Apparently everyone at Sundance has a lot to say about the long-awaited adaptation The New Yorker’s viral short storystarring Emilia Jones (“CODA”) and Nicholas Braun (“Succession” cousin Greg), is a mostly text-based film about Margot, a 20-year-old woman. Older men, relationships with Robert, and going on epically bad dates with him.
Kristen Loupenian’s story, when it came out in December 2017 when society began to grapple with consent and bad kisses (and ghosts, and is it okay to change your mind about having sex with someone in the middle of the act)? launched a 1000 Twitter thread about #MeToo. (This article was published just two months after the original investigative report by the New York Times and New Yorker on Harvey Weinstein’s history of sexual abuse.) those twitter threads 5 years later, I’m alive again. Nightmare dating stories seem to resonate more than ever.
While very different from Roupenian’s nuanced short story, the movie version of “Cat Person” is undeniably a dark comedy horror movie that’s modern dating hell. Director Susannah Vogel (who co-wrote the script for 2019’s Booksmart) and writer Michelle Ashford (creator of “Masters of Sex”) have leaned into genre elements and often jumped on them. rice field. Between reality and Margot’s violent vision of being in constant danger simply because she is a woman. Every time you come home alone at night, every time you touch your arm you might harm yourself, and Heather McIntosh’s score heightens the sense of dread.
The film also adds Isabella Rossellini as Margot’s professor, giving a scathing commentary on the gender dynamics of ants and bees, and a skeptical feminist best friend (“Blocker” Geraldine Viswanatha) discussing this relationship. always points out how bad news it looks like, but has Margot ignore all her warnings.
“Michelle and I talked a lot about trying to reveal these internalized fears with an externalized sense of danger,” Vogel said during the post-screening Q&A session. A lot of women, when they’re with someone they don’t know, suddenly notice the size of that person when they just got in the car and think they have it when they met on Tinder a day ago. drive in ”
The film’s biggest supporters seemed to be those who blindly went into it and weren’t swayed by the film’s extreme worst-case scenarios. Act 3 plays out what happens when, after the Roupenian story ends with a gut punch, Robert attacks Margot over texting after she’s been ghosted. It’s not nuanced, but it’s a charming adaptation of the seemingly unfilmable source material that takes place mostly in the text and in Margot’s head.
The audience reacted to the third act with writhing, nervous laughter and hands covering their eyes. But it also gives Robert a chance to say what was going on in his head and grill Margot what he could have done and how it went wrong. The man who sat next to me said he appreciated the addition because he experienced the same kind of emotions jumping to all sorts of conclusions after the woman he was dating was inexplicably pulled apart. .
At the heart of the film, like the story, is Robert kissing really badly. Margot ignores him en route to having sex with him on her first date, but she becomes increasingly repulsive to him. In a short interview, Brown said, “Trying to figure out how to do a bad kiss and a very bad kiss is a lot of fun for the two actors. Was it weird enough? No? More weird.” let’s go.
As for the sex scene, director Vogel chose to place another out-of-body Margot in the room, giving comedic commentary as the act faded. But there was a lot of laughter.
Although the film is Margot’s story, Vogel said she felt Robert’s casting had to be the most specific. “Nick is kind of a magical creature in that he plays the nerd on TV, but he’s also the heartthrob of the world,” Vogel said. . “He’s kind of the perfect mix because you have to believe that she can take an interest in him and project it onto him. , he’s a first-class man.’ On the other hand, being insecure or saying the wrong thing can lead you to withdraw from that charm.”
Brown also felt he could relate to the awkwardness of the role. “You’re trying really hard, or doing macho things to make you more attractive, or dressing a certain way to impress a woman. I think it was uncomfortable and too greedy, like, “Oh my God, I want this so much.”
Everyone tries to think of the film and its success as an adaptation (it hasn’t yet been sold for distribution), but it seemed to get nervous with audiences who kept talking about the gray areas of dating and confusion. That night, the couple at a house party in Park City. In a question-and-answer session, Vogel said the film was a necessary evolution from the female revenge thrillers that rose to prominence in the late 2010s after the male focus.
“We wanted to explore ambivalence and the idea that consent is a continual thing and that people change their minds,” Vogel said. Sometimes when you’ve done everything to get to a place, you wish you weren’t there. And what? Should the other person have known? He is under pressure to be completely sure of what he wants and be able to articulate it.
Reviews are mixed. Justin Chan of the Los Angeles Times criticized the “fist-fighting storytelling” that devolves into “bloody, fiery, and eye-openingly violent chaos.” variety praised its “risky” and “daring” third act. indie wire called it “appropriately excruciating” and said, “Naturally, it gritters your teeth and lifts the hairs on the back of your neck.”
Roupenian said that it was just the second time he had seen the film and that he still had a stomach ache after watching it. “It made me think that the inner, unseen experiences weren’t really there,” she said. …not everyone has the same experience and it is shocking and surprising and terrifying.”