But the choice to place her life’s story, or its most defining chapter, in the hands of “Little Miss Sunshine” directors Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton would suggest otherwise. “I have terrible taste,” tennis legend Billie Jean King recently told IndieWire as she rattled off her favorite TV shows (“NCIS,” “Blue Bloods,” and “Riverdale”). Throw in a wry Alicia Silverstone as Heche’s disgruntled girlfriend, not to mention nary a gratuitous sex scene in sight, and “Catfight” sets the bar high for wildly entertaining, irreverently feminist, and queer-leaning films made by men. They’re out for blood and glory, and their desires have nothing to do with the opposite sex. Had they actually seen the movie, they would have recognized that “Catfight” is in fact quite the feminist work - it’s just the kind of feminism that sees women as just as flawed, broken, and disgusting as men. Giving Anne Heche and Sandra Oh the juiciest roles of their recent careers, Brooklyn-based filmmaker Onur Tukel managed to make a deeply pro-woman film that pissed off a lot of feminists with its title alone.
Delightfully subversive and alive with a distinctly contemporary absurdism, “Catfight” is about two women who hate each other. If a few gay sex scenes are enough to count a film as queer, then a few lesbian fights should suffice-and that’s not even counting the epic takedowns that give this wild ride its title.
