A savage satire of America’s status-obsessed society seen through the prism of a pair of ultra-competitive female former college friends, Catfight is as troubling as it is punchily entertaining. With something of the dripping sarcasm of Mike Judge’s Idiocracy, and a series of face-crunching fight sequences, it makes for highly unusual and not always pleasant viewing.
Sandra Oh and Anne Heche play Veronica and Ashley, a pair of women whose respective successes are poisoned by the toxic rivalry between them. The bitchy exchanges between them are a viper’s nest of venomous spite, delivered with enjoyable cruelty. But the combat scenes – boosted by thunderously unpleasant sound design – labour the point until it’s reduced to a bloody pulp.
