Please join BVFCC for our January Screening Series: A Parker Posey Retrospective. Our final pick is JOSIE & THE PUSSYCATS showing on Tuesday, January 30th at 7 pm. Entry is FREE to BVFCC members/$7 for non-members. The BVCoffee Bar will be open for beer, wine, and café drinks along with FREE freshly-popped popcorn!
Josie and the Pussycats is a 2001 satirical musical comedy film co-produced by Universal Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Directed and co-written by Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan, the film is based on both the Archie Comics series and the Hanna-Barbera cartoon of the same name. Filmed entirely in Vancouver, Canada, the film features Rachael Leigh Cook, Tara Reid, and Rosario Dawson as the Pussycats, with Alan Cumming, Parker Posey, Gabriel Mann, Paulo Costanzo, and Missi Pyle in supporting roles.
Although the film's soundtrack album was well received, charting at No. 16 on the Billboard 200 and quickly achieving Gold status, the film itself received mixed reviews, but was a commercial failure upon its initial release. However, it has enjoyed later success as a cult film.
From Buzzfeed News:
“In a career of memorable performances, Parker Posey's malevolent but misunderstood Fiona may be one of her lesser-known. However, to fans of the film, Fiona is arguably one of Posey's most beloved roles. But according to Kaplan and Elfont, filming was a tough experience for the actor. "I think she had bought an apartment and was redoing the apartment ... [and] she took more than one opportunity to say, 'Well, this movie is paying for my apartment,'" Kaplan recalled.
"At the time, Parker was this indie queen. She had a lot of street cred, and I think any job she took because of the money ... she struggled with," Elfont added. "I don't know that she was thinking about the satire of it all, that it was a biting commentary. I think she thought, I'm selling out by doing this kids' movie. She would waver on set. She'd be like, 'Whaaat are we doing?' And other times she'd be like, 'This is fun! It's for kids!'"
Posey's saving grace ended up being costar and friend Alan Cumming, who played Fiona's minion, Wyatt Frame. "Alan got it. Alan is game for anything. When she saw how much fun he was having, she started to play off him, and that's when she was happiest in the movie," he said. "She is so unique and so one-of-a-kind. She was not the easiest, but it was so worth it because, again, there's nobody like her. She's always good. She's just so wonderfully Parker."“
BVFCC would like to acknowledge and thank several organizations for their generous funding which allows us to present our monthly Screening Series. Special thanks go to CT Humanities, CT Office of the Arts, and The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven.