''Murder of a Cat'' is a 2014 American

comedy thriller Comedy thrillers are a hybrid genre that draw subject matter generally from comedy and thrillers. Criteria They often include a darker tone, relative to other genres, of humor. List of comedy thriller films * '' The Big Fix'' (1978) * ''Chara ...

film directed by Gillian Greene and starring

Fran Kranz Francis Elliott Kranz (born July 13, 1981) is an American actor and film director. He is known for his portrayal of Topher Brink in the science fiction drama series ''Dollhouse''. He had prominent roles in the films ''The Cabin in the Woods'' and ...

Nikki Reed Nicole Houston Reed (born May 17, 1988) is an American actress known for her portrayal of vampire Rosalie Hale in '' The Twilight Saga'' (2008–2012). She became known in 2003, after the release of the film ''Thirteen'', directed by Catherine ...

J. K. Simmons Jonathan Kimble Simmons (born January 9, 1955) is an American actor, considered one of the most prolific and well-established character actors of his generation. He has appeared in over 200 films and television roles since his debut in 1986. He i ...

Leonardo Nam Leonardo Nam (born November 5, 1979) is an Australian actor. He made his breakthrough as Roy in '' The Perfect Score'' (2004), and gained further recognition for his roles as Morimoto in '' The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift'' (2006) and Bria ...

, Blythe Danner, and

Greg Kinnear Gregory Buck Kinnear (born June 17, 1963) is an American actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in ''As Good as It Gets'' (1997). Kinnear has appeared in many popular films, including '' Sabrina'' (1 ...

. The film premiered at the 2014

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. Tribeca was f ...

, and was given a

limited theatrical release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...

in the United States on December 5, 2014, by

Gravitas Ventures Gravitas Ventures is an independent film distribution company owned by Anthem Sports and Entertainment. The company was founded by Nolan Gallagher in Los Angeles, California in 2006 and moved its headquarters to Cleveland, Ohio in 2019, where it f ...

. This was Greene's second collaboration with Kranz, Rao, and Simmons. The first was her directorial debut short film ''Fanboy''. The film is also the Raimi brothers' second film with Simmons, after the ''Spider-Man'' trilogy (2002–2007), and their second film with Rao, after ''

Drag Me to Hell ''Drag Me to Hell'' is a 2009 American supernatural horror film directed and co-written by Sam Raimi. It stars Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Lorna Raver, Dileep Rao, David Paymer, and Adriana Barraza. The plot, written with his older brother Ivan, ...

'' (2009).

Synopsis

When someone murders his beloved cat, Clinton demands justice. Taking it upon himself to solve the case, he teams up with an unlikely ally, Greta, and the two set out to find the culprit lurking in their small suburban town. However, as Clinton searches for the truth, he begins to uncover a conspiracy that goes far deeper than he anticipated.

Cast

as Clinton *

as Greta *

as Al Ford *

as Sheriff Hoyle *

as Yi Kim * Blythe Danner as Edie *

Ted Raimi Theodore "Ted" Raimi (born December 14, 1965) is an American character actor, director, comedian, and writer. He is known for his roles in the works of his brother Sam Raimi, including a fake Shemp in ''The Evil Dead'', possessed Henrietta in ...

as Young Sheriff *

Dileep Rao Dileep A. Rao (born July 29, 1973) is an American actor who has appeared in feature films and television series. He starred in Sam Raimi's horror film '' Drag Me to Hell'' (2009), James Cameron's science fiction film series ''Avatar'' (2009-prese ...

as Doctor Mundhra

Production

The screenplay was on the Hollywood "Black List" survey in 2010. In August 2012, Fran Kranz replaced

Jay Baruchel Jonathan Adam Saunders Baruchel (; born April 9, 1982) is a Canadian actor, comedian, director and screenwriter. He is known for his voice role as Hiccup Haddock in the '' How to Train Your Dragon'' franchise, and for his roles in comedy movies ...

in the lead role. The film was shot on location in Los Angeles in 2013 by Seine Pictures and Raimi Productions.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

the film has an approval rating of 30%. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

it has a score of 31 out of 100 based on reviews from 8 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Kranz took a lot of the criticism along with Greene's direction.

References

External links

* * {{Sam Raimi 2014 films 2014 black comedy films 2014 comedy-drama films 2014 independent films 2014 thriller films 2010s American films 2010s comedy thriller films 2010s English-language films American black comedy films American comedy-drama films American comedy thriller films American independent films Films produced by Sam Raimi Films scored by Deborah Lurie Films shot in Los Angeles