Shirley Photo: Thatcher Keats Shirley, Mubi, streaming now
Elisabeth Moss put in two of the year's best - and diverse - performances in 2020, that of an abused wife in The Invisible Man and here, as writer Shirley Jackson, entrenched in a very different type of emotional warfare with her husband. Director Josephine Decker and screenwriter Sarah Gubbins take their lead from Susan Scarf Merrell's source book Shirley: A Novel, which blends factual detail with a fictional framework to present a psychodrama snapshot of the horror writer's life. Set at the height of Jackson's fame, the story revolves around the arrival to the home she shares with her husband Stanley (Michael Stuhlbarg) of a young couple (Odessa Young and Logan Lerman) building a disturbing atmosphere that draws on the sexual politics of the period as well as Jackson's own life to immerse us in the gripping power play of the house.
Elisabeth Moss put in two of the year's best - and diverse - performances in 2020, that of an abused wife in The Invisible Man and here, as writer Shirley Jackson, entrenched in a very different type of emotional warfare with her husband. Director Josephine Decker and screenwriter Sarah Gubbins take their lead from Susan Scarf Merrell's source book Shirley: A Novel, which blends factual detail with a fictional framework to present a psychodrama snapshot of the horror writer's life. Set at the height of Jackson's fame, the story revolves around the arrival to the home she shares with her husband Stanley (Michael Stuhlbarg) of a young couple (Odessa Young and Logan Lerman) building a disturbing atmosphere that draws on the sexual politics of the period as well as Jackson's own life to immerse us in the gripping power play of the house.
- 4/29/2024
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Josephine Decker's 2020 film "Shirley" -- based on the novel by Susan Scarf Merrell -- is a biography of the legendary, and legendarily sour, horror author Shirley Jackson ... sort of.
Elisabeth Moss gives a truly great performance as Jackson, depicting her as a woman out of time, unwilling to play by the stuffy, sexist rules of "polite society." When a hen-like housewife peer of Jackson's whines that she might stain her couch with red wine, it's Jackson's instinct to upend her entire glass onto the upholstery. Jackson is depicted as cantankerous, lethargic, alcoholic, and mean.
"Shirley" centers on the relationship Jackson had with a wide-eyed college student named Rose Namser (Odessa Young), a young woman who is optimistic, happy in her new marriage, and eager to raise her unborn child. Jackson is childless and, as the film progresses, will reveal her resentment of that fact. Jackson is happy-ish in her marriage,...
Elisabeth Moss gives a truly great performance as Jackson, depicting her as a woman out of time, unwilling to play by the stuffy, sexist rules of "polite society." When a hen-like housewife peer of Jackson's whines that she might stain her couch with red wine, it's Jackson's instinct to upend her entire glass onto the upholstery. Jackson is depicted as cantankerous, lethargic, alcoholic, and mean.
"Shirley" centers on the relationship Jackson had with a wide-eyed college student named Rose Namser (Odessa Young), a young woman who is optimistic, happy in her new marriage, and eager to raise her unborn child. Jackson is childless and, as the film progresses, will reveal her resentment of that fact. Jackson is happy-ish in her marriage,...
- 10/29/2023
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
“It’s rare that you find a female character who is so challenging,” Elisabeth Moss says of her role as writer Shirley Jackson in the deeply fictional Shirley. “Challenging as to me as an actor and challenging to the other characters in the film and has so much vulnerability and so many soft spots, but is also so strong, so vocal and sometimes not very nice.
Holding little back and joined by director Josephine Decker, The Handmaid’s Tale star was speaking during Deadline’s Contenders Film awards-season virtual event.
A prize-winning hit at the Sundance Film Festival last year and released by Neon on June 5, 2020, the Decker-helmed drama from a script by Sarah Gubbins is based on Susan Scarf Merrell’s 2014 novel. Chilling on a psychological and physical level, Shirley spotlights the often-scary ways and means of real-life author Jackson, played by multiple Emmy winner Moss.
With one novel already to her name,...
Holding little back and joined by director Josephine Decker, The Handmaid’s Tale star was speaking during Deadline’s Contenders Film awards-season virtual event.
A prize-winning hit at the Sundance Film Festival last year and released by Neon on June 5, 2020, the Decker-helmed drama from a script by Sarah Gubbins is based on Susan Scarf Merrell’s 2014 novel. Chilling on a psychological and physical level, Shirley spotlights the often-scary ways and means of real-life author Jackson, played by multiple Emmy winner Moss.
With one novel already to her name,...
- 1/23/2021
- by Dominic Patten
- Deadline Film + TV
If you watch TV series from the 1950s, it appears that being a wife and mother was something just short of perfection. Just look at our favorite sitcom moms of the era-June Cleaver, Harriet Nelson and Donna Stone. They were always happy and peppy. They even wore pearls as they were vacuuming the living room or scrubbing the tub. But a lot of women of the era lived lives of quiet desperation. They may have had a college degree but wasn’t able to pursue a career because it got in the way of being a housewife and mom.
Influential writer Shirley Jackson was one such woman. The acclaimed writer of horror and the supernatural including the brilliant short story “The Lottery” and the best-selling novel “The Haunting of Hill House” was also expected by her husband literary critic and Bennington College professor Stanley Hyman to take care of their...
Influential writer Shirley Jackson was one such woman. The acclaimed writer of horror and the supernatural including the brilliant short story “The Lottery” and the best-selling novel “The Haunting of Hill House” was also expected by her husband literary critic and Bennington College professor Stanley Hyman to take care of their...
- 1/11/2021
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Josephine Decker’s new drama Shirley captures a compelling essence of American horror and mystery writer Shirley Jackson, rather than being a straight biopic about The Haunting of Hill House author. It also offers a significant comment on women’s place in 1950s society, based on Jackson’s writings interpreted in Susan Scarf Merrell’s novel Shirley. In the film, events are seen through the eyes of a fictional female house guest staying with the writer. Fans of Jackson will be greatly satisfied with The Handmaid’s Tale star Elisabeth Moss’ portrayal, as well as how Jackson’s beliefs, personality and fears are deftly interpreted by Decker.
The story opens with Shirley suffering from severe writer’s block while trying to avoid societal expectations of a wife in 1950s America. Meanwhile, her literary critic husband Stanley Hyman (Michael Stuhlbarg) who teaches at the local university is free of such constraints and...
The story opens with Shirley suffering from severe writer’s block while trying to avoid societal expectations of a wife in 1950s America. Meanwhile, her literary critic husband Stanley Hyman (Michael Stuhlbarg) who teaches at the local university is free of such constraints and...
- 10/23/2020
- by Lisa Giles-Keddie
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
"You want to see what a writer does? Come here." On our latest episode of Corpse Club, Heather Wixson is joined by director Josephine Decker and screenwriter Sarah Gubbins to discuss their new movie Shirley (based on Susan Scarf Merrell's novel of the same name), and with the film now streaming on digital platforms, a new trailer has been released.
Shirley stars Elisabeth Moss, Odessa Young, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Logan Lerman. You can check out the new trailer below, and in case you missed it, read Heather's review of the film and listen to Decker and Gubbins on the new episode of our official podcast.
Synopsis: "Renowned horror writer Shirley Jackson is on the precipice of writing her masterpiece when the arrival of newlyweds upends her meticulous routine and heightens tensions in her already tempestuous relationship with her philandering husband. The middle-aged couple, prone to ruthless barbs and copious afternoon cocktails,...
Shirley stars Elisabeth Moss, Odessa Young, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Logan Lerman. You can check out the new trailer below, and in case you missed it, read Heather's review of the film and listen to Decker and Gubbins on the new episode of our official podcast.
Synopsis: "Renowned horror writer Shirley Jackson is on the precipice of writing her masterpiece when the arrival of newlyweds upends her meticulous routine and heightens tensions in her already tempestuous relationship with her philandering husband. The middle-aged couple, prone to ruthless barbs and copious afternoon cocktails,...
- 6/22/2020
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
On this episode of Corpse Club, Heather Wixson is joined by director Josephine Decker and screenwriter Sarah Gubbins to discuss their new movie Shirley (based on Susan Scarf Merrell's novel of the same name), which is out now on digital platforms via Neon.
Listen as Decker and Gubbins reflect on making a movie about the legendary author Shirley Jackson, including their approach to depicting the turbulence of Jackson's home life in the ’50s, exploring Jackson's complex and at times dysfunctional relationship with Stanley Edgar Hyman (which rubs off on a younger couple in the film), and working with a talented cast led by Elisabeth Moss.
So, whether you've seen Shirley or you want to learn more about the film based on one of the most renowned horror writers of all time, sit back, relax, and enjoy a new episode of Daily Dead's official podcast!
You can listen to the...
Listen as Decker and Gubbins reflect on making a movie about the legendary author Shirley Jackson, including their approach to depicting the turbulence of Jackson's home life in the ’50s, exploring Jackson's complex and at times dysfunctional relationship with Stanley Edgar Hyman (which rubs off on a younger couple in the film), and working with a talented cast led by Elisabeth Moss.
So, whether you've seen Shirley or you want to learn more about the film based on one of the most renowned horror writers of all time, sit back, relax, and enjoy a new episode of Daily Dead's official podcast!
You can listen to the...
- 6/19/2020
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
Based on Susan Scarf Merrell’s novel, Shirley centers on how author Shirley Jackson (Elisabeth Moss) find inspiration from a Rose (Odessa Young), a newlywed who ends up being the de facto homemaker for Jackson and her professor husband Stanley (Michael Stuhlbarg). Logan Lerman co-stars as Rose’s husband Fred, an ambitious man who works under Stanley.
Screenwriter [...]
The post ‘Shirley’ Screenwriter Sarah Gubbins Highlights Specificity Of Acclaimed Author appeared first on Hollywood Outbreak.
Screenwriter [...]
The post ‘Shirley’ Screenwriter Sarah Gubbins Highlights Specificity Of Acclaimed Author appeared first on Hollywood Outbreak.
- 6/15/2020
- by Hollywood Outbreak
- HollywoodOutbreak.com
Elisabeth Moss delivers yet another riveting performance in her new movie, Shirley, reminding us why she's the best actress this generation. Based on Susan Scarf Merrell's book, "Shirley: A Novel" about reclusive horror and mystery author Shirley Jackson played by Moss, Shirley is not so much a biography but a study into the mind of a writer. Actress Odessa Young, in a breakthrough performance, engages with Moss in a sort of cat and mouse game that's unique and intriguing.
- 6/10/2020
- by info@cinemovie.tv (Super User)
- CineMovie
Elisabeth Moss delivers yet another riveting performance in her new movie, Shirley, reminding us why she's the best actress this generation. Based on Susan Scarf Merrell's book, "Shirley: A Novel" about reclusive horror and mystery author Shirley Jackson played by Moss, Shirley is not so much a biography but a study into the mind of a writer. Actress Odessa Young, in a breakthrough performance, engages with Moss in a sort of cat and mouse game that's unique and intriguing.
- 6/10/2020
- by info@cinemovie.tv (Super User)
- CineMovie
In the new film Shirley, Elisabeth Moss plays a fictionalized version of acclaimed author Shirley Jackson, whose two-decade career yielded six published novels, two memoirs, and around 200 short stories. Although her career and life were both uncommonly brief, Jackson’s output has endured and she is one of those rare writers whose work is held in high esteem by both literary critics and horror enthusiasts.
“I think I have always been interested in Shirley Jackson,” says Sarah Gubbins, who adapted the screenplay for Shirley from a novel by Susan Scarf Merrell. “Somebody had asked me that question and I was trying to remember when I first encountered her work. Obviously ‘The Lottery’ was something I read, like many people, in high school. It’s just a story that stays with you. You can’t forget that story.”
While Jackson may not strictly be branded as a “horror writer,” there is...
“I think I have always been interested in Shirley Jackson,” says Sarah Gubbins, who adapted the screenplay for Shirley from a novel by Susan Scarf Merrell. “Somebody had asked me that question and I was trying to remember when I first encountered her work. Obviously ‘The Lottery’ was something I read, like many people, in high school. It’s just a story that stays with you. You can’t forget that story.”
While Jackson may not strictly be branded as a “horror writer,” there is...
- 6/9/2020
- by Don Kaye
- Den of Geek
Let’s get one thing clear right from the start: Shirley, the movie about acclaimed writer Shirley Jackson, is not a conventional biopic of the reclusive yet incisive author of The Haunting of Hill House and stories like “The Lottery.” The movie is based on a novel by Susan Scarf Merrell, also called Shirley, and depicts a fictional battle of wills between Jackson, her husband Stanley Hyman, and the young couple who come to live with them when the husband takes a job as Hyman’s teaching assistant.
“The idea was to do a non-traditional biopic, because I didn’t really want to do a cradle to grave biopic at all,” says Sarah Gubbins, who wrote the screenplay. “But what was fascinating to me was the ways in which Shirley kind of has to endure the infamy of the success of ‘The Lottery’ and move into trying to write something else.
“The idea was to do a non-traditional biopic, because I didn’t really want to do a cradle to grave biopic at all,” says Sarah Gubbins, who wrote the screenplay. “But what was fascinating to me was the ways in which Shirley kind of has to endure the infamy of the success of ‘The Lottery’ and move into trying to write something else.
- 6/8/2020
- by Don Kaye
- Den of Geek
Odessa Young’s work in 2018’s Assassination Nation was a total standout, and she also delivers a memorable performance opposite Elisabeth Moss in Shirley.
The narrative, based on Susan Scarf Merrell’s novel, centers on writer Shirley Jackson’s (Moss) friendship with Rose (Young), a newlywed who, along with her husband Fred (Logan Lerman) temporarily live with the writer [...]
The post Odessa Young Reflects On “Joyful” Collaboration With Elisabeth Moss In ‘Shirley’ appeared first on Hollywood Outbreak.
The narrative, based on Susan Scarf Merrell’s novel, centers on writer Shirley Jackson’s (Moss) friendship with Rose (Young), a newlywed who, along with her husband Fred (Logan Lerman) temporarily live with the writer [...]
The post Odessa Young Reflects On “Joyful” Collaboration With Elisabeth Moss In ‘Shirley’ appeared first on Hollywood Outbreak.
- 6/8/2020
- by Hollywood Outbreak
- HollywoodOutbreak.com
Elisabeth Moss never disappoints. The actress proves this yet again taking on the role of a mysterious and extraordinary horror writer in Josephine Decker's film Shirley, which originally premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. Written by Sarah Gubbins and based on the novel of the same name by Susan Scarf Merrell, this oddly satisfying portrayal of lust, attraction, and stimulating inspiration holds one's interest alongside a first-class cast that dazzles. What comes to the forefront in Shirley is the emotional bond between two very different women. One thing is certain – you’re in for a pleasurable treat. The muse of an artistic mind comes unexpectedly. It can be in any shape or form. Sometimes it's music, and sometimes it's the fleeting moment of peace or even a person. And sometimes, it's that one girl, a young wife who just moved into your house with her husband.
- 6/5/2020
- by Zofia Wijaszka
- firstshowing.net
We’ve seen Elisabeth Moss take on corporate male toxicity in Mad Men, a ghost of a man in The Invisible Man, Gilead in The Handmaid’s Tale and punk rock in Her Smell. This weekend we’ll see her as a horror author who tries not to unravel as she goes through her creative process in the Josephine Decker-directed Shirley.
The film, which is adapted from Susan Scarf Merrell’s 2014 novel of the same name, bowed at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and is based on the real-life horror author Shirley Jackson and her husband Stanley Hyman.
“We were not making a film that we ever thought, ‘Oh, we’re making a film about the real Shirley Jackson’,” Decker told Deadline at Sundance. “In fact, the script really meshed up a bunch of timelines in the real Shirley Jackson’s life, so it absolutely was a fiction.
The film, which is adapted from Susan Scarf Merrell’s 2014 novel of the same name, bowed at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and is based on the real-life horror author Shirley Jackson and her husband Stanley Hyman.
“We were not making a film that we ever thought, ‘Oh, we’re making a film about the real Shirley Jackson’,” Decker told Deadline at Sundance. “In fact, the script really meshed up a bunch of timelines in the real Shirley Jackson’s life, so it absolutely was a fiction.
- 6/5/2020
- by Dino-Ray Ramos
- Deadline Film + TV
The author Shirley Jackson led a fascinating life. A full on biopic of Jackson would certainly be worth exploring. However, filmmaker Josephine Decker has something far different and far more unsettling up her sleeve with Shirley, a psychological thriller more so than anything else. That being said, if this is how an auteur can tackle biopics going forward, that’s something to be excited about. Armed with a full throated performance in the title role from Elisabeth Moss, Decker lets her audience have it. This isn’t what you’re expecting and it might turn off some, but for others, it’s going to be a blast. Hitting tomorrow, it’s well worth a watch. This film is a psychological thriller, mixed with a bit of a character study (framed within the body of what might otherwise be a biopic). Renowned and reclusive horror writer Shirley Jackson (Moss) is about to write her masterpiece.
- 6/4/2020
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
Pushed over a metaphorical cliff, the two nonconformists in Josephine Decker’s “Shirley” — her follow-up to the mind-bending “Madeline’s Madeline” — bond over the maddening submissiveness expected of them, which they both come to furiously abhor. Their strange alliance makes for a psychologically layered portrait of unapologetic womanhood that’s dangerously sensual and sumptuously rebellious.
The film, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on Saturday, comes from a screenplay by Sarah Gubbins, which was adapted from Susan Scarf Merrell’s biographical fiction novel. Decker revives American genre writer Shirley Jackson (embodied by Elisabeth Moss) with a concoction of fact and magical realism, which may frame the film as a radically more exciting cousin to Stephen Daldry’s Virginia Woolf-centered, triptych drama “The Hours.”
Sensorial waves are sent through our systems right from the drama’s opening frames via cinematographer Sturla Brandth Grøvlen’s hypnotic camerawork and ethereal lighting.
The film, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on Saturday, comes from a screenplay by Sarah Gubbins, which was adapted from Susan Scarf Merrell’s biographical fiction novel. Decker revives American genre writer Shirley Jackson (embodied by Elisabeth Moss) with a concoction of fact and magical realism, which may frame the film as a radically more exciting cousin to Stephen Daldry’s Virginia Woolf-centered, triptych drama “The Hours.”
Sensorial waves are sent through our systems right from the drama’s opening frames via cinematographer Sturla Brandth Grøvlen’s hypnotic camerawork and ethereal lighting.
- 6/4/2020
- by Carlos Aguilar
- The Wrap
Expect the unexpected from this teasing psychodrama about Shirley Jackson, acclaimed horror author of The Lottery, a short story first published in The New Yorker in 1948 and a literary lightning rod ever since for its depiction of ritualistic violence in contemporary, small-town America. Until her death in 1965, at the age of 48 from heart problems brought on by smoking and weight gain, Jackson published over 200 short stories, two memoirs and six novels including Hangsaman (1951) and The Haunting of Hill House (1959).
Still, it was The Lottery that established her as a social...
Still, it was The Lottery that established her as a social...
- 6/3/2020
- by Peter Travers
- Rollingstone.com
Shirley Neon Review by Harvey Karten for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net Directed by: Josephine Decker Screenplay by: Sarah Gubbins, based on the novel by Susan Scarf Merrell Cast: Elisabeth Moss, Michael Stuhlbarg, Logan Lerman, Odessa Young Reviewed from a critics’ link on 5/15/20 Opening: June 5, 2020 Running Time:107 minutes What gives one person the impetus […]
The post Shirley Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post Shirley Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 5/31/2020
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
Directed by Josephine Decker (Madeline’s Madeline) and executive produced by Martin Scorsese, Shirley centers on the relationship between author Shirley Jackson (Elisabeth Moss) and her professor husband Stanley (Michael Stuhlbarg). The story is inspired by Susan Scarf Merrell’s novel of the same name.
Jackson is facing a bit of writer’s block after the publication of The [...]
The post Elisabeth Moss Plays Mind Games As Celebrated Writer In ‘Shirley’ Trailer appeared first on Hollywood Outbreak.
Jackson is facing a bit of writer’s block after the publication of The [...]
The post Elisabeth Moss Plays Mind Games As Celebrated Writer In ‘Shirley’ Trailer appeared first on Hollywood Outbreak.
- 5/11/2020
- by Hollywood Outbreak
- HollywoodOutbreak.com
In the first trailer for the Sundance award-winner “Shirley,” Elisabeth Moss does what all the heroines in her character’s books do: “They go mad.”
Moss stars in “Shirley” as famed horror author Shirley Jackson, who wrote books such as “The Lottery” and “The Haunting of Hill House” (which was adapted into a widely popular limited series for Netflix), and she stars alongside a cast that includes Michael Stuhlbarg, Logan Lerman and Odessa Young. The sinister first look at the film gives a taste of Moss’ spitfire performance.
“Shirley, what are you writing now,” a party guest asks Jackson. She replies, “A little novella. I’m calling it ‘None of Your Goddamn Business.'”
Also Read: 'Shirley' Director Says Elisabeth Moss Was Always the 'Top Choice' to Play Author Shirley Jackson (Video)
In the loosely biographical film from director Josephine Decker (“Madeline’s Madeline”), Jackson is on the precipice of writing...
Moss stars in “Shirley” as famed horror author Shirley Jackson, who wrote books such as “The Lottery” and “The Haunting of Hill House” (which was adapted into a widely popular limited series for Netflix), and she stars alongside a cast that includes Michael Stuhlbarg, Logan Lerman and Odessa Young. The sinister first look at the film gives a taste of Moss’ spitfire performance.
“Shirley, what are you writing now,” a party guest asks Jackson. She replies, “A little novella. I’m calling it ‘None of Your Goddamn Business.'”
Also Read: 'Shirley' Director Says Elisabeth Moss Was Always the 'Top Choice' to Play Author Shirley Jackson (Video)
In the loosely biographical film from director Josephine Decker (“Madeline’s Madeline”), Jackson is on the precipice of writing...
- 5/8/2020
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
Elisabeth Moss has already delivered one of the year’s best performances thanks to her work in “The Invisible Man,” which debuted in theaters and hit Pvod in March. Now Moss is set to add another towering performance to the list with the upcoming summer release of Josephine Decker’s “Shirley.” The film is based on the novel of the same name by Susan Scarf Merrell and marks Decker’s return after earning raves for “Madeline’s Madeline.” Decker directs from a script by Sarah Gubbins.
The official synopsis reads: “Fred (Lerman) and Rose (Young) move to a small Vermont college town in pursuit of a job for Fred as an assistant professor of literature. The young couple receives an offer for free room and board from professor Stanley Hyman (Stuhlbarg), as long as Rose agrees to spend time cleaning up the home and looking after his wife, acclaimed horror author...
The official synopsis reads: “Fred (Lerman) and Rose (Young) move to a small Vermont college town in pursuit of a job for Fred as an assistant professor of literature. The young couple receives an offer for free room and board from professor Stanley Hyman (Stuhlbarg), as long as Rose agrees to spend time cleaning up the home and looking after his wife, acclaimed horror author...
- 5/8/2020
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
Fresh off the company’s Oscar win for Best Picture with “Parasite,” Neon has acquired the North American rights to “Shirley,” the biographical film and thriller starring Elisabeth Moss that premiered at Sundance, an individual with knowledge of the deal told TheWrap.
Moss stars in the film from director Josephine Decker (“Madeline’s Madeline”) as famed horror author Shirley Jackson. Michael Stuhlbarg, Logan Lerman and Odessa Young also star in the film about how Jackson finds inspiration for her next novel after she and her husband take a young couple into their home and form a deep connection with them that tests the bonds of the couple’s young love.
“Shirley” won the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Auteur Filmmaking at Sundance, and Neon acquired the film in a deal in the low seven-figures range.
Also Read: Neon, Hulu Acquire Andy Samberg's 'Palm Springs' for $17.5 Million; Beats Previous...
Moss stars in the film from director Josephine Decker (“Madeline’s Madeline”) as famed horror author Shirley Jackson. Michael Stuhlbarg, Logan Lerman and Odessa Young also star in the film about how Jackson finds inspiration for her next novel after she and her husband take a young couple into their home and form a deep connection with them that tests the bonds of the couple’s young love.
“Shirley” won the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Auteur Filmmaking at Sundance, and Neon acquired the film in a deal in the low seven-figures range.
Also Read: Neon, Hulu Acquire Andy Samberg's 'Palm Springs' for $17.5 Million; Beats Previous...
- 2/10/2020
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
Sundance Film Festival juries often hand out special prizes to recognize work that doesn’t win one of the two prescribed awards (Grand Jury Prize and Jury Prize for Directing) in each of the competition categories. This year, Sundance found some… well, let’s say, unusual ways to celebrate some tremendous films.
There was the head-scratcher of Eliza Hittman’s “Never Rarely Sometimes Always” winning the “U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Neorealism,” and Josephine Decker’s “Shirley,” competing in the same category, winning the “Award for Auteur Filmmaking.”
While we don’t want to take anything away from those achievements, IndieWire would like to recognize the practical elements that went into some of this year’s best competition titles. Here’s four examples of extraordinary craft that helped bring a handful of films to cinematic life this year… and might have made for better jury prizes.
IndieWire Jury...
There was the head-scratcher of Eliza Hittman’s “Never Rarely Sometimes Always” winning the “U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Neorealism,” and Josephine Decker’s “Shirley,” competing in the same category, winning the “Award for Auteur Filmmaking.”
While we don’t want to take anything away from those achievements, IndieWire would like to recognize the practical elements that went into some of this year’s best competition titles. Here’s four examples of extraordinary craft that helped bring a handful of films to cinematic life this year… and might have made for better jury prizes.
IndieWire Jury...
- 2/5/2020
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
In one of those freak festival viewing coincidences that don’t really mean anything, Sunday started with two movies in a row opening with the sound of a reiki bowl. The higher profile one, Shirley, marks multiple firsts for Josephine Decker: first directed from someone else’s screenplay, first period piece and—most crucially to my mind—first without Dp Ashley Connor. The subject is Shirley Jackson; I’ve read two of her short stories (I’m not proud of that) and would be curious to hear how this plays for knowledgeable admirers. Adaptation or no, visually this is […]...
- 1/29/2020
- by Vadim Rizov
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
In one of those freak festival viewing coincidences that don’t really mean anything, Sunday started with two movies in a row opening with the sound of a reiki bowl. The higher profile one, Shirley, marks multiple firsts for Josephine Decker: first directed from someone else’s screenplay, first period piece and—most crucially to my mind—first without Dp Ashley Connor. The subject is Shirley Jackson; I’ve read two of her short stories (I’m not proud of that) and would be curious to hear how this plays for knowledgeable admirers. Adaptation or no, visually this is […]...
- 1/29/2020
- by Vadim Rizov
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Above: Josephine Decker's ShirleyThere’s a book I’ve been dying to read on the history of the color yellow. Nothing reminded me more how urgently I need to read it than Josephine Decker’s sumptuously filmed fiction feature, Shirley, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and in whose art design, yellow plays a crucial role. Sundance is also where Decker premiered her critically acclaimed indie film, Madeline’s Madeline (2018), about an unstable young woman aspiring to be an actress, and locked in a troubled relationship with her mother. But while in Madeline's Madeline Decker used disorienting camera movements, often in extreme close-ups to her protagonist, to build up tension, she deploys these tools sparingly in her new film, to dramatic effect.In Shirley, a famous writer, played with searing intensity and crackling dark humor by Elisabeth Moss, is in a creative and psychological slump. But then she...
- 1/28/2020
- MUBI
After getting attention on the festival circuit with her back-to-back first features Thou Wast Mild and Lovely and Butter on the Latch, director Josephine Decker deservedly expanded her audience with Madeline’s Madeline, a genuinely thrilling, endlessly imaginative look at the creative process as well as how mental illness influences artistic expression. With Shirley, she returns to similar themes in an entirely different era while continuing the same inventive, breathless style, even if this time around the narrative arc is a bit more straightforward.
Shirley Hardie Jackson was a deeply influential American writer who penned a handful of novels and hundreds of short stories. She was also intensely reclusive, had bouts of depression, and had to contend with her unfaithful professor husband. As Decker revealed in the introduction at the Sundance premiere, her early 1950s-set film is inspired by the author’s life but is purely fictional, based on Susan Scarf Merrell...
Shirley Hardie Jackson was a deeply influential American writer who penned a handful of novels and hundreds of short stories. She was also intensely reclusive, had bouts of depression, and had to contend with her unfaithful professor husband. As Decker revealed in the introduction at the Sundance premiere, her early 1950s-set film is inspired by the author’s life but is purely fictional, based on Susan Scarf Merrell...
- 1/27/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
A perversely entertaining take on a brief period of Shirley Jackson’s life gives the star one of her most daring roles to date
As willfully unconventional as a literary portrait could possibly be, Madeline’s Madeline director Josephine Decker’s take on Shirley Jackson is a thrillingly perverse example of what happens when the shackles of biopic formula are cast aside. Based on Shirley: A Novel, the acclaimed book from Susan Scarf Merrell, Shirley tells of a fictitious dynamic, an imagined period where a younger couple moved in with Jackson and her husband, but weaves in known details about the reclusive horror writer’s life and personality. It’s a strange construction but one that feels fitting given what we know of her, a woman who found reality and the rules that came with it to be rather pedestrian. It’s as unusual a film as she was an...
As willfully unconventional as a literary portrait could possibly be, Madeline’s Madeline director Josephine Decker’s take on Shirley Jackson is a thrillingly perverse example of what happens when the shackles of biopic formula are cast aside. Based on Shirley: A Novel, the acclaimed book from Susan Scarf Merrell, Shirley tells of a fictitious dynamic, an imagined period where a younger couple moved in with Jackson and her husband, but weaves in known details about the reclusive horror writer’s life and personality. It’s a strange construction but one that feels fitting given what we know of her, a woman who found reality and the rules that came with it to be rather pedestrian. It’s as unusual a film as she was an...
- 1/26/2020
- by Benjamin Lee in Park City
- The Guardian - Film News
Shirley Jackson was a real person, a writer best known for her twisted short story “The Lottery,” although the version presented in Josephine Decker’s “Shirley” feels more like a character from one of her own novels. Featuring “The Handsmaid’s Tale” actor Elisabeth Moss in the title role, this queer, hard-to-quantify psychological study isn’t a biopic so much as a séance — a quasi-occult attempt to invoke the spirit of such a singular author, who reinvented a genre before her death half a century ago, via a film that seeks to channel her unsettling style.
If Jackson’s gift was to burrow her way into those corners of the brain one typically keeps under lock and key, then Decker seems like pretty much the ideal director to find the cinematic equivalent — and I say this as someone who’s had an almost allergic reaction to her brand of indie-movie doodles until this point.
If Jackson’s gift was to burrow her way into those corners of the brain one typically keeps under lock and key, then Decker seems like pretty much the ideal director to find the cinematic equivalent — and I say this as someone who’s had an almost allergic reaction to her brand of indie-movie doodles until this point.
- 1/25/2020
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
At this year’s Sundance, 118 features will make their debut. Here are five hotly anticipated films that will be in the mix and some of the artisans behind them.
Bad Hair (Midnight)
Costume designer Ceci reconnects with Justin Simien (“Dear White People”) on a satirical horror set in 1989 Los Angeles, where ambitious Anna (Elle Lorraine) hopes to be the next on-air talent for a music video TV show. Her new boss, Zora (Vanessa Williams) wants Anna to change her natural hair, and she acquiesces by getting a weave. One problem: The strands have a mind of their own.
Ceci fully developed the look of each individual role down to the smallest detail. “My intention is that the viewer can readily identify, relate or understand who the characters are and the story being told,” she says. “Before Anna gets her first weave, her wardrobe is reflective of her ethnocentric upbringing coupled with her homespun,...
Bad Hair (Midnight)
Costume designer Ceci reconnects with Justin Simien (“Dear White People”) on a satirical horror set in 1989 Los Angeles, where ambitious Anna (Elle Lorraine) hopes to be the next on-air talent for a music video TV show. Her new boss, Zora (Vanessa Williams) wants Anna to change her natural hair, and she acquiesces by getting a weave. One problem: The strands have a mind of their own.
Ceci fully developed the look of each individual role down to the smallest detail. “My intention is that the viewer can readily identify, relate or understand who the characters are and the story being told,” she says. “Before Anna gets her first weave, her wardrobe is reflective of her ethnocentric upbringing coupled with her homespun,...
- 1/24/2020
- by Daron James
- Variety Film + TV
While Adam Schiff and his House Intel Committee were busy writing up a 300-page impeachment report for the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, programmers at the Sundance 2020 Film festival were busy mocking up another similarly dense and lengthy document that is the official Sundance 2020 Feature Film Lineup. This year’s slate of films features a total of 118 feature films hailing from 27 different countries and is perhaps one of the most explosive lineups in recent festival history.
With much of California being consumed by wildfires, and with an inferno of another sort blazing in the U.S. Senate, perhaps it is only fitting that much of Hollywood has decided to ring in the new year by flocking to Park City for the upcoming Sundance Film Festival. In recent years, the festival has tended to veer away from the star-studded gala that Sundance once embodied, and been remodeled to be more of a...
With much of California being consumed by wildfires, and with an inferno of another sort blazing in the U.S. Senate, perhaps it is only fitting that much of Hollywood has decided to ring in the new year by flocking to Park City for the upcoming Sundance Film Festival. In recent years, the festival has tended to veer away from the star-studded gala that Sundance once embodied, and been remodeled to be more of a...
- 12/12/2019
- by Ty Cooper
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Shirley
Say we omit Josephine Decker‘s feature docu items Bi the Way and Flames, it’s remarkably only with her third “narrative” feature film that becomes a seminal work in her short filmography and in the same token happens to be the breakout Sundance awards friendly title that outclassed all films in 2018. Shortly after Madeline’s Madeline preemed, she quickly jettisoned into what will be her largest production to date in Shirley. Adapted by Sarah Gubbins from Susan Scarf Merrell’s book of the same name, this is the first screenplay that Decker did not help write. Production took place late July in the Catskills and if Alex Ross Perry’s Her Smell taught us anything it’s just how far off the deep end Elisabeth Moss is willing to go to embrace chaos in the haunted house backdrop of New England.…...
Say we omit Josephine Decker‘s feature docu items Bi the Way and Flames, it’s remarkably only with her third “narrative” feature film that becomes a seminal work in her short filmography and in the same token happens to be the breakout Sundance awards friendly title that outclassed all films in 2018. Shortly after Madeline’s Madeline preemed, she quickly jettisoned into what will be her largest production to date in Shirley. Adapted by Sarah Gubbins from Susan Scarf Merrell’s book of the same name, this is the first screenplay that Decker did not help write. Production took place late July in the Catskills and if Alex Ross Perry’s Her Smell taught us anything it’s just how far off the deep end Elisabeth Moss is willing to go to embrace chaos in the haunted house backdrop of New England.…...
- 2/9/2019
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Cornerstone Films has boarded sales on Josephine Decker’s “Shirley,” the psychological drama starring Elisabeth Moss as famed horror author Shirley Jackson, whose “The Haunting of Hill House” was recently turned into a Netflix series.
“Shirley” is based on the screenplay by Sarah Gubbins (“I Love Dick”), adapted from the novel by Susan Scarf Merrell. Michael Stuhlbarg (“The Shape of Water”) plays Jackson’s college professor husband Stanley Hyman.
Logan Lerman (“Indignation”) and Odessa Young (“Assassination Nation”) play a young couple who move in with Shirley and Stanley and find themselves fodder for a psychodrama that inspires Shirley’s next novel.
Cornerstone Films will screen footage from “Shirley” in Berlin as the presales effort gets underway at the Efm. Paradigm and UTA are overseeing North American sales.
U.K.-based Cornerstone is run by Alison Thompson and Mark Gooder. “Josephine Decker is one of the most exciting new voices in American cinema and she is,...
“Shirley” is based on the screenplay by Sarah Gubbins (“I Love Dick”), adapted from the novel by Susan Scarf Merrell. Michael Stuhlbarg (“The Shape of Water”) plays Jackson’s college professor husband Stanley Hyman.
Logan Lerman (“Indignation”) and Odessa Young (“Assassination Nation”) play a young couple who move in with Shirley and Stanley and find themselves fodder for a psychodrama that inspires Shirley’s next novel.
Cornerstone Films will screen footage from “Shirley” in Berlin as the presales effort gets underway at the Efm. Paradigm and UTA are overseeing North American sales.
U.K.-based Cornerstone is run by Alison Thompson and Mark Gooder. “Josephine Decker is one of the most exciting new voices in American cinema and she is,...
- 2/1/2019
- by Stewart Clarke
- Variety Film + TV
Cornerstone Films has boarded director Josephine Decker’s (Madeline’s Madeline) psychological drama Shirley starring Elisabeth Moss as famed horror author Shirley Jackson with Michael Stuhlbarg (Call Me By Your Name) as her Bennington College professor husband Stanley Hyman.
Logan Lerman (Indignation) and Odessa Young (Assassination Nation) play the young couple that move in with Shirley and Stanley in the hope of starting a new life but instead find themselves fodder for a psycho-drama that inspires Shirley’s next novel. Above is a first look image.
Cornerstone will show first footage at the Efm next week. Paradigm and UTA are overseeing North American sales.
Shirley, which shot last year, is based on the screenplay by Sarah Gubbins (I Love Dick), adapted from the novel by Susan Scarf Merrell and was filmed in upstate New York, including at Vassar College. It is financed by Los Angeles Media Fund and produced by...
Logan Lerman (Indignation) and Odessa Young (Assassination Nation) play the young couple that move in with Shirley and Stanley in the hope of starting a new life but instead find themselves fodder for a psycho-drama that inspires Shirley’s next novel. Above is a first look image.
Cornerstone will show first footage at the Efm next week. Paradigm and UTA are overseeing North American sales.
Shirley, which shot last year, is based on the screenplay by Sarah Gubbins (I Love Dick), adapted from the novel by Susan Scarf Merrell and was filmed in upstate New York, including at Vassar College. It is financed by Los Angeles Media Fund and produced by...
- 2/1/2019
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Josephine Decker‘s Madeline’s Madeline was next level for the filmmaker and so it was no surprise when she joined a project that was already in place in Shirley – which went into production in July in the Catskills with the likes of Elisabeth Moss, Michael Stuhlbarg, Logan Lerman and Odessa Young. Truth be told, I’d be surprised if this gets included in the Sundance line-up – only because this Killer Film’s production could wait until the timing is right instead of rushing the project.
Gist: Based on Susan Scarf Merrell’s novel and written by Sarah Gubbins, this tells the story of a young couple that moves in with Jackson (Elisabeth Moss) and her Bennington College professor-husband, Stanley Hyman (Stuhlbarg), in the hopes of starting a new life.…...
Gist: Based on Susan Scarf Merrell’s novel and written by Sarah Gubbins, this tells the story of a young couple that moves in with Jackson (Elisabeth Moss) and her Bennington College professor-husband, Stanley Hyman (Stuhlbarg), in the hopes of starting a new life.…...
- 11/22/2018
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Stay in the loop on industry and casting news with our write-up on who’s been slated for recent film and television roles! “Shirley”Elisabeth Moss is ditching Gilead for another scary locale in “Shirley.” The actor is teaming up with Michael Stuhlbarg to take on the Susan Scarf Merrell novel adaptation. The story follows a couple looking to start an exciting new chapter in their life, but when they move in with novelist Shirley Jackson and her husband, Stanley, a college professor, they find their exciting new prospects darkening. The horror writer swaps fiction for fact and begins to draw from her real-life encounters with the couple. The film will be directed by Josephine Decker with Moss also producing. Half of the lead roles are already filled, but additional actors will be needed, and casting is underway with Barden/Schnee. Production on the psychological drama is set to begin...
- 7/11/2018
- backstage.com
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