Shell Movie Review
A campy satire about the contradicting and infuriating beauty standards placed on middle-aged female actresses that contains elements of sci-fi and body horror… no, it’s not The Substance. Despite the conceptual similarities, director Max Minghella’s second feature film, Shell takes a far more campy, almost B-movie style, approach to the way it tells its story, but relies too heavily on its camp and satire in the end to really feel like an enjoyable time.
Elizabeth Moss stars as Samantha Lake, an actress who is attempting to get the work she thinks she deserves, but being a woman over 40 is not working in her favour. That is until the CEO of a curious and elusive wellness company (Kate Hudson) extends an invitation into the inner sanctum, where beauty is bestowed on those who are willing to do whatever it takes, to whomever it takes.
Minghella’s direction very much captures the dreamlike allure of LA. It’s a neon-lit wonderland where all of your dreams can come true… if you’re pretty enough. He stylistically moves the camera around vibrant scenes and colourful locations like it’s on a cloud, and that dreamlike vividness is also exacerbated by the campiness of the film’s tone. That is until the film descends into its more madder scenarios, and the dark underbelly beneath the allure is exposed.
That is where the B-movie elements shine the most, and the film takes some pretty wild and weird turns into a more off-putting and gross-out direction. There is some decent body horror, especially in the latter half of the film, that doesn’t necessarily work in favour of the film’s messaging, but rather acts for shock value instead. And the heightened, satirical tone of it all lends to a more giggle-worthy shock than a disgusted shock. There are also non-violent moments of shock, especially around the idea of sexualising oneself in order to advance careers is somewhat explored in an unexpected scene involving shared vibrators. While this moment is more in service of the narrative it’s exploring, it really doesn’t pass the surface level of thematic exploration to feel overly interesting.
Hudson delves headfirst into the campy nature of the film, embracing a sinister girl-boss attitude that is electric and fun to watch. The wryness of her smirk and the glowing hint of evil in her eyes as she preaches to her cult of beauty obsessed loyalists has a gravitating allure that falls into the camp of an antagonist outshining the protagonist. Moss seems mildly miscast in her role as Samantha. There is an innocence that she brings to the character that seems ripe for the breaking in a narrative like this, but as Samantha descends deeper into the insanity, Moss’ performance oddly becomes stale rather than unhinged.
While the campy, satirical tone is definitely a highlight of Shell, it unfortunately relies too heavily on the tone to carry it through to its wild finale, and even at 100 minutes long, feels far too drawn out and unexplored to be interesting for the entire time. The finale will leave audiences on a high, as it feels like the powder keg truly blows in the last 15 minutes, but the fuse is just too long before it gets there.
Shell is in Australian cinemas October 30
