I wonder if it’s a commentary on where we are in society that so many films I’ve reviewed in the last six months center around similar types of people. Millenial age (that means pushing 40, people) single folks, living menial lives with menial jobs, looking for love in all the wrong places. They’re usually broke. Mental health, particularly the dynamic duo of anxiety and depression, are finally becoming really central to the plots of many movies. For a multi-hyphenate-millenial-mental-health-warrior like myself, these stories touch my heart and my mind equally. SHE’S ALLERGIC TO CATS is a heartrending addition to the lexicon.

Mike (Mike Pinkney) is a dog groomer in Hollywood. He’s honing his craft, learning from “the best”, and trying to become something. He loves the dogs, so that makes it a no brainer. The sad thing is, this isn’t why he came to Hollywood at all. He feels degraded working so hard to treat dogs better than he’s ever been treated in his life, and his dreams of working in Hollywood have been completely subverted. He makes amazing and strange “video art”, and a lot of his daydreams and hopes are represented in this distinct visual style. His manager Sebastian (viral video hit Flula Borg) doesn’t understand him and spends their time together degrading his masculinity and basically his entire life. Pile on that Mike’s mediocre at best house is completely infested with rats. His living space is disgusting, filthy, and teeming with vermin. He can’t even wash his clothes because the rats ate through his laundry detergent bottle. They ate food off of his counter. His terrible landlord (Honey Davis, as himself) is absolutely zero help. The only thing inspiring Mike to keep going is the date he has coming up, with a girl he met at the dog grooming shop. He does his best to pull himself and his home together before his date with Cora (Sonja Kinski).

Cora is stunningly beautiful, if a little odd. That’s okay though. Mike is odd. They seem to understand each other. On their walk over to the local dive bar, they find a lost dog. Mike realizes he’s seen signs around town for this dog, and finds one nearby. Thankfully, it has an address on it, so they try to take the poor little lost pup home right away. To say that them breaking and entering into the dog owner’s home is the least crazy and stressful thing to happen that night should tell you a lot about the rest of the movie – and about Mike’s luck. 

It’s difficult to find the right words to describe SHE’S ALLERGIC TO CATS. Zany, heartbreaking, dark, brooding, bizarre: these were just a handful of the words swirling around in my mind as I watched. Pinkney’s performance as Mike is deep and sorrowful, and you can’t help pitying him. Kinski is stunningly beautiful, nuanced, and subtle. She delivers a monologue in the second act of the film that by all rights should be a master class – and as a recovering theatre kid, I could just see all the young teen actresses dying to have her level of grace and stillness.

The genius of SHE’S ALLERGIC TO CATS is pervasive – video art interspersed with raw slice of life set the tempo for just a few days in one man’s mostly-miserable existance. Every performance is a stand out, and all of the characters play exquisitely on the playground created here. It’s a disturbing and delightful cocktail of complete disgust and sweet, wonderful heartache. SHE’S ALLERGIC TO CATS will heal and break your heart a hundred times, with humor and with complete chaos.

7/10 stars

SHE’S ALLERGIC TO CATS is available NOW on VOD