Shirley

audience Reviews

, 54% Audience Score
  • Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
    I don't know why the audience who rated this movie gave it such poor ratings. It was superb. I recommend it.
  • Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
    I'm glad there was an attempt to emulate Jackson's writing style in this portrayal but the probing of the characters never gets beyond surface level observations.
  • Rating: 1.5 out of 5 stars
    It is legitimate to imagine or re-imagine an author's life but completely illegitimate to invent a character, who bears little or no relation to them, and then pretend it is them. Imagine taking a childless woman, whose life was consumed by self-doubt and then making her into a jolly mother of four ! Absurd and ridiculous. No, that is not what 'Shirley' does, it does something almost worse, namely the opposite. It takes a mother of four and recasts her as a somewhat monstrous and angry childless woman preoccupied by a pregnant lodger. Shirley Jackson's son has complained this bears absolutely no relation to his mother as he has every right to. A travesty.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    This was such a great movie, intellegent script, fantastic cast/acting, it kept me riveted to the screen. So refreshing!
  • Rating: 0.5 out of 5 stars
    Just a bad movie all around. And Elizabeth Moss is such a camera hog and so over the top in love with herself - she's absolutely unbearable and impossible to watch. She was bad before but scientology turned her into world class psycho. If you like being so close to Elizabeth Moss' face that you can count her nostril hairs, then this movie is for you.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    Refreshing to view a film so complex. Amazing acting by Moss. Lovely seeing a film about women's issues that is so interpersonal.
  • Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
    Anything truly topical regarding the subject matter's narrative pursuit is the most factual while the rest in building up the inspiration with parallels stems from psychological ticking via affecting eccentricity that questions the previous literatures' polish. Ambiguously strange, akin to the later release of "The Power of the Dog" that helped notices grounded, pure psychology being bodily harmless except towards behaviorism. Curiosity visits in wonder on what could be within those walls, aside from the satisfied expectation of being an impeccable showcase for cast's performative muster playing convincingly in adding to the bland events. Casually up for the performances brewing up the atmosphere, whatever gets sensed, but narrowly aware of the subject offers contributively questionable insights to the historical contexts. (B)
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    The grinding claustrophobia and hatred between the characters is the perfect vehicle for Elisabeth Moss, who takes her acting skills from the Handmaid's Tale to a new level.
  • Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
    Many of the works penned by author Shirley Jackson--such as The Lottery and The Haunting of Hill House--are now regarded as literary classics. But as so often happens, at the time and place of their creation they were far from that status. As such, this portrayal of Shirley Jackson is one of a depressed, almost manic (albeit brilliant) creator who chafes against the lack of life/respect given to a creative woman in the 1950s. For a very basic overview, this film focuses on Shirley (Elisabeth Moss) and husband Stanley Hyman (Michael Stuhlbarg) taking in young couple Rose (Odessa Young) and Fred Nemser (Logan Lermer) as boarders. While Fred works hand-in-hand with Stanley at his university professorship, Rose is left to deal with the odd, often-unhinged Shirley at home, equally beset by bouts of intense creative and madness/depression. When a girl from the university goes missing, Shirley uses that as the impetus for a new novel, along the way uncovering truths about Rose's marriage and upcoming motherhood. The hallmark of "Shirley" is how it constructs its titular character. For most of the film, Jackson is portrayed as a nasty, snarky woman without a nice word to say to anyone. But as certain events unspool and viewers learn more about her existence (such as Stanley's infidelities), we come to sympathize with her plight (at least to a certain extent). It was certainly not easy to be a "woman creative" in that time period, and this movie really digs into those themes. This is of course contrasted with Rose's characterization, which starts off as "perfect wife" but ends up looking a lot more like Shirley than ever anticipated. Unfortunately, those great themes are quite scattershot throughout the film. The thread connecting reality to Jackson's new novel actually works against the proceedings by creating confusion as to what exactly is transpiring. While I understood the goal of that choice, it simply didn't work all that well. As such, it takes far too long to really figure out what exactly this picture is all about. As usual, Moss's performance is excellent. She is truly one of the best actors to grace the big (or small) screen at the moment. Young is also terrific as Rose, who must deal with some pretty heavy revelations of her own. Overall, I considered "Shirley" to be a solid film that delves into a lot of interesting themes about writing, creativity, time periods, and gender. It's a bit too messy to be truly great, but the material, acting, and high production value never render it boring, either.
  • Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
    If the script requires me to imagine my own ending to their story then I'd rather go see The Batman playing in the theater next door. Don't waste my time like this.