kitty Mammas’ is a bad film by any stretch. And I could see myself revisiting this one in the future…but my broader question as the credits rolled is ‘who is this really for?’ I think even the most ardant cat lover would struggle to make it through this one, its not weird or bad enough for the cult crowd, and its not good enough to elevate it to a ‘hidden gem’ its just a kind of sort of well made film dealing with a VERY surreal and unusual unsettling concept.

What I can say is, if you do choose to watch this, give it maybe 15 minutes…if you arnt pulled in by that point, the film isnt going to be for you, as it really doesnt change or perk up from there…

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/kitty-mammas/