Shirley

But the filmmakers decided to make this film anyway despite a flawed script. Dismal directing and over-the-top performances. This film is so damn boring unless you are interested in looking at close-ups of Elizabeth Moss without makeup emoting strange faces at the camera in scene after scene. Just didn't work.

Based on a Book that Fantasizes about Real-Life Author Shirley Jackson, who Wrote 5 Novels and over 200 Short Stories.

Her most Famous Work is the Novel "The Haunting of Hill House" was made into a Feature Film Twice and a Mini-Series.

The First Film was"The Haunting" (1963) with Julie Harris.

As Stated, this is Not a Bio-Pic but has Elements of Shirley's Life that are True, like Her Marriage to Teacher (not Professor) and Literary Critic Stanley Hyman.

The Most Strikingly Real Thing about "Shirley" is Elizabeth Moss and Her Uncanny Transformation to the Appearance of the Real-Life Shirley.

She could be a Twin or a Clone, it is that Spot-On.

The Film is Interesting and Stylish Enough to Draw You in to the Story because it is Creepy and Haunting like the Author's Work.

And Again Moss is a Sight to Behold, Looking Like a Witch most of the Time and Acting just as Macabre.

The Rest of the Cast can Hardly Keep Up.

But are Given some Good Off-Beat Personas and Interactions with the Bizarre, Brilliant Shirley.

Just Don't Go Here to Acquire any Deep-Dive, although One can See the Similarities between the Real-Life and the Fictional Account.

Shirley Jackson Suffered Bouts of Amphetamine, Barbiturate, and Alcohol Abuse and was Over-Weight most of the Time.

Fans of the Author most Likely will Like this Peek at the Persona of Shirley Jackson.

Because it seems to Capture the Genius of a Gifted Talent's Struggle Against Who She Was and the Expected Conformity that was of Her Era.

All of that took a Toll on the Woman and She Died in Her Sleep of Heart-Failure at the Age of 48.

"Shirley" takes place soon after the publication of Jackson's piece of short fiction, "The Lottery", published in 1948. While both the novel and film adaptation of "Shirley" document aspects of the writer's life, the central narrative of Rose and Fred Nemser, a couple who moves into the writer's Bennington home, is completely fictional.

Elisabeth Moss who also was a producer stars as Shirley Jackson, rude, crude and inappropriate most times but successful as an author of horror stories. I can't say I really enjoyed this movie, Shirley and her husband were not very nice people. But Moss does a wonderful job in the role and it is good to know something about her life.

I watched it at home on DVD from my public library, my wife skipped.

In the early 1960's, without cellphones to distract their enclosed academic environment, Bennington English professor Stanley Hymen (Michael Stuhlbarg) and his genius fiction writer wife, Shirley Jackson (Elizabeth Moss), take in an academic couple, Fred (Logan Lerman), Stanley's new teaching assistant, and his wife, Rose (Odessa Young). Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf is in the air of this literary icon biopic as booze works its magic on the older couple, who no longer need much to invigorate them than bottles of gin. Psychosexual tension abounds.

Shirley is the name of the film, and academic angst is the game.

This fictional take is based on Shirley by Susan Scarf Merrell and adapted by Sarah Gubbins. Whether or not Jackson will publish her scary stories is really just a McGuffin in this dark tale of sex and power in the outposts of the academy. She labors over a true story about Paula, a co-ed who vanished on campus.

In a time of female repression, Rose works her way around Stanley, becoming "little wifey" (Betty Friedan had not yet arrived). Fred, well, he's handsome enough to be busy with co-eds and working his way into a position in this prestigious department while the camera takes to roving at a frenetic pace.

As ambitions begin to collide, cinematographer Sturla Brandth sometimes too quickly moves the camera among them with a shadowing that seems to discourage our learning too much, too close. Rose and Fred capture the gothic ambivalence and danger of the household as they assess for Shirley about her famous short story "The Lottery": "That's creepy," says Fred; "It's terrific," says Shirley. True of the household itself.

Although this domestic drama is tightly wound like the little house it is set in, much is said about marriage, status, words, the creative process, and rivalry than first appears in the rancor and suspicions. Put your thinking cap on; class is in session, and it happens to be fun.

Just.... Strange. Kind of a weird train wreck to watch. Elisabeth Moss is a great actress and delivers as usual, but it's a little hard to get on board with the story, because you want the "good" characters to stand up for themselves and the "bad" characters are just pretty mean. Upon further recent (this is supposed to be based on the Haunting of Hill House author Shirley Jackson), there is no evidence that the real Shirley Jackson was so evil. This movie version of Shirley tears people down for sport. It leaves a bad taste in my life when famous figures are skewered in movies that promote themselves as biopics or "based on the life of" or "inspired by a true story." Skip this movie and read a Shirley Jackson novel instead!