- Josephine Decker’s Shirley has more in common with Mike Nichols’ Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? than any conventional biopic about the life of writer Shirley Jackson.
- The chamber play-like drama consists of Elisabeth Moss (putting together an remarkable body of work) Michael Stuhlbarg (outstanding in everything he does) as Shirley Jackson and Stanley Hyman. She is a writer and Stanley is a professor at the local college. Odessa Young and Logan Lerman are the younger couple that live with them. This makes Stuhlbarg the Richard Burton character and Moss the Elizabeth Taylor character. These two superb actors are up for filling in those big shoes. Young and Lerman then become George Segal and Sandy Dennis. You can hardly blame them, but some of the best parts of the film are just Lerman and Young watching (like us, the viewer) how outrageous and captivating Moss and Stuhlbarg are.
- It is an exercise in discomfort. The Jackson and Hyman characters are exceedingly baneful. Stuhlbarg’s delivery of the acidic “derivative” speech towards Lerman’s character is a wow.
- Purposefully obstructed eyelines at a party, or peering through a cracked door – just some of the creative shot choices from Decker
- Moss and Young have some particularly good scenes together including the little seduction by the swing set and her “let’s pray for a boy- the world is too cruel to girls” line.
- As previously mentioned, this is another in a series of stellar performances from Moss. She is good for at least one archiveable film a year it seems, an indie goddess, though to this point I do think her best work is with Alex Ross Perry still.
A hazy melding of fiction/surrealism (this is about Jackson’s creative process) and reality—with Decker racking back and forth with some shallow focus. The work of Lynne Ramsay feels like a precedent our antagonist in a fog.
- There is a dedication to the color green throughout from Decker. At one point the two women (dressing almost identically at this point bringing hinting this being a fictional creation of Jackson’s mind) are wearing dueling green sweaters. The French doors to her study have these great yellow and green stain glass panels that look perfect for the period.
- At the 92-minute mark there is a great establishing shot of a car on a hill flanked by trees
- Moss gets moments of jealous rage—and Decker gives her a prolonged two-minute stare into the camera near the end of the film
- Recommend but not in the top 10 of 2020
Elisabeth Moss is hands down one of my favorite actresses working today both on TV and film. I do strongly believe that her best work comes from tv not only Mad Men and The Handmaid’s Tale but also top of the lake with Jane campion.
@Drake,
What’s her best performance in film according to you. I think it’s between Her Smell and Shirley. Although Her Smell is a tour de force, I’ll give a little edge to Shirley just because it’s a better film. So for me it’s,
1. Shirley
2. Her smell
3. Queen of earth
4. Listen up philip
5. The invisible man
@M*A*S*H – I admire her talent as well- seven archiveable films in the last nine years by my count. And I think I’m with you on Shirley. She is still missing that big film/performance on her resume.