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MOVIE FEATURE

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Nicholas Braun and Emilia Jones

Cat Person is adapted from a short story by Kristen Roupenian, published in The New Yorker magazine in 2017. It caught the attention of millions of readers and became a viral sensation on account of its realistic and relatable depiction of modern dating for women. It also generated fierce debate over its depiction of the male antagonist, and continues to be a contentious point of discussion. Roupenian’s subsequent work hit high demand, the writer earning a $1.2 million advance for her debut book (2019’s You Know You Want This ). She also went on to write the popular 2022 A24 film Bodies Bodies Bodies . New Yorker Origins

cat person of the BEWARE

“I hope that you can process it slowly... for the rest of your life,” jokes director Susanna Fogel of her new film Cat Person . Words Glenn Cochrane

appealed most to Fogel, whose previous film, The Spy Who Dumped Me (2018), gave her the confidence to tackle it head-on. “I think it's a bit of a high risk and reward thing,” she suggests. “It could be really botched, or it could be incredible, depending on how it's executed. And I like that challenge. “I was thinking that so long as the person who is taking you through these different genres remains grounded and layered and authentic in their responses, then people can follow you through a lot of different explorations and genres, and not feel like you're telling a schizophrenic story.” When it came to pitching the project to studios and producers, Fogel explains that Cat Person ’s mash-up of genres – and being unable to point to a specifically comparable film – proved diffcult to effectively convey. “It's funny – it was really hard!” she says. “When you're pitching a movie, it's usually 'It's this, meets this, meets this'. But there wasn't a good example of something that was like this, which I always think is a good thing, but it makes it harder to pitch. For this one, there were

Susanna Fogel wrote 2021’s The Addams Family 2 and co-wrote 2019’s Booksmart . DYK?

B ased on a viral short story, the movie follows college student Margot (Emilia Jones), who goes on a date with an

also has her own

complicated ego about the whole thing. It's

not just a story about a naive woman who's

awkward admirer, Robert (Nicholas Braun), only to soon suspect that he's

preyed upon, it's a story about a woman who's trying to find her own power, and act as if she's had more experience than she's actually had.” Amused that we're careful to

not who he says he is. The film cleverly splices genres, offering a comedic teen drama before taking a twisted subversion into the dark realms of a thriller. Speaking with STACK , Fogel discusses the story's relatability and the elements she noticed upon first reading the script. “I really identified with Margot, in the sense that what I liked so much about her was that she's not just a victim,” Fogel explains. “She

Director Susanna Fogel

navigate the conversation around potential spoilers, Fogel agrees that it's a tricky film to outline. Pivoting the conversation and helping us skirt the obvious giveaways, she explains some of the story's ambiguity and how her team expanded upon the original short story. “You know, where we wanted the story to go was just a place of

elements of different movies. There was a lot of inspiration from [2017 psychological horror film] Get Out . “In terms of the unveiling of the different tones and the escalation into madness, I always compare it, pacing-wise, to Parasite [2019]. It starts out like a comedy of manners – an observational movie with some stuff that makes you uncomfortable – and then it escalates into something completely different and you think, 'Whoa! What did they just do?’”

Robert's psychology,” she says. “We wanted to acknowledge his inner life, because you can't make a movie where there are two-dimensional physical human beings, and not give one of them a perspective.” Crossing contrasting genres is a precarious venture, and so many films have failed the feat spectacularly. But the challenge of getting it right was what

• Cat Person is out on Jan 17

Geraldine Viswanathan and Emilia Jones

26 JANUARY 2024

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