There aren’t many actors that grab the attention of both the indie film crowd and mainstream moviegoers like Elisabeth Moss. Ever since her smash breakout performances in shows like Mad Men and The Handmaid’s Tale, people have ranted and raved about Moss as a talent to watch. I’m still kicking myself for not getting around to watching her powerhouse performance in Her Smell, but easily found myself on the hype train when seeing Moss’, in my opinion, underrated performance in the otherwise bland The Kitchen and her triumphant turn in The Invisible Man. Now, Moss gives another standout performance with her portrayal of legendary horror author Shirley Jackson in director Josephine Decker’s Shirley.
The film is a biographical adaptation of Susan Scarf Merrell’s novel of the same name that follows an aspiring professor named Fred (Logan Lerman) and his pregnant wife Rose (Odessa Young), who stay with Shirley and her charmer husband, Stanley (Michael Stuhlbarg). With Shirley being agoraphobic and not very inclined to talk to others, everyone views her as a crazy woman living in her own horrifying madness. However, after the young couple moves in, Shirley becomes inspired by them, as well as the disappearance of a local college girl, to write a new novel. Meanwhile, Rose begins to find horrifying truths to her own life.
Decker’s approach in telling Shirley’s story is a psychologically horrifying experience filled with hallucinatory panic and real-life horrors that flesh out the inner demons within her marriage. Although we now see her as the author that inspired Netflix and Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Hill House and plenty of other adaptations, Shirley isn’t given much credit or treated like a highly-regarded writer. Most of the time, when other people talk about Shirley, they talk about her as if she’s some monster living in a haunted house or some witch that’s ready to boil their children alive—and at first, it’s easy to believe that.
She’s a total recluse and a kind of nosy, vindictive woman that treats people around her like they don’t matter. Even in their first dinner together, Shirley is immediately mean to Rose and chastises her about her pregnancy. Moss is excellent in showing this side of Shirley. Yet, she also excels in showcasing the human side of Shirley as her relationship with Rose improves and the truth of why she has been reduced to this callused state becomes clear. Shirley’s story is unfortunately in the same vein of many female writers, like Mary Shelley, in that she’s pretty much been forced into the shadows by Stanley and never given the credit or respect she deserves.
Stanley, is socially charming to those around him, controlling in how he dominates conversation and makes people crave his approval. However, that charm quickly fades when his true colors come out and you literally become disgusted with his vileness. From his dominating manner that essentially puts Shirley in a box, to how he flaunts his infidelity in her face, he only seems to maintain his relationship with her in order to keep his dominance. Even the way that everyone else boasts about him really shows his devious charm and how he’s taken advantage of Shirley to make himself stand on her shoulders. To give him some well-deserved credit, Stanley’s vileness is so strong because of Stuhlbarg’s excellent performance and he takes the concept of gaslighting to unbelievably cruel heights.
Being forced into a dark corner all alone, Shirley deals with a lot of grief and madness that Decker shows through great moments of hallucinatory horror. There’s the way Shirley and Rose’s lives connect to a story titled “The Hangsman” that Shirley is writing. Having Young pull double-duty also playing that story’s main character creates this eerie blending of reality. Admittedly, sometimes the hallucinatory sequences that connect major scenes are unnecessary and break the momentum of what viewers are seeing and what they think is happening. While these moments definitely evoke the kind of horror that Shirley is known for, it’s hard not to find yourself a little lost in these aspects of the storytelling.
Where the film really shines, though, is its depiction of how Shirley and Rose have been trapped into a life that doesn’t allow them to succeed or be themselves. They’re constantly told that it’ll be their time to shine soon enough and are pretty much punished if they try to do something on their own. Shirley can’t put a novel out without Stanley reviewing it first. Rose can’t attend school for herself until Fred is in a place where he feels successful and capable. Essentially, these women are bound by the men they are with. The film creates this great arc for them as they attempt to overcome the madness so that they can live for themselves. The romantic elements of their connection didn’t necessarily work for me, but everything else is truly an empowering journey through fears that is made even better through Young and especially Moss’ great performances.
Moss excels at making Shirley someone who’s truly had enough and is unwilling to let Rose become her. Whether it’s her spats with Stanley that make you feel like one wrong word is going to be the last straw or delivering the emotional lows of a woman broken by dark place she’s forced into, Moss is a triumphant force that drives the entire film. She and Young have great chemistry and Young makes Rose’s ending arc really strong. The ending is actually one of Shirley‘s more impressive aspects, as Decker and writer Sarah Gubbins find a way to stay true to the unfortunate truth about Shirley’s relationship with Stanley, but also give viewers a satisfying and empowering arc through Rose’s story.
Shirley ends up being a deep and dark look into the life of one of horror’s greatest mind by delving into the horrors of her everyday life while also showcasing another top-tier performance from Moss that continues to cement her as an undeniable force. Frankly, Moss is one of those talents who’s sure to have an Oscar in her future and while it’s unfortunate that it probably won’t be for this, Shirley is definitely one of her best to date.
