Film Analysis – Elisabeth Moss Gets Outshone by Kate Hudson in Oddball Film
There are scenes in the unveiled schlock horror Shell that would make it seem like a frivolous inebriated camp classic if described in isolation. Imagine the part where Kate Hudson's seductive wellness CEO makes Elisabeth Moss to operate a large sex toy while making her stare into a looking glass. Additionally, a abrupt beginning starring former performer Elizabeth Berkley tearfully cutting away crustaceans that have grown on her flesh before being slaughtered by a unknown murderer. Then, Hudson serves an refined meal of her shed epidermis to excited attendees. Furthermore, Kaia Gerber becomes a giant lobster...
If only Shell was as outrageously fun as those descriptions suggest, but there's something oddly flat about it, with star turned helmer Max Minghella having difficulty to deliver the excessive delights that something as ridiculous as this so obviously needs. The purpose remains unclear what or why Shell is and the target viewers, a cheaply made lark with minimal appeal for those who weren't involved in the filmmaking, feeling even less necessary given its regrettable similarity to The Substance. Both highlight an Los Angeles star fighting to get the roles and recognition she feels entitled to in a cruel industry, unjustly judged for her appearance who is then lured by a revolutionary process that provides instant rewards but has terrifying consequences.
Even if Fargeat's version hadn't premiered last year at Cannes, ahead of Minghella's was unveiled at the Toronto film festival, the contrast would still not be kind. Even though I was not a big enthusiast of The Substance (a gaudily crafted, too drawn-out and empty act of provocation somewhat rescued by a stellar acting) it had an clear lasting power, readily securing its appropriate niche within the entertainment world (expect it to be one of the most mocked movies in next year's Scary Movie 6). Shell has about the same degree of insight to its and-then-what commentary (female appearance ideals are impossibly punishing!), but it doesn't equal its over-the-top body horror, the film in the end recalling the kind of no-budget rip-off that would have trailed The Substance to the VHS outlet back in the day (the lesser counterpart, the budget version etc).
Surprisingly starring by Moss, an actor not known for her humor, miscast in a role that requires someone more eager to dive into the absurdity of the genre. She collaborated with Minghella on The Handmaid's Tale (one can understand why they both might crave a break from that show's punishing grimness), and he was so desperate for her to star that he decided to accommodate her being noticeably six months pregnant, leading to the star being awkwardly covered in a lot of bulky jackets and outerwear. As an uncertain star seeking to elbow her way into Hollywood with the help of a shell-based beauty regimen, she might not really sell the role, but as the slithering 68-year-old CEO of a dangerous beauty brand, Hudson is in much more command.
The actress, who remains a consistently overlooked talent, is again a delight to watch, mastering a specifically LA brand of faux-earnest fakeness backed up by something genuinely sinister and it's in her regrettably short scenes that we see what the film could have been. Matched with a more suitable opponent and a more incisive script, the film could have unfolded like a feverishly mean cross between a 50s “woman's picture” and an 80s creature feature, something Death Becomes Her did so wonderfully well.
But the script, from Jack Stanley, who also wrote the just as flaccid action thriller Lou, is never as sharp or as smart as it might have been, social commentary kept to its most transparent (the finale hinging on the use of an NDA is more amusing in idea than execution). Minghella doesn't seem sure in what he's really trying to create, his film as bluntly, slowly filmed as a daytime soap with an just as bad soundtrack. If he's trying to do a self-aware exact duplicate of a cheap cassette scare, then he hasn't pushed hard enough into studied pastiche to sell it as such. Shell should take us all the way to the brink, but it's too afraid to commit fully.
Shell is up for hire online in the US, in Australia on 30 October and in the UK on 7 November
