Film Review: Breaking Female Reality With “Shirley”
Elisabeth Moss is one of those actresses who could do a movie with a paper bag over her head and manage to give one of the most emotional performances of the year. In Shirley, coming to digital on June 5, she plays the iconic, horror author, Shirley Jackson: known for her creepy, narrative style. She was a woman that analyzed the daily discontent of families behind white picket fences and squeezed the details of their dissatisfaction like one might juice from a lemon or, more accurately, blood from a towel.
Directed by Josephine Decker and written by Sarah Gubbins, the film, based on Susan Scarf’s novel, has an immediate strangeness to it. Even though we meet our protagonist in a party where everyone lauds her talents, her husband, Stanley Hyman (Michael Stuhlberg), cheers to their marriage with the words “To Our Suffering.” Yet, he says this with a such a note of reveled darkness that makes you look at him with a face that says, “What weird fetish do you have, sir?” Shirley and Stanley, instantly, carry an energy of bottled darkness; looking formal, smart, and even free. Yet, they enjoy a bit of mind games, which is why young couple, Logan Lerman’s Fred and Odessa Young’s Rose, become warped into their world.
SHIRLEY Trailer – Available Everywhere June 5
Moss approaches Young’s Rose like a fiercely intelligent Stephen King character whose emotions twiddle between needy and manipulative; her intentions feel seedy, her fascination salacious, and her ability to transfer those into prose transfixing. Yet, her frustrations with being a genius woman married to a man who thinks he is God leads her connection to the equally repressed Rose. Their bond DEFINES the film in every sense; from sexual to hallucinatory. They both push and seduce the other to the point that the film feels like a murder mystery, except you have to figure whether it is reality or their dreams have died.
This film is 100% about female repression, and the madness it brings to women whose humanity and intelligence will never seem enough when compared to a man. Yet, the psychological thrill of the film comes in how that madness can leave you open to someone, even if a fellow woman, and lead you ro the euphoria or insane whims of another. For however much Shirley and Rose are more vibrant than their men/ surroundings, they are drawn to validation, which is a human thing, but when repressed, can feel like a dire necessity. Hence, Young gives Rose, our central character, a bridge of wonder and wallowing sadness that makes her relatable to female viewers, and marks her as Shirley’s muse.
Shirley new clip from Berlin Film Festival 2020
Moss’ Shirley sees Rose and Fred (Logan Lerman), and really her world, like the opening page to her next horrifying novel. The problem is that as she looks to see how others’ lives can become her book, she, in turn, tries to bring it into reality. Once again, it is here that Decker and Gubbins turn the film into a psychological thriller; trying to push the audience to uncover “Who Is Shirley?” and “What is she doing to Rose or rather what is Rose doing to her?”
