LFF Review: ‘Shirley’
“You know how insulted I am by mediocrity.”
Fred Nemser (Logan Lerman) and his wife Rose (Odessa Young) temporarily move in with Stanley Hyman (Michael Stuhlbarg) and Shirley Jackson (Elisabeth Moss) as Fred begins his job at Bennington College, where Stanley is also a professor. When they arrive, they find Shirley is obsessed by story of a young woman who recently disappeared from Bennington’s campus and wants to tell her story as a novel, and yet is incapacitated by mental illness and writer’s block. Stanley, however, is much more welcoming and quickly convinces Rose to take over the chores around the house. What the young couple doesn’t know is that Shirley and Stanley have an arrangement to psychologically break down the Nemsers by causing strains in their marriage. As the couple slowly crack under the pressure of Stanley’s manipulation and Shirley’s abuse, Shirley gains increasing clarity and resolve to finish her novel, while the lives of Fred and Rose will never be the same again.
The film is essentially made up of just four cast members, but they certainly picked a strong cast to carry the film. Logan Lerman does a good job in the role of Fred but it is by far the least interesting part and therefore he is unable to leave much of a mark. Michael Stuhlbarg, however, is able to make much more of an impression in his role as the eccentric and unpredictable husband of Shirley. However, this is very much a story of two women, and those are the two performances that really stand out here. Odessa Young, on the back of her great breakout performance in 2018s ‘Assassination Nation’ is brilliant at the heart of this film as a woman who starts as a young and naïve housewife and is quickly dragged into Shirley’s web, leading her on a dramatic transformation both visually and emotionally. As for the role of Shirley Jackson herself, there is simply no one else that could have played this role as well as Elisabeth Moss. She plays Jackson with a deranged stare, filled with both anguish and wonder, and as a truly conflicted woman who becomes so transfixed by her work that little else matters.
Josephine Decker brings a real directorial vision to the film, as you can truly feel her unique voice in every aspect of ‘Shirley’ and the way the camera swoops around and up close to the characters, it all feels very deliberate and like she is flexing her muscles behind the camera, with some material that she can really sink her teeth into. She is also helped in building this atmosphere and tension by Tamar-kali’s slow and suspenseful score that creeps up on you as the film is progressing and allows for a real sense of dread to develop.
While ‘Shirley’ is very much a psychological thriller about manipulation and obsession, this film also has its comedic moments when it is addressing the plight of a writer who is suffering from creative block, and how they deal with pressure from those around them. Jackson is asked early in the film “So, how’s the writing going?” and responds entirely seriously with “Please, don’t ever ask me that again”. I – and many other writers – can relate to her frustration and this moment (along with some of Shirley’s brilliantly floral shirts) bring some much needed levity to an otherwise very serious film.
One aspect of the film that I didn’t expect to see and yet became the stand out element of the film for me, was the sexual tension and complicated relationship between Rose and Shirley. Odessa Young and Elisabeth Moss, especially in the second half of the film, are absolutely electric together and there is a strongly implied attraction, mixed in deeply with jealously, resentment and friendship. However, we are never actually shown whether the pair act on this attraction or if it just remains a flirtation, but this is exactly what we should expect when it comes to Jackson. If you think of her work, there are good examples of intense female bonds and friendships that quite easily could take on queer subtexts but are never fully realised. While the relationship in ‘Shirley’ has a more obvious sexual element, we still see very little physical touch between the two, and instead are left speculating about what may have occurred off screen.
Without going into spoiler territory, the ending offers multiple different ways the viewer may feel the story ends, and that works to make it feel more so than ever like this was all just one of Shirley’s stories, she was molding these people like she would characters in her work, and she has yet to pick her ending. – Sam Howe
Rating: 4/5
‘Shirley’ had its UK premiere at the London Film Festival.