For his debut feature, LA-based writer and artist Pablo Valencia used his rather deranged imagination to risk making an extraordinary, innovative black comedy that he almost manages to pull off.

Chatty Catties is about an inspiring filmmaker called Shelby who has more than her fair share of emotional issues and substance abuse and who talks her ‘issues’ through with her cat. Luckily for her, Leonard can not only talk back, but he’s got a much better grasp of reality than she does. When Shelby has the good fortune to date a cute young man called Nate, Leonard does everything he can to make the relationship work, for when Nate is around, life is so much better for him.  However, it will take much more than this clever cat to stop Shelby from pushing the self-destruct button like she does with everything good that happens to her.

Her relationship with Leonard has always been strained as she forces him into being the star of the rather dire movies she makes, and he is both embarrassed and annoyed beyond belief when she forces her/his new friend Nate to watch them.

There are other plot diversions with clips of random cats talking to their owners, which are funny even though they sit awkwardly alongside the main story.

Valencia, who co-wrote the story, very acutely makes the cats the real stars of the piece as in some cases they are much better actors than the humans. The fact that their voices are lent by a talented team of deaf and hard-of-hearing performers (led by John Autry II, who’s an excellent Leonard) adds an intriguing dimension to this very likable movie.

Exasperated as one feels (just like Leonard)  about the sheer silliness of this film, it’s impossible to ignore its ingenuity, and it’s so full of such promise that it will be refreshing to discover what its creator will come up with next