Shirley Dvd

Shirley is a 2020 American biographical drama film, directed by Josephine Decker, from a screenplay by Sarah Gubbins, based upon the novel of the same name by Susan Scarf Merrell. It stars Elisabeth Moss as novelist Shirley Jackson. It also stars Michael Stuhlbarg, Odessa Young and Logan Lerman. Martin Scorsese serves as an executive producer.

It had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2020 where Decker won a U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Auteur Filmmaking. It was released on June 5, 2020, by Neon. It received positive reviews, with praise for Moss’ performance.

Plot

Young couple Fred and Rosie Nemser move in with Stanley Hyman and Shirley Jackson as Fred begins his job at Bennington College, where Stanley is also a professor. No sooner do they arrive than Stanley asks the pregnant Rosie to take over the household chores, as Shirley has become incapacitated by mental illness and writer’s block. Shirley is obsessed by story of a young woman who recently disappeared from Bennington’s campus and wants to tell her story as a novel. Unbeknownst to the Nemsers, Shirley and Stanley have a perverse arrangement to psychologically break down the Nemsers by causing strains in their marriage, sabotaging Fred’s attempts at academic tenure, and to try to instigate affairs with them (which Shirley briefly does with Rosie). As the Nemsers slowly crack under the pressure of Stanley’s manipulation and Shirley’s abuse, Shirley gains increasing clarity and resolve to finish her novel. By the time that Rosie is on the verge of suicide and Stanley has ensured that Fred is never going to get hired at Bennington, Shirley completes her novel and Stanley declares it a masterpiece. Shirley has some brief regret for ruining the Nemsers’ family but she quickly forgets that and dances joyously with Stanley.

Cast

Elisabeth Moss as Shirley Jackson
Michael Stuhlbarg as Stanley Edgar Hyman
Odessa Young as Rose Nemser/Paula
Logan Lerman as Fred Nemser
Victoria Pedretti as Katherine
Orlagh Cassidy as Caroline
Robert Wuhl as Randy Fisher