A New York slacker Eli (Michael Patrick Nicholson)'s life can't get any worse - dumped by his girlfriend, fired from his job (sanitation worker, dangling from the back of the garbage truck) and his parents declares that they are moving to Arizona, so he has to move out. Only silver lining in this case is that his father leaves him his old cube truck (from his mover business days). After unsuccessfully bumming around his friends and sleeping in the back of his truck for a while, he gets a job delivering a giant, old engine to snowy upstate. Once there, he gets stuck with a man who ordered the engine for god knows what reason, meets the man's cute girlfriend Anya (Chelsea Lopez) in some dingy basement club. Their attraction is mutual. And since Eli's got nothing better to do, he decides to hang around, getting a job as a machine operator at a logging company where Anya also works at. It turns out that they share the same tendency: They pick and eat their own hair obsessive compulsively. While Eli's tendency is mild (not that he is a healthy man by any means, he urinates blood!), he recognizes and understands Anya's near dangerous obsession. Oh man, the hairball that is cummulating in her must be huge!
Are We Not Cats is a drolly funny and romantic even. it's an unusual comedy that is deceptively sweet and tender. Lopez is adorable even without hair, and Nicholson nails his anxiety ridden millenial hipster bit. Perfect as a Halloween night movie.
