It's Really the two Exclamation Points that Sell a Talking Cat!?!
In searching for cinematic obscurities or oddities, a degree of searching or study is usually an expectation. Films have become easier to save or sell, and a side effect is that the rarest work inevitably ends up pushed aside. From my desk right now, I have about ten different ways of watching, say, the Avengers, but Robo Vampire - a Hong Kong film about an ersatz RoboCop fighting Chinese hopping vampires - is hard to find outside a copy uploaded to YouTube (which admittedly is in its entirely and free, but extremely difficult for most viewers otherwise).
But some films immediately create an air of the carny, particularly in an age of social media and near-instant video streaming. Sometimes, this leads to a proliferation of reverse-engineered attempts at instant cult status, often found from the works of studios like Troma or the Asylum. It's become more difficult to parse out these films, which really demand the march of time and a distance from their context to work as more than just a fleeting obsession.
There are, however, times when we must accept - or at least, stand in complete bewilderment to - a truly out of step work. something whose very existence seems more parodic than plausible. Case in point, a Talking Cat!?!, which body slammed the Internet with the force of a sumo wrestler.
Dig that fantastic animation at the end of the video! It also shows up in the opening credits, and it's exactly the kind of stylistic choice a kids' movie needs.
It's hard to actually be certain of any irony within a Talking Cat!?!, especially considering the pedigree of its director. David DeCoteau started out as part of Roger Corman's sizable entourage, before directing softcore gay porn, Charles Band films like Puppet Master III, and almost disgustingly sappy family movies, occasionally involving talking animals. Under the "1313" alias, he's directed a number of softcore erotic thrillers with names like "Cougar Cult", more than a few of which were on Netflix up until a year or so ago. One of them, UFO Invasion, actually uses the same set as this movie. He's a devotee of Ed Wood, also infamous for both a wide range of oft-mocked productions and a (far more tragic) segue into pornographic productions.
So he's almost definitely a director with an understanding of irony, and at least a level of winking self-awareness, which makes a Talking Cat!?!'s total lack thereof all the more noticeable. While it's moon-eyed actors all mug terribly for the camera, there's no winking or appeal to the audience; most deliberately camp productions have most of its cast all-in, but the actors here seem to have little understanding of how emoting works beyond the theoretical level, or even how to appeal to an audience. There are some lines that suggest at least some element of self-awareness (a line about "toe-free appetizers" implies a more normal degree of camp), but there doesn't seem to be any relation between it and the acting.
Of course, you don't watch Gymkata to not see Kurt Thomas kick foreign stereotypes in the face, and you don't watch a Talking Cat!?! to see former child actor Johnny Whitaker talk about nonsensical stock options. Fortunately, DeCoteau went all-in with special guest star Eric Roberts as the voice of Duffy the cat, who's appearance would be shockingly nonsensical if Robert's filmography wasn't staggeringly extensive and often embarrassing.
Roberts is generally/exclusively cast as gangsters (Sal Maroni in the Dark Knight, for example), psychopaths, serial killers, the Devil...For anyone unfamiliar with his work, hearing him darkly growl as a lackadaisical philosopher cat is somewhat out of place. For anyone who's seen some of it, it never stops being extremely bizarre, and disarmingly funny. Of course, part of that is the fantastic animation they give Duffy to simulate the appearance of talking.
Roberts allegedly recorded his entire performance in 15 minutes, and the poor audio capture sounds as though he's desperately calling for help from a submarine or wind tunnel. As Duffy, he moves between two houses (neither of which seem to reside in the same state, let alone be a few minutes away from each other), dispensing feline advice to their separate families. It's the stuff of normal family movie banality - the boy who can't work up the courage to talk to girls, the fighting siblings, the overbearing parents - but the intrusion of a talking cat (!?!) makes
Considering DeCoteau's 117 directorial efforts, it's disappointing that the rest of the movie never lives up to the cat (though it definitely carries the movie). For someone with such a wide array of credits, he only uses the camera in extremely rudimentary ways, often with shots lingering for seconds afterward, like they needed to pad out the runtime. The audio is at least consistently poor, and it seems like most of the budget was spent on the laser pointer very clearly used to direct the cat's movements.
In a way, a Talking Cat!?! can really be based not around Roberts, or that diamond mouth, but the end of the title. Punctuation is never a popular choice for film titles, allegedly turning off some viewers (Who Framed Roger Rabbit's was removed before release at avoid this, for example). But this adds not just an exclamation point, but two flanking question mark. It's fucking obsessed with the fact that there's a cat...and he talks! But to be honest, so am I after seeing this. It's incredibly rare to find a film that just hits the apparent lower limit for a professional release, as opposed to films that can't even hit that (Birdemic or Fateful Findings), and one that's simultaneously so weird and yet so impersonal.
But I remained enthralled by a Talking Cat!?! all the same. It's stayed with me, in a way that I don't want to lose. It's also available on Netflix Watch Instant, so if you've ever wanted to imagine what it would sound like if a violent murderer was reincarnated as a feline "human whisperer," it's fairly easy. In fact, it's almost as magical as...a talking cat.
