Some films endure due to dangerous timing. “Shell” wouldn’t be an excellent film below any circumstances, nevertheless it fares particularly poorly towards Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance,” a greater and extra outrageous movie that offers in very related subject material. “Outrageous” is what director Max Minghella goes for right here. And when it accepts its future as a ‘50s-style rubber-suit sci-fi monster movie, “Shell” does have camp value to it. Even then, it still doesn’t decide to the bit laborious sufficient to make it profitable.
There are some humorous moments in “Shell” — each intentional and unintentional — and a few eye-catching photos. The primary dwelling creature to look on display is a fluffy lap canine smeared with blood, which mixes the 2; it trots down a darkish hallway in an ‘80s-style mansion, its little legs moving as fast as they can. The camera follows the dog into a retro tiled bathroom, where Elizabeth Berkley is sitting in a shell-pink bathtub wearing a matching silk robe cutting grotesque black bumps off of her leg. She’s freaking out. The bathtub is slippery with blood. She passes out and drops the knife, and the canine begins licking it clear.
It’s a promising chilly open, one which leads into an uneasy mix of tried pathos and drained entertainment-industry satire as Samantha (Elisabeth Moss) goes out for what she thinks is a gathering with the director of one of many downbeat indie films Moss generally stars in in actual life. It seems to be an open audition, and Samantha loses the function — a divorced single mom of two — to “it” lady Chloe Benson (Kaia Gerber). Chloe is barely sufficiently old to drink, not to mention have two children, however she’s sizzling and widespread on social media so there you go. The expertise leads Samantha’s reps (certainly one of whom is performed by Ziwe, completely forged) to counsel, their voices thick with smarmy faux-concern, that she go relaxation on the Shell clinic for some time.
CEO Zoe Shannon (Kate Hudson) is the face of Shell, an organization whose companies mix parts of “Death Becomes Her” and “The Lobster.” In a spa-like environment, individuals like Samantha can stave off their concern of irrelevance by present process an outpatient process the place their DNA is fused with the DNA of a lobster, or one thing, leading to a youthful, stronger, taller model of themselves with clear pores and skin and vivid eyes. Quite a bit is defined, however none of it sticks. The one issues that land are the slicing jokes, which, once more, are nothing new — do you know Los Angeles is a shallow and insincere place? — however get some chuckles within the second.
The satire right here is clumsy, gesturing at related factors already made in higher films. There’s a rule in comedy that if you need to clarify a joke, it’s not an excellent joke, and the same type of ambiguity is at play right here. It’s not all the time clear if, say, a montage set to “Walkin’ on Sunshine” after her Shell therapy improves Samantha’s life is a tongue-in-cheek parody of tacky ‘80s movies, or if it’s simply plain tacky itself. This all ties into the camp issue, which may even be used to elucidate away hacky particulars like Samantha’s cat as a stand-in for her spinsterhood. Hypothetically.
“Shell” additionally fancies itself physique horror, however once more it doesn’t commit laborious sufficient to actually excel in that space. Samantha barfs up some black bile, and Zoe’s sycophants eat her pores and skin at a cocktail party in a bit that briefly frames her as a Christ determine however doesn’t go anyplace. Then there are the bumps that pop up when the process “goes wrong,” that are referred to within the movie as “scales” however are extra just like the sort of lumpy mole that will immediate a go to to the dermatologist. An entire rash of them is fairly gross, however not as gross because it must be. The place’s the goop?
Mysterious pink liquids are injected into keen topics from unlabeled vials on the Shell clinic, once more shades of “The Substance.” Even the floor aesthetics of the movies are related: Each have an eye fixed for ‘80s-inspired fashions and structure, which manifests right here within the type of silver lamé and curved strains. The heightened actuality of this movie will not be as properly constructed, nevertheless, and with a lot much less intentionality: The self-driving automobiles that seem within the background all through the movie,for instance, serve no explicit goal besides to shore up its sci-fi credentials.
Everybody in “Shell” lives on this actuality apart from schlumpy everywoman Moss, who appears like she’s a few half-step off from everybody else. That’s not a failure on the a part of the actor, who has confirmed herself greater than succesful many occasions over. It’s indicative of the general clumsiness of the challenge, whose lack of consistency is current even in little particulars like that indisputable fact that a number of the magazines within the movie are actual (Samantha is profiled in “Vanity Fair”) and others should not (ditto for Zoe in “Persons”).
Hudson, in the meantime, does perceive the tone Minghella is aiming for right here, or is maybe setting it herself. Her motivations for placing up a friendship with Samantha are inscrutable and predatory, and he or she performs the chilly villainess with relish as she struts round in fabulous robes and purrs out pseudo-scientific bullshit. (There’s additionally the potential for a lesbian subtext to her relationship with Moss, however that is sadly underdeveloped.) Her perfection is meant to make her hateable, and Moss’ imperfection is equally meant to border her as relatable. However pulling off that dynamic in a film that additionally has human-sized crustaceans in it’s a challenge for a extra expert filmmaker than this one.
Grade: C
“Shell” premiered on the 2024 Toronto Worldwide Movie Competition. It’s presently looking for U.S. distribution.
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