Behind the Music: How JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS is the Purrfect Satire

Rating: 🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧

I was obsessed with Josie and the Pussycats as a kid. The year it came out was the year my mom got me a VHS copy of the movie, the CD soundtrack, and my very own set of ears for my Easter basket, and believe me, buying every piece of merchandise for a satire about consumerism isn’t lost on me. As it happens with most things in life, I learned to look at the movie on multiple levels, so I am inviting you to put on your tinfoil hats with me while we talk about how meta this movie truly is. 

Let’s start with the cast. Almost the entire cast, including the boys of DuJour, are from iconic ’90s teen movies which including but are not limited to American Pie (Tara Reid), She’s All That (Rachael Leigh Cook), Clueless (Donald Faison and Breckin Meyer), or Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion (Alan Cummings). It’s directed by the writers of another iconic ’90s teen movie, Can’t Hardly Wait, which all four DuJour guys were in. Parker Posey, who is an absolute forever queen period, starred in The Doom Generation, as well as a multitude of other indie classics. Therefore, we have almost an entire cast of teen movie actors who are already admired and worshipped by teenagers everywhere in a movie about the dangers of mind control and brainwashing teenagers into obsessing over pop culture and idolizing celebrities.  

Now, let’s add the second layer: characters can break the fourth wall. Alan Cumming’s Wyatt is constantly looking directly at the audience with a smirk or a raised eyebrow, trying to influence our opinion of the events and/or let us in on the subliminal messaging involved with this movie. In one scene, he even alludes to his character from Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, Sandy Frink, by claiming that people usually have to wait for their 10-year reunion to show how successful they’ve become. In another scene, Paulo Constanzo’s Alexander Cabot asks his sister, Missy Pyles’s Alexandra Cabot, why she’s flying with them to the city, and she responds by saying she was in the comic book but quickly backtracks when Alexander is confused. These characters completely transcend the universe of this movie and are aware of not only their other movies but the other media they’re involved in, thus adding another insane layer to the Josie-verse. 

Finally, the movie itself watches like a giant commercial. From the very beginning, we’re met with images of companies like Target and Bounce and Starbucks before we’re keen to the evil plan Parker Posey’s Fiona has cooked up, let alone all of the subliminal messaging in the media. We’re being completely submerged in product placement before we even know the storyline. Even as Wyatt enters Riverdale (with no shirtless Archie Andrews in sight, I may add), the town’s welcome sign has at least eight different logos represented underneath. There’s seriously no scene without product placement. Combined with the fact that the soundtrack only features songs by the fictional bands Josie and the Pussycats (with Rachael Leigh Cook’s vocals being mixed with those of Kay Hanley from Letters to Cleo, who are prominently featured in another teen classic, 10 Things I Hate About You) and DuJour, the line between music video and reality is often blurred whether it be from the girls singing one of the songs from their debut album before it’s even recorded in the hair salon or literally climbing the charts as their song skyrockets to number one. The movie always seems to be one step ahead, and we can never quite keep up. 

Josie and the Pussycats is an absolutely perfect satire, and quite frankly, we need it now more than ever. We live in a world where subliminal messaging isn’t required because celebrities are endorsing everything and music openly features name brands. Entertainers tell people what to buy and are paid handsomely for it. Josie and the Pussycats simultaneously acts as cultural zeitgeist to the early 2000s and warning to consumers alike. Don’t buy something because someone tells you to, instead buy something because you like it. Don’t listen to music to fit in, instead find the music you fit in to. Don’t let someone call the shots simply because they have a microphone, instead use a microphone for the powers of good. Josie and the Pussycats not only have long tails and ears for hats, but they have brilliant writing and directing that makes the film excellent from start to finish.