Review: Shirley

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What happens to all lost girls?



A young couple, Rose (Odessa Young) and Fred (Logan Lerman) are temporarily living with Fred's mentor/professor Stanley (Michael Stuhlbarg) and his reclusive wife, author Shirley Jackson. (Elisabeth Moss) Rose is a fan of her work, but Shirley is agoraphobic and isn't happy with her new guests. Her stance towards Rose changes when she becomes obsessed with a missing girl's story while working on her newest novel. 

This is very highly praised on Film Twitter. I expected my biggest struggle was going to be whether or not I can ignore Elisabeth Moss's Scientology background (why is such a good actress in such an awful cult?) but as fate would have it, I'd struggle with all of this.

I'll give this film credit where its due, it's definitely not like a traditional biopic. You don't necessarily learn a lot about Jackson and it's certainly not filmed like one, which gives it the edge of not being more of the same. I didn't care for director Josephine Decker's last feature Madeline's Madeline. Which I still to this day do not understand. This one narratively is easier to follow but its whimsical, claustrophobic approach wasn't that much better for me personally.

While Moss is good, I think it's Odessa Young who is the true standout here. Rose puts up with so much during the course of this film. Her husband sucks. Stanley is a creep, Shirley is passive aggressive. This is more her story than Jackson's.

I hate being *that* person who hates a film everyone else loves, but just did not work for me. It's convoluted and I'm so sick of the shooting style of having the camera constantly inches away from the actor's faces. I know it's a personal preference but I find it more distracting than effective.

Recommended: No

Grade: C-

Memorable Quote: "I read your story, it made me feel thrillingly horrible." - Rose (Odessa Young)

Comments

  1. thevoid99July 18, 2020 at 6:32 PM

    I heard good things about this film although I'm not sure if I want to see it though I too am a fan of Elisabeth Moss despite her affiliation with Scientology though let's be glad she's not some insane aging midget.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamJuly 19, 2020 at 10:42 PM

      I feel like everyone liked this movie more than I did. I was just so disappointed.

      Delete
  2. keith71_98July 20, 2020 at 11:10 AM

    I think I liked it a little bit more than you did but I can see why this wouldn't be for everyone. To be honest I had a hard time getting in sync with it at times.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamJuly 21, 2020 at 9:56 AM

      That's a good way to describe it, I just wanted it to work and it didn't.

      Delete
  3. KatyJuly 20, 2020 at 5:09 PM

    Nice review! I saw the trailer for this before Portrait of a Lady on Fire and it looked interesting - but I'm not in a rush. It looked a little convoluted, which is a shame.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamJuly 21, 2020 at 9:55 AM

      I'm realizing I'm not a fan of the structure in which she shoots her films.

      Delete

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