LOST CAT CORONA: A Natural Friendship Hidden In An Underwhelming Film

Anthony Tarsitano’s comedy Lost Cat Corona, follows Dominic (Ralph Macchio) and his friend, Ponce (David Zayas) as they search throughout the Corona area of Queens for a cat belonging to Dominic and his wife, Connie (Gina Gershon). As Dominic and Ponce make their way through the city, they encounter many strange characters, which help to bring forth Dominic’s insecurities and push him towards making a change.

The film is set up in an episodic style, where each section comes together throughout Dominic and Ponce’s journey. This adds more opportunities for comedy, but it also took away from the emotional depth the film could have achieved by staying with the characters for longer. We never really get to know any of the side characters, only how they briefly affect Dominic and his journey towards standing up for himself.

I did not think this film was very funny early on, but as it became darker in tone, the film also became funnier. Once Ponce and Dominic find a bloody wad of cash and a severed ear in a bag, Lost Cat Corona picks up. This motivates the characters to show their personalities and their different reactions to strange situations.

Friendship and Flashbacks

As the film goes on, we see more and more of Dominic’s relationships with his friends. Early on we hear he is trying to get to the wake of his friend Sal’s father. Connie mentions how Dominic has not been friendly with Sal for years, and as the situations in the film darken, we glimpse why this friendship is not as strong as it once was. Flashbacks showing Dominic with his friends reinforce his personality of being someone stuck in life, letting others take advantage of him.

Dominic spends most of the film with Ponce, riding their bicycle and scooter throughout the city, reminiscing on their times together. This friendship feels natural, especially how the characters interact with each other, remaining friendly even when they completely disagree with each other. The combination of a dark story revolving around severed ears, gambling debts, and lost cats, and a story about a long lasting friendship reminds me of the Elaine May film Mikey and Nicky. That film also worked well because the chemistry between the main characters felt natural and true in every scene. Lost Cat Corona is marketed as a straight comedy, but I felt it had similar subtle moments of comedy where you do not expect them as the moments in Mikey and Nicky.

The film has almost too much going on. The flashbacks worked well to flesh out the main characters, but these in combination with the episodic storytelling made the film feel overstuffed. Some of the moments with side characters felt like they could not possibly be important to the main story-line. In some ways, these side characters were not developed enough, but at other times, these characters were given too much, which did not add anything worthwhile to their character or contribute to the overall story.

A Lack of Side Character Development

If these side characters were more developed, these episodic scenes could have included more information without feeling forced, but with underdeveloped characters, the scenes dragged on, making you wish we were back with the main character, whose chemistry helped save the film.

Pace was not a problem with the main story-line of this film, but was a bit of a problem with the scenes not involving the main characters. The music helped keep Dominic and Ponce’s journey on a schedule, which never felt overlong, even when the characters slowed down. When the film veered off in all sorts of different directions and away from Dominic and Ponce, the pace slowed, making it feel like it was dragging until we were once more pulled back into the main action.

These story-lines were not terrible, but the characters felt one-dimensional. As their plots combined with the main action, it seemed to work together well, creating moments of comedy, but the characters were still not developed enough for you to truly care about them.

Dominic’s wife is supposed to act as a catalyst of sorts for Dominic’s change in reaction to his insecurities, yet she spends almost the entire film away from Dominic, only coming back to call him on the phone and update him on her mother’s surgery. This side plot worked solely as a way to get her out of town, without adding anything else to her character.

Conclusion

Lost Cat Corona has something going for it in its portrayal of friendships through dark times, especially the difference between Dominic’s friendship with Sal and his friendship with Ponce. These two portrayals of friendships work to show different elements of the character, and help Dominic discover what was missing in his life. The film has some problems with character development, but ultimately is a pleasant enough journey through an area of New York underappreciated in cinema.

Do you think Lost Cat Corona is a good combination of comedy and mystery? Does Dominic’s journey towards a character change make the film more engaging to you? Would you like to see more films focusing on the importance of friendship?

Lost Cat Corona was released February 24th at the Cinema Village NYC. It is available on Amazon Instant, iTunes, Vimeo, Google Play and DVD.

https://youtu.be/6sKD2R3OgLM