Elisabeth Moss finds the dark soul of Shirley Jackson in a fittingly Gothic psychodrama
Film Reviews moviereview
Suffering has long been characterized as a woman’s lot, canonized in the form of Catholic saints and celebrated in literature and art. (Pablo Picasso merely made it explicit when he said, “Women are suffering machines.”) To defy this edict will bring further misfortune, leaving only two choices: either smile and let your soul die piece by indignant piece, or embrace the darkness and learn to enjoy it. Josephine Decker’s Shirley is about a woman who opted for the latter: Shirley Jackson (played here by Elisabeth Moss), author of high-school staple “The Lottery” and the oft-adapted The Haunting Of Hill House. Mocked by her peers, mistreated by her husband, and burdened by mental illness, Jackson lived with the psychic evils that lurk in her writing. But for Decker, what’s important about Shirley’s misery is how she used it to fuel her work.
Calling Shirley a “biopic” is a bit of a stretch. The details of Jackson’s life have been thrown into a chronological blender and puréed until they’re basically fictional, as they were in Susan Scarf Merrell’s novel of the same name. The writer technically isn’t even the protagonist. That, instead, would be Rose (Odessa Young), the meek young housewife who serves as submissive yin to Shirley’s snarling yang. As the story begins, Rose and her husband, Fred (Logan Lerman), are en route to Bennington, Vermont; there, they plan to stay for a few days with Shirley and her professor husband, Stanley Hyman (Michael Stuhlbarg), whom Fred sees as something of a mentor. They arrive in the middle of a lively bohemian party, with Shirley the brilliant author holding court as Stanley beams from the sidelines. But it doesn’t take long for the toxicity of the older couple’s drunken, manipulative relationship to begin poisoning their houseguests as well.
This is as Gothic of a story as any Jackson wrote, a fairy tale about a beautiful, intelligent young woman who gets tricked by treacherous men into becoming the servant of a dreadful witch. But in this version, the witch is also the heroine’s only friend. Shirley’s sharp tongue and interest in the occult have made her a pariah in Bennington, and Stanley’s fragile ego leads him to treat his more successful wife like a child. But Shirley’s imprisonment in the gloomy farmhouse where most of the film takes place is largely self-imposed. Rose is stuck there by larger societal forces, and the more time she spends with Shirley, the more she learns to twist her unhappiness into morbid fascination. Together, they peer over the edge, titillated by the oblivion that seems to be the only escape from the frustration that defines their lives.
Interdependent characters representing aspects of a whole are a theme in Jackson’s work, and Rose and Shirley similarly embody two versions of 1950s womanhood—Rose the “good” wife, Shirley the “bad” one—literally in dialogue with one another. Even the actors’ performances are complementary, as Moss’ closed-off, defensive scowling contrasts with Young’s sweetness. And the dynamic between the women remains potent, even in a soft middle section where Decker’s impressionistic style muddles Sarah Gubbins’ structured screenplay. “Most young women are fascinated with their own mortality,” Shirley tells Rose at one point, popping a deadly poison mushroom into her mouth. It turns out to be a cruel prank, but in that moment both women feel truly alive—a sensation you won’t get watching your husband flirt with co-eds at a faculty party.
As one might expect from the director of Madeline’s Madeline—another film about creativity as much as anything else—Shirley slowly blurs the lines between this twisted friendship and Jackson’s new novel, inspired by a missing Bennington student. The deeper the author plunges into the project, the more subjective the movie becomes, revealing the dark visions that descend on Shirley in ghastly, expressive bursts. As in her previous work, Decker films her subjects largely in intimate handheld closeup, their complexions grey in the dim light behind heavy curtains drawn against the warm, glowing sunlight outside. Shirley’s soul is so poisoned that the only things that make her happy are sowing chaos and writing, and she can’t do one without the other. It’s a sick coping mechanism, to be sure. But she comes by it honestly.
27 Comments
This sounds awesome. Thanks for the Gothic lens, Katie.
super excited to see this. I thought “We Have Always Lived in the Castle” was a little too tame (they focused too much on cousin Charles and he’s not that interesting and it was the least interesting performance in the movie). It was well cast, they just didn’t really explore the potential. I think “Stoker” was frankly a better adaptation of it (and Matthew Goode a fantastic cousin Charles). Having read the rest of her books and liked them, I’m still not sure which of them would potentially make a great movie. The Bird’s Nest, for example, is a little dated in its portrayal of DID, but it’s at least a very personal portrait.I’m also up for just doing a bunch of these in a row with Elizabeth Moss playing Flannery O’Connor, then Carson McCullers, and so on
also, are Eliza Scanlen and Odessa Young the same person?
Shirley is just the latest of about a bazillion book-to-film adaptations lately that de-Jew the lead characters. Stanley is an old beardo, so he’s still said to be Jewish, of course, but since the Nemsers are young and hot, they no longer are (even though Fred Nemser’s actor is Jewish).
Actors with two Jewish parents: Mila Kunis, Natalie Portman, Logan Lerman, Paul Rudd, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bar Refaeli, Anton Yelchin, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Adam Brody, Kat Dennings, Gabriel Macht, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Erin Heatherton, Lisa Kudrow, Lizzy Caplan, Gal Gadot, Debra Messing, Gregg Sulkin, Jason Isaacs, Jon Bernthal, Robert Kazinsky, Melanie Laurent, Esti Ginzburg, Shiri Appleby, Justin Bartha, Margarita Levieva, James Wolk, Elizabeth Berkley, Halston Sage, Seth Gabel, Corey Stoll, Michael Vartan, Mia Kirshner, Alden Ehrenreich, Julian Morris, Asher Angel, Debra Winger, Eric Balfour, Dan Hedaya, Emory Cohen, Corey Haim, Scott Mechlowicz, Harvey Keitel, Odeya Rush, William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson is Jewish, too (though I don’t know if both of his parents are).
Actors with Jewish mothers and non-Jewish fathers: Timothée Chalamet, Jake Gyllenhaal, Dave Franco, James Franco, Scarlett Johansson, Daniel Day-Lewis, Daniel Radcliffe, Alison Brie, Eva Green, Joaquin Phoenix, River Phoenix, Emmy Rossum, Ryan Potter, Rashida Jones, Jennifer Connelly, Sofia Black D’Elia, Nora Arnezeder, Goldie Hawn, Ginnifer Goodwin, Judah Lewis, Brandon Flynn, Amanda Peet, Eric Dane, Jeremy Jordan, Joel Kinnaman, Ben Barnes, Patricia Arquette, Kyra Sedgwick, Dave Annable, and Harrison Ford (whose maternal grandparents were both Jewish, despite those Hanukkah Song lyrics).
Actors with Jewish fathers and non-Jewish mothers, who themselves were either raised as Jewish and/or identify as Jewish: Ezra Miller, Gwyneth Paltrow, Zac Efron, Alexa Davalos, Nat Wolff, Nicola Peltz, James Maslow, Josh Bowman, Andrew Garfield, Winona Ryder, Michael Douglas, Ben Foster, Jamie Lee Curtis, Nikki Reed, Jonathan Keltz, Paul Newman, David Corenswet.
Oh, and Ansel Elgort’s father is Jewish, though I don’t know how Ansel was raised. Robert Downey, Jr., Sean Penn, and Ed Skrein were also born to Jewish fathers and non-Jewish mothers. Armie Hammer, Chris Pine, Emily Ratajkowski, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, and Finn Wolfhard are part Jewish.
Actors with one Jewish-born parent and one parent who converted to Judaism: Dianna Agron, Sara Paxton (whose father converted, not her mother), Alicia Silverstone, Jamie-Lynn Sigler.
Robert Wise’s The Haunting is an absolute belter.
Just thinking about certain scenes in that movie, make my stomach hurt and heart be faster. The book is good too.
oh fuck how did I forget that. yeah that’s an A-classic. The one with Liams Neesens not so much.
I don’t see India Stoker as a Merricat. She’s more your standard movie psychopath (literally getting off to a homicide) rather than that distinctive variety of oddball.
Yes. Maybe it’s because I read it as a kid, but I think the point of Merricat is that you’re supposed to kind of believe she’s a magical witch long before you figure out what she really is. Having her as a standard movie psychopath ruins that.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle is one of those novels that seems impossible to adapt (to be fair, I rank it as one of my favourite novels, and Jackson’s masterpiece, so I might be hard to please). Hugh Wheeler, before he had success in the 1970s with the books for Sondheim’s A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd and other musicals plus several great screenplays, had a week long flop stage version of it in the mid 1960s. For all of that, I thought the film did a respectable job—maybe because I came with such low expectations (certainly the film didn’t deserve to disappear as quickly as it did, although even the good reviews, which didn’t seem to know the novel, basically pointed out that it was “weird”). But good call on the similarities with Stoker!
Anyway–I’m very much looking forward to this!
When I saw that article image my immediate reaction was “Oh god a Duplass is in this too?” I was much relieved to find it was Michael Stuhlbarg in a beard.
are the duplass brothers known quantities? I stumbled upon “Jeff Who Lives at Home” and hated it with a burning passion, so I’m surprised to see their name mentioned again.
Yes, Super Mumblecore Bros. are surprisingly well-represented and well-known.
they’ve made like 40 movies…well one movie 40 times!I jest, they have made just a few good ones but they too often are underwritten and “improvised” (meaning boring).
I was struggling to recall who Shirley Jackson was (its a quite pedestrian name) then I remembered. She was days away from being lobotomized in a mental hospital when her first novel got accepted for publication, so the doctors said ‘In that case, nevermind’.
:O !!
sooooo, a weekend with george & martha, then?
I got that same thought and went from there to…holy shit Elizabeth Moss and Michael Stuhlbarg actually playing George and Martha in about 10 years.
Hoping Moss will denounce Scientology the way Beck didhttps://www.google.com/amp/s/www.hollywoodreporter.com/amp/news/beck-says-he-is-not-a-scientologist-1257357
The best version of “The Lottery” IMO. It’s about 20 minutes out of your life. Made by that titan of cinema, Encyclopedia Brittanica. It’s chilling.
(Oh, and keep your eyes peeled for the heartbreakingly young Ed Begley, Jr.)
OMG, the biopic I didn’t realize I needed! When I was 11/12ish Shirley Jackson was my obsession. For whatever reason (probably because of the gothic dread mixed with Agatha Christie elements) I read and re-read We Have Always Lived in The Castle. So many times that my mother hid my copy. The Lottery is, of course, brilliant (and a perfect example of irony in short stories) but the woman wrote hundreds of short stories and I don’t think any of them are bad. Her story “Charles” has been borrowed from time and again by horror movies about creepy kids. “After You, My Dear Alphonse” should be required reading for teenagers everywhere in the U.S., IMO. “Got a Letter from Jimmy” is creepy as hell. This woman is my spirit animal.
Really excited for this, I love Shirley Jackson and Elisabeth Moss is one of my favourite actresses, in spite of the whole scientology thing
I love how the woke AV Club is ok excusing a terrible woman character bc blah blah the patriarchy and all.
I’m more used to posting on Entertainment Weekly and those guys say EW is overly woke, I’m more in the “jesus christ, no, that would be Vulture/AV Club/Vox, etc
I was excited for this just knowing the concept and casting, but the fact that they decided to erase her children really irritates me. I understand it would have been harder to do the Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf thing if they’d included the kids, but still. She wrote what she did with four children underfoot, it seems like an extreme underselling of what she accomplished if you eliminate that factor.
I am a huge Shirley Jackson fan, and I really felt that the movie shoehorned her into a character they needed her to be, and wasn’t really related to the actual Shirley Jackson, and removing the kids was a MAJOR piece of this. Great performances, but a film easier to admire than like.
I think it’s better to not have kids when you’re trying to portray parents as adults with their own realities and agencies. Shows like Everybody Loves Raymond and Frasier had kids that were virtually ignored anyways because the screenwriters weren’t interested in them. This is better if the story doesn’t involve the kids
How predictably over-woke of the AV Club to excuse Shirley Jackson’s cruelty to Rose as joyfully escaping the patriarchy