New Jersey Stage logo
New Jersey Stage Menu



 

REVIEW: "She’s Allergic To Cats"


By Eric Hillis, TheMovieWaffler.com

originally published: 04/25/2020


If, like me, you’re one of the few nutters who enjoyed David Robert Mitchell’s widely lambasted Under the Silver Lake and fancy another hit of Los Angeles set weirdness, writer/director  Michael Reich has you covered with his lo-fi, barely feature length oddity She’s Allergic to Cats.

Inspired partly by Reich’s time spent working as a dog groomer in Hollywood before he became a successful music video director, She’s Allergic to Cats stars Mike Pinkney as, err... Mike Pinkney, a dog groomer struggling to kickstart his Hollywood career.

Hollywood seems an odd choice for Mike to choose as a foundation for his artistic vocation, as his creative aspirations are hardly in line with the blockbuster output of Tinseltown. Rather he wants to make experimental works, like his current project, a remake of Brian de Palma’s Carrie with an all cat cast. His macho Teutonic producer Sebastian (Flula Borg) strings him along yet never seems to be paying any attention to Mike’s barmy pitches. Phone calls from his mother are batted away with generic “I’m doing really great Mom” responses. Mike sleepwalks through his grooming work, constantly lectured by his pretentious boss (Luis Fernandez-Gil). And his hovel of an apartment is infested by rats.

Mike’s sad sack existence takes a surprising turn when a beautiful woman, Cora (Sonja Kinski, who is the daughter of Nastassja and granddaughter of Klaus, and who thankfully resembles the former rather than the latter), turns up at his workplace with a dog belonging to Mickey Rourke that needs its nails clipped. During small talk, Mike lets slip that he’s an aspiring filmmaker, and rather than rolling her eyes, Cora professes a genuine interest. The two agree to a date the following evening.

Can Mike clear his rat-infested home before Cora turns up? Attempts to reason with his hippy landlord (Honey Davis) hit a dead end. In a last ditch attempt to solve his problem, Mike steals a troublesome cat from his work, hoping nature will take its course and the moggy will lay siege to his unwanted rodent lodgers.




Advertise with NJ Stage for $50-$100 per month, click here for info



With its Hollywood setting and shot on video aesthetic, She’s Allergic to Cats plays like a more accessible and mercifully shorter companion to David Lynch’s Inland Empire. Trippy montages filled with video static, dodgy tracking, slo-mo screams and mysterious nightmare imagery lead us to believe it’s a far darker story than the relatively low-stakes drama that’s really at play here. Such dream sequences can be read as visualisations of Mike’s crippling social and professional anxieties, both his terror at failing to impress the one woman in town who treats him like a regular human and his fears that his career may be hitting a dead end.

Pinkney the actor delivers a likeable turn as the put upon Mike, who can’t even cross the road without falling in dog shit. As his unlikely love interest, Kinski has all the enigmatic eroticism of her mother. Her Cora is one of those crazy beautiful women who in ‘80s movies were always grabbing nebbishy young men by the hand and leading them into a world of danger and thrills, like Rosanna Arquette in After Hours, Michelle Pfeiffer in Into the Night or Melanie Griffith in Something Wild. But again, the stakes are far lower here, and the biggest adventure Cora takes Mike on is breaking into a house to return a lost dog and perusing the owner’s oddly animal themed DVD collection.

Shot on high quality digital and downgraded through analogue processes to give the appearance of VHS, She’s Allergic to Cats is a movie that seems determined to alienate as many viewers as possible from the off. Its eventual audience will likely be small enough to fit in its protagonist’s cramped apartment, but give yourself over to its grimy aesthetic and absurdist humour and you’ll find it a charming piece of punk filmmaking. You might even find some of its lo-fi images quite beautiful, and if nothing else, its recreation of the Carrie prom scene with a bewildered tiara-clad tabby is worth the rental price alone.

She’s Allergic To Cats 3 1/2 Stars out of 5

Directed by: Michael Reich; Starring: Mike Pinkney, Sonja Kinski, Flula Borg, Veronika Dash



Eric Hillis is a film critic living in Sligo, Ireland who runs the website TheMovieWaffler.com



Advertise with NJ Stage for $50-$100 per month, click here for info




FEATURED EVENTS

ART | COMEDY | DANCE | FILM | MUSIC | THEATRE | COMMUNITY

To narrow results by date range, categories,
or region of New Jersey
click here for our advanced search.


How

How to Train Your Dragon in Concert

Friday, July 11, 2025 @ 7:00pm
Mayo Performing Arts Center (MPAC)
100 South Street, Morristown, NJ 07960
category: film

Click here for full event listing

 

How

How to Train Your Dragon in Concert

Saturday, July 12, 2025 @ 2:00pm
State Theatre New Jersey
15 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
category: film

Click here for full event listing

 

How

How to Train Your Dragon in Concert

Saturday, July 12, 2025 @ 2:00pm
State Theatre New Jersey
15 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
category: film


Click here for full event listing

 

FREE

FREE SUMMER MOVIE: Moana 2

Tuesday, July 15, 2025 @ 7:00pm
State Theatre New Jersey
15 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
category: film


Click here for full event listing

 

FREE

FREE SUMMER MOVIE: Moana 2

Tuesday, July 15, 2025 @ 10:30am
State Theatre New Jersey
15 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
category: film


Click here for full event listing

 

More events

Event Listings are available for $10 and included with our banner ad packages




 

EVENT PREVIEWS

Fall

Fall 2025 New Jersey Film Festival Preview

(NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ) -- The New Jersey Film Festival returns to Rutgers University September 5 through October 10, 2025. As it has done the last few years, the festival will include select in-person screenings with all films available via video on-demand (VOD) as well. There are also a few screenings available only via VOD. Twenty films will have their New Jersey or Area Premiere (Middlesex County).



The

The Levoy Theatre hosts the CUT International Short Film Festival

(MILLVILLE, NJ) -- The Levoy Theatre hosts the CUT International Short Film Festival September 19-20, 2025. The festival's motto is 'Short Films for Quick Minds'. Its aim is to become the premier festival in New Jersey for short form films.



Count

Count Basie Center for the Arts presents An Evening With Francis Ford Coppola and screening of "Megalopolis"

(RED BANK, NJ) -- Legendary director, Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, The Outsiders) is bringing his monumental 2024 film, Megalopolis, to select cities across the country. The tour kicks off at the Count Basie Center for the Arts on Sunday, July 20, 2025 at 7:00pm.



The

The Williams Center to Screen "Wayward Kin" by David Joseph Volino

(RUTHERFORD, NJ) -- After a four-year-long production process, filmmaker and New Jersey native, David Joseph Volino, is sharing the full-length feature, Wayward Kin, with local audiences. See the film for one night only at The Williams Center in Rutherford on Wednesday, July 23, 2025. The screening begins at 7:00pm with the cast and crew in attendance.



The

The ShowRoom presents ENCORE: Rock Cinema Returns! A Summer Series of Legendary Sound and Vision

(ASBURY PARK, NJ) -- The ShowRoom Cinema is turning up the volume this summer with ENCORE: Rock Cinema Returns!, a series of must-see music films that combine incredible sound with captivating visuals. Screenings include The Who's Tommy; Pink Floyd: The Wall; Ladies & Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains; and Streets of Fire.