Sweet Fury

Bischoff debuts with a beguiling tale of abuse and ambition. Thirty-something movie star Lila Crayne has long dreamed of starring in a feminist retelling of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender Is the Night. She’s finally made it happen, with her fiancé, Kurt Royall, as director. In preparation for the role, she undergoes psychotherapy with Jonah Gabriel, to whom she claims Kurt is abusing her. Jonah, who met Lila while they were students at Princeton, has a long-standing obsession with her, which threatens his relationship with his fiancée, Maggie. Lila, meanwhile, will stop at nothing to make the film about “female empowerment,” and she manipulates those working on the film, including the screenwriter, to tell the story the way she wants it. As Jonah fantasizes about saving Lila, Kurt and Maggie begin piecing together competing and distorted versions of the truth, as Maggie secretly reads Jonah’s notes from his sessions with Lila, and Lila threatens to spill the beans about Kurt’s alleged abuse. Bischoff reveals one surprising secret after another, all the way until the bombshell final twist. It’s an inspired first outing. Agents: Andrea Blatt and Suzanne Gluck, WME. (Jan.)