Murder of a Cat

Murder of a Cat is a 2014 American comedy thriller film directed by Gillian Greene and starring Fran Kranz, Nikki Reed, J. K. Simmons, Dileep Rao, Blythe Danner, and Greg Kinnear. The film premiered at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival, and was given a limited theatrical release in the United States on December 5, 2014, by Gravitas Ventures.
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, and their second film with Rao, after Drag Me to Hell.

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

Fran Kranz as Clinton
Nikki Reed as Greta
Greg Kinnear as Al Ford
J. K. Simmons as Sheriff Hoyle
Leonardo Nam as Yi Kim
Blythe Danner as Edie
Ted Raimi as Young Sheriff
Dileep Rao as Doctor Mundhra

Production

The screenplay was on the Hollywood "Black List" survey in 2010. In August 2012, Fran Kranz replaced Jay Baruchel in the lead role. The film was shot on location in Los Angeles in 2013 by Seine Pictures and Raimi Productions.

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 30%. On Metacritic 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.