Catherine Fleming

Oh, this film is so damned good! It felt like a Eugene O'Neal play. This movie started playing on my TV after another one ended and I just kept watching. I didn't even catch the title of it and I didn't have any background info on it. I had no idea that it was about Shirley Jackson, although the hint came pretty early on with the reference to "The Lottery," but I was only halfway in at that point, because I was working on my laptop at the same time. So I'm just going to review it like I watched it, ignorant of the defining facts. Well... Like any good psychological drama, it starts with solid footing in normality, but only stays there for a moment, before it tiptoes into a forest of jarring, reality tipping experiences. The plot tension builds as the ever-so-slightly unbalanced interactions between the characters become increasingly disturbed. As the anxiety producing neurotic scenes grow more intense and jarring, the stabilizing normalcy recedes into the background. And all the while, the film is drawing you in to a last mad dash towards the razor's edge of psychosis, where before you realize it, you have become almost complicit in the entire, let's call it a journey, so as not to spoil anything for anyone. I won't bother to discuss that the whole thing is calling out the patriarchy, because it's so obvious. Anyhow, if you like the Modernists, you're going to love "Shirley!"