Direction: Josephine Deker
Country: USA
The biographical drama Shirley often takes the form of a psychological thriller as it depicts a particular period in the life of American horror fiction writer Shirley Jackson. The talented director Josephine Deker (Madeline’s Madeline) works from a script by Sarah Gubbins, who, for her part, adapted Susan Scarf Merrell’s 2014 novel.
With riveting central performances by Elizabeth Moss, Odessa Young and Michael Stuhlbarg, the film plays like a slick tale with moral implications. Moreover, it can be considered a brilliantly insidious character study with the virtue of unpredictability.
Sporting a cast of expertly played characters, the film exposes a frenetic sensibility that hooks you in, especially due to Moss, who steals the show as the emotionally vulnerable title character. She and her husband - the unfaithful, bohemian and opportunistic professor Stanley Hyman (Stuhlbarg) - agree to host an ambitious young couple, Fred (Logan Lerman) and Rose Nemser (Young) at their home in Bennington, Vermont. This occurs at a time when Shirley is utterly depressed as she struggles with writer’s block and a bout of agoraphobia. An unremitting pressure affects all the characters and you witness the tension spreading like a wildfire in dried land. However, what was abusive becomes sensuous and provocative. Is there truth behind the actions or just a mere playground for writing?
Gorgeously shot, with a dazzling camera work and a tone that ranges from disconcerting to subversive, the film is still very much recommended, even when, in its final third, subtle oscillations in intensity and flow are detected. In the end, there's no ambiguity to be found, just pure madness and deception.
