Streaming: Hulu
Warnings:
Sexual Content
Nudity
Graphic Imagery
Alcohol Abuse
Explicit Language
Rating: R
Shirley is a biographical drama film about a famous horror writer who finds inspiration for her next book after she and her husband take in a young couple. Directed by Josephine Decker, the film is based on a 2014 novel by Susan Scarf Merrell, which formed a story that is largely fictional around the life of novelist Shirley Jackson during the time she was writing her 1951 novel Hangsaman. The film stars Elisabeth Moss as Shirley along with, Michael Stuhlbarg, Odessa Young and Logan Lerman. Shirley had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2020 and won the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Auteur Filmmaking. Overall, the film received positive reviews and Moss was especially praise for her performance. Shirley is far from a traditional biopic and takes the audience on an unsettling psychological journey. The film certainly has skillful elements such as the acting and the cinematography, however the story falls short of being interesting and cohesive.
The screenplay was written by Sarah Gubbins who is known for television writing rather than feature films. The storyline of Shirley seems forced as if it was supposed to be something pleasing to academics and pretentious cinephiles. At times during the film, I found myself wanting for it to be over and I was disappointed that it was 2 hours long. The film paints itself to be a feminist piece but in reality, the women stay unhappy and don’t change anything about their abusive and manipulative husbands. It’s truly unfortunate that Shirley is painted in the light she is because she comes off as “crazy” as well as eccentric and at times even cruel. Shirley doesn’t portray women in a positive light and doesn’t do the characters justice either, they tolerate their husband’s alcoholism and adultery and become “crazy” from it. The film had high hopes with Elisabeth Moss as the lead, but the general story was truly unfortunate and disappointing. Laurence Jackson Hyman, Shirley’s son, disapproved of the film’s portrayal of his parents stating that, “If someone comes to the movie not knowing anything about my parents, they will certainly leave thinking that my mother was a crazy alcoholic and my father was a mean critic.” He also said that the film failed to show his mother’s sense of humor, which I certainly agree with. It was unfortunate that the story turned out to be so muddled and patriarchal because the film had all of the elements to be great.
The acting is an element that turned out well in the film, even with the cluttered story, the actors in the film did a great job making their characters believable. Elisabeth Moss always does a wonderful job with her roles; however, I found her character to be frustrating and confusing at times. Even with that being said, she still did a good job, I just wish that the writing for her character was approached in a different way. Odessa Young also did a good job with her role but at times her character came off as exasperating and if the writing for her character had been more methodical, I am sure her character wouldn’t have come off as meek and maddening. The real issue with this film is the portrayal of women, the two leads had a moment where the audience might think they’d leave their abusive husbands for something better but ultimately by that time in the film, the damage was done. Another truly disappointing part of the film is the mistresses of the husbands, the women all revolve around the men because they are considered brilliant, and yet the women are just as brilliant, but they are considered to be crazy. Shirley does nothing to rectify this portrayal and the film would be much stronger if it had.
Another strong element in the film is the cinematography which was executed by Sturla Brandth Grøvlen who is known for Victoria, Another Round, Rams, and The Discovery. The cinematography is incredibly psychological and adds to the acting in a way that makes the film more of a thriller. The beautiful camerawork plays with extreme close ups and distorted images to accentuate the emotion in a scene. Along with the skillful camerawork, Grøvlen plays with soft focus and creative approaches to add to tension. At times the camerawork comes off as horror and makes the audience feel uneasy; however, the story was sluggish, so the film’s wonderful camerawork sometimes felt less thrilling, and it wasn’t able to accomplish the shock it wanted to. The cinematography was certainly one of the stronger elements of the film but unfortunately with the sluggish and scrambled storyline, the cinematography was hard to focus on.
Shirley is a film that received a few accolades and generally received positive reviews, which is understandable when it comes to the acting as well as the cinematography. With the portrayal of women being so disappointing especially when the screenplay is written by a woman, the film falls flat and becomes more of a waste of time rather than entertainment. Shirley definitely gets some things right but also drastically fails on others, which makes the film hard to follow and at times annoying. If you wish to be frustrated and confused for two hours while slightly entertained by good acting and cinematography, I highly recommend Shirley.