filter-branch vs. <rev-list options>

I'm trying to pass some arguments to gilt-filter-branch, but it's not
doing what I expect.  The manual says that git-filter-branch ends with
'rev-list options'.  So I tested git-rev-list with this trivial example
and got what I wanted:
    $ git rev-list --not --remotes --not HEAD^..HEAD
    019483b7aedfef711b3c85eca000d812a3b501bd

But when I tried it with filter-branch it didn't work:
    $ git filter-branch --msg-filter cat --not --remotes --not HEAD^..HEAD
     Usage: git filter-branch [--env-filter <command>] [--tree-filter
<command>]
            [--index-filter <command>] [--parent-filter <command>]
            [--msg-filter <command>] [--commit-filter <command>]
            [--tag-name-filter <command>] [--subdirectory-filter
<directory>]
            [--original <namespace>] [-d <directory>] [-f | --force]
            [<rev-list options>...]

On the other hand, this works ok:
    $ git filter-branch --msg-filter catHEAD^..HEAD--not --remotes --not
    Rewrite 019483b7aedfef711b3c85eca000d812a3b501bd (1/1)
    WARNING: Ref 'refs/heads/master' is unchanged

git-filter-branch seems to be parsing its own switches and not recognizing when they run out and the rest are "rev-list" options.

Is there a way to force this break, or should I just expect to have to rewrite the logic so that there's always a non-switch argument at the start of the rev-list section? Or am I just doing this wrong?

fwiw - I'm actually wanting to do this in a script:
    git filter-branch --msg-filter cat --not --remotes --not "$@"

I put my "--not --remotes --not" before the user arguments in case the user arguments include an odd number of "--not" switches on its own.

Thanks, Phil