PLOT: Determined to reclaim her profession, once-beloved actress Samantha Lake is drawn into the glamorous world of wellness mogul Zoe Shannon —solely to uncover a monstrous reality beneath its flawless floor.
REVIEW: Magnificence requirements are at all times ripe for dissection, particularly inside Hollywood and even moreso inside the thriller style. The issues that persons are keen to do to remain younger, or a minimum of look younger, appear limitless. And Shell takes a have a look at the darker aspect of what persons are keen to do to perform that youthfulness. Too dangerous it doesn’t actually know what to do previous its preliminary idea.
Set within the close to future, Shell follows Samantha Lake (Moss) as, after many profession setbacks as an actress, she succumbs to a wellness methodology that has darker means than initially lets on. Kate Hudson performs Zoe Shannon, the wellness mogul on the heart of all of it, and he or she’s clearly holding a twisted secret. And I anticipated her to be a bit extra villainous and fascinating, however she principally simply performs herself with a darkish edge. Actually, that might be stated of a lot of the movie: intriguing at first, but it surely fails in its execution.
Elisabeth Moss is shot in an unflattering approach within the first act, actually accentuating how everybody in her life appears to be like previous her. She’s awkwardly framed in some photographs, and it helps additional belay the purpose. However the greatest subject with the movie is that, regardless of her remedies, she doesn’t look all that completely different because the movie goes on. There’s no “glow-up”, she’s merely handled higher by society after we all know she’s began taking the therapy. Form of makes the purpose of the movie really feel lacking. The supporting solid is nice, giving this world a little bit of life, however they appear to fall off as soon as we depart the primary act. Dustin Milligan is nice because the vapid, shallow man that Samantha goes on a date with, compounding her insecurities. It’s very in opposition to kind for him, however he disappears from the narrative, regardless of feeling like they may do extra with him. Randall Park, Kaia Gerber, and Elizabeth Berkley all seem in small roles and really feel a bit underutilized.
Shell serves as Max Minghella’s second effort behind the digicam, and he creates an appropriately useless dystopia. He’s clearly taken some notes from the various massive administrators he’s labored with, as he has a command of the digicam, visually. However I discovered myself very irritated at his staging, with too many characters simply ready round for one thing to occur. I’m additionally unsure if he was in a position to strike the tone that the story required, because it performs out just a little too severe, particularly as soon as the completely absurd third act begins going. And there’s far an excessive amount of decided by coincidence.
As a fan of the erotic thriller, this doesn’t fairly get to the extent of a Primary Intuition or Deadly Attraction, however there’s a particular uptick in sexuality all through the narrative. If something, it in all probability might have been elevated to larger impact. Shell has its fair proportion of informal nudity, which I’m completely satisfied to see making a return to larger movies. However this clearly needs to be The Substance, with out actually realizing what made that movie work so effectively. The monster aspect right here is so foolish and misguided, fully lacking any messaging that it might have pulled off.
I received’t deny that, prefer it’s many characters, Shell may be fairly shallow in its execution. The setup is kind of intriguing, but it surely by no means goes far sufficient. And the longer the movie goes on, the extra ridiculous it’s. The comedy doesn’t actually work and it principally simply makes the world extra offbeat versus genuinely extra humorous. And the ending fully falls flat. Whereas that includes good performances, this one feels prefer it’s merely a shell of what it might have been.
Shell is In Choose Theatres & On Digital October 3, 2025
