One-time college pals Veronica (Sandra Oh) and Ashley (Anne Heche) run into each other at a party. The women, now in their forties and having not seen each other since school, find that their lives have taken radically different paths. Ashley is barely scraping by as a painter of politically charged canvases, while Veronica is married to a wealthy businessman who’s about to profit hugely off yet another US-led war in the Middle East.
Within minutes of their reunion, a rivalry is revived, old wounds are torn open, and a Manhattan stairwell becomes home to a woman-on-woman brawl the likes of which are seldom seen outside of martial-arts epics. And now the gloves are off. The new feature from writer-director Onur Tukel takes a set-up that in most films would lead to a heartwarming story of female friendship — and uses it instead as the springboard for an outrageously madcap black comedy.
It’s an outrageously upbeat trailer for what is clearly a rather dark comedy. And that’s the allure. There’s a lot of promise here, from the strong casting choices to the fun soundtrack to the well realized cinematography. It’s a bit of bleak cohesiveness centered on elaborate yet not implausible life struggles, punctuated with moments of violence. I think I’ve got a good idea of what I’m getting myself into, and it’s going to be a lot of fun.
Catfight is in theaters March 3rd, 2017.