Starring: Rachael Leigh Cook, Tara Reid, Rosario Dawson
Director: Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont
Rated: PG
BASED on the Archie comic book, Josie and the Pussycats is a teen film that packs a punch.
A recording company has created a boy band that has enjoyed great success, but the boys now want to take hold of their own destinies, so the recording company plots to do away with them through a plane accident.
The company needs a replacement band and talent scout Wyatt (Alan Cumming) literally runs into Josie (Rachael Leigh Cook), Valerie (Rosario Dawson) and Melody (Tara Reid). The Pussycats are discovered and so the girls are whisked off to the city to meet Fiona (Parker Posey), the queen of the recording company. Fame and stardom await.
A new craze develops around them. Josie, however, discovers that the recording company is placing subliminal messages in their recordings and telling the listeners to buy certain clothes, eat certain food, and to go wild about Josie and the Pussycats.
Appropriately coded in teen music, language and dress, the satire in the script initially eluded me, but once I got it, I enjoyed it. This film uses elements of the culture it criticises to drive home the message that one does not have to buy, sound, look and be the same as everyone else.
While Josie and the Pussycats maintains an implausible conspiracy theory about US merchandising, it portrays in an accessible way how pop bands are constructed, looks are developed and patterns of consumption created so that we will spend and buy. Parents can be happy if their teens want to buy a ticket to Josie and the Pussycats because it’s selling the line, “Be happy with who you are, for happiness is on the inside”.
