If the movie CATS broke your brain, welcome! Whether you're still processing, ready to celebrate this mesmerizing trainwreck, or just need to know what a jellicle is, Ineffable! is here for you with a cozy exploration of this deranged motion picture. Join host Joel Arnold (and his cat Toast) as they merrily lean ever further into CATS madness while talking with writers, comedians, and anyone with strong feelings about this one-of-a-kind movie.
If the movie CATS broke your brain, welcome! Whether you're still processing, ready to celebrate this mesmerizing trainwreck, or just need to know what a jellicle is, Ineffable! is here for you with a cozy exploration of this deranged motion picture. Join host Joel Arnold (and his cat Toast) as they merrily lean ever further into CATS madness while talking with writers, comedians, and anyone with strong feelings about this one-of-a-kind movie.
Twitter: @IneffableCats
Instagram: @IneffableCats
Email: IneffableCatsPod@gmail.com
Original music by Jeremy Nasato.
Cover art by Tyler Donnelly.
Toast meows, saying hello
JOEL: Hey, Toast !
Toast meows, inquisitively
I'm making the trailer for the show. I need to explain to people why I’m making a podcast all about CATS and why they should listen, and I’m not sure where to start.
Toast meows, pointing out the obvious
Yeah, I guess I could start with how the movie CATS broke my brain and now I'm talking to my cat for a podcast.
Toast meows: You got it.
Yep.
Music Jaunts On In
I’m Joel Arnold, and welcome to 'Ineffable! A Cats Movie Podcast,' a show all about the 2019 motion picture CATS. Why, you might ask? Because I am fascinated by this movie. So many choices made in this movie defy logic, belief, and the rules of cinema, that the experience of watching it is unlike any other. The visual effects transforming this movie’s actors into cat-human hybrids are nightmares, and at the same time everyone from Oscar winners Jennifer Hudson and Judi Dench to newcomers like Francesca Hayward who plays the audience surrogate Victoria -- are delivering astonishingly committed performances. The songs are also catchy as hell, and yes they are there to support a plot all about some London street cats who get together once a year to sing songs hoping to be chosen to die and be reborn into a new life.
If you’ve not seen CATS and this does not sound like your kind of movie, I hear you. CATS bombed at the box office and was trashed by critics, with many reviews just struggling to describe what this movie is. For that reason I was curious to see it myself but I went to the theater a skeptic...and now I sing "Skimbleshanks the Railway Cat" just about every day. The first time I saw the movie -- and I’ve seen it three times -- I was mesmerized and left feeling energized and ready to tell everyone that this is a Good Movie. It’s for sure bonkers, but also it can creep up on you. I got emotionally invested. I cried twice. I'm not saying it's good...but it might be good.
And I’m not alone in being strangely won over by this movie. For several weeks after CATS was released it was still playing at late night screenings in New York and Los Angeles, hopefully on its way to becoming a cult hit, because I believe this movie deserves to be around -- experienced and talked about -- for years to come.
On this show I’ll be talking with writers, comedians, and anyone with strong feelings about this movie, and this is a movie that provokes strong feelings. We’ll be talking about everything from the visual effects to T.S. Eliot who wrote the collection of poems that Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical is based on to which cats you have crushes on.
This podcast exists -- for me -- to understand my own reactions to this movie and talk to people to understand how they see movies, and why this one worked for them. Words can’t fully do justice to this movie...it’s ineffable.
(hey, that's the name of the show)
But we’re certainly going to try.
Toast meows, helpfully
Thanks, Toast. This, by the way, is my cat Toast, and he’ll also be my cohost for this journey. He just reminded me that if you do want to see CATS, it’s the perfect time, because the movie will be out on digital Tuesday March 17 and on Blu-Ray April 4.
So, whether you're still processing, you’re ready to celebrate this mesmerizing trainwreck, or you just need to know what a jellicle is, join me and Toast for a cozy exploration of this absolutely deranged motion picture.
The first episode will be out Monday, March 16 with new episodes out every week on Mondays after that. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and find us on Twitter and Instagram at ineffablecats where you can share your thoughts about the movie or if you’re on the fence I can convince you to come on this journey.
Toast meows, because
Toast says he hopes to see you there.