Taylor Swift Was The Only Redeeming Part Of Cats

The movie musical Cats isn’t completely terrible. Yes, really.

The 2019 film adaptation of the long-running Broadway musical was panned by critics, flopped at the box office, and spawned a plethora of viral memes. But Cats does have one bright spot in the form of Taylor Swift.

While some Swifties have erased this from memory, Swift, who is very selective with her sporadic acting roles, indeed chose to appear in Cats of all movies. It made sense, given how she’s the proud mother of three cats — Meredith Gray, Olivia Benson (who’s the third richest pet in the world), and Benjamin Button — and often makes them a part of her projects.

“I love my cats so much that when a role came up in a movie called Cats, I just thought, like, I gotta do this,” she told TIME in 2019.

Naturally, since Swift is a very busy woman, she only appears for about five minutes (which still didn’t stop her from having to attend “Cat School” like the rest of the cast). But thanks to that decision, Cats was slightly salvageable.

The Rise Of Bombalurina

The singer portrayed Bombalurina, the most flirtatious and self-confident cat of the bunch. Her big song, “Macavity,” introduces the film’s villain, also named Macavity, making him sound elusive and captivating in a way only a siren-like Bombalurina could.

Sadly, Swift was not immune from the much-maligned cat CGI. Like the rest of the ensemble cast, which included Judi Dench, Jennifer Hudson, and Ian McKellen, she was made to look like a bizarre feline-human hybrid, complete with body parts that cats do not possess. But instead of distracting from Swift’s star turn, it enhances the absurdity of her presence.

The movie makes viewers wait for her moment since many of the other cats appear on screen before she does. But when Swift does finally enter on a giant moon, sprinkling catnip to the bewildered audience underneath, she sells it, performing “Macavity” as if it were her biggest hit.

The Swift-ian Touches

The jazzy cabaret number sounds like a rejected song from Chicago, which isn’t usually Swift’s forte, but she embraces her inner musical theater kid, bouncing between abandoned props like an actual cat, and executing cabaret choreography with aplomb — all atop a giant bar.

Highlights of her performance include the way she growls “wide awake” for no reason, and the random shimmy she does two seconds later, which only emphasizes how freaky these cat bodies are. She also adopts a random British accent when she sings “not there,” a la Madonna, and RHOBH star Dorit Kemsley’s on-and-off accents, which only makes it more enjoyable.

For the finale, Macavity himself, Idris Elba, arrives and guides her up an obscenely large staircase to the “Heaviside Layer.” But truly, he wasn’t necessary. Swift already gave Cats the glitter, star power, and non-ironic camp factor it so desperately needed.

The Other Way Swift Made Cats Better

Swift was also a part of one of Cats’ only other redeeming aspects, “Beautiful Ghosts,” a song she co-wrote with the musical’s composer Andrew Lloyd Webber for the film’s lead. It received a Golden Globe nod for Best Original Song, marking the film’s major only awards season nomination — unless you count the six Razzies it won.

And in case you required more proof that Swift was the best part of Cats, she was one of the few cast members who did not get nominated for a Razzie.

If you need to witness Swift’s magic for yourself, or simply love to watch bad movies like me, Cats is available to stream on Netflix starting on Jan. 16.