What a better way to honor Shirley Jackson's legacy than to make you feel like you are in one of her books. The handheld camera and editing plus the wonderful score takes you to that place, where you don't know what's real and what's not and in any other movie this could be disastrous but in this one it works perfectly. The expectations of womanhood and marriage are a very common topic in film, here its addressed in a very creative way, as did Shirley herself, though the metaphor of this lost girl, showing us how Shirley and Rose were lost and overwhelmed by their duties as wives against their true desires.
However, all of this only adds to what's for me the highlight of the movie: The outstanding performances of the cast. Stuhlbarg brilliantly portrayed this scumbag philanderer who also loved and admired her wife and her talent. Odessa Young was fearless, giving Rose this many layers and keeping up with the rhythm of the unsurprisingly marvelous Elisabeth Moss.
This is (again) Moss's show, she never lets you go, you always have to follow her at her most despicable and at her most vulnerable, without letting you forget that there's strength in this extremely troubled woman. A deeper voice, a mischievous gaze, a battered posture... She knows how to take you places.
Review of Shirley
