Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
A24’s Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is playing in theaters at the time of writing. Rated PG. Common Sense says 8.
STORY: B+
Marcel is a shell … with shoes. He suddenly loses his entire community of fellow snails, everyone except his grandmother Connie. A middling documentarian moves into the house one day. He and Marcel launch into a quest to find Marcel’s missing community.
It may not seem so at first, but the film shares similarities with The Wizard of Oz. Both are about a lost soul searching for a way back home who enriches the lives of new friends found along the way. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On stands apart in many ways, chiefly due to its commentary on the internet age and constant humor.
PEOPLE: B+
Marcel (voiced by co-creator Jenny Slate) is a super sweet straight shooter. Slate fills Marcel with amicable simplicity and sharp insight. The animation amazes, but its her voice that makes it impossible not to root for Marcel.
Dean Fleischer-Camp directs and also plays the man filming Marcel’s journey. It’s 90% a voice-performance. He does a decent job of illustrating his character’s change through the variations of his voice.
The legendary Isabella Rosselini slays as Grandma Connie. She reminds me of Michael Caine’s performance in The Muppet Christmas Carol (best Xmas movie ever, btw). Caine reportedly only accepted the part on the condition that he would be allowed to play it as if he were in a stuffy, high-stakes, arthouse film-like production … all while surrounded by dozens of puppets. Rossellini goes that hard here as well, and she steals the show.
FILM GEEK STUFF: A
The animation is wildly eye-popping. I spent much of the film pondering if what I’m watching is completely CGI or if it lays CGI created images on top of actual film footage. That constant wondering stuck my head in a space where I could easily pick up the aura of wonder the filmmakers weave. It works unbelievably well.
CONNECTIONS (Elective Class): A
Like most things I buy these days, most of the breakthroughs during Marcel’s quest come via the internet. Marcel’s discovery of the internet’s many wonders provides the film with more than a laugh or two. But the internet also limits Marcel from making connections.
Marcel connects with people as easily as rain hits the ground. If Marcel took a pen and paper test pon connection, he’d get a 100% connect. He just wouldn’t do as well on the online version. Marcel’s dilemma says something noteworthy. The film doesn’t pretend that the internet doesn’t bring us a billion wonderful things, but it does make sure to tell us that all of that comes at a cost.
Marcel approaches people with warmth and openness. Is that the way we approach people online? Do we behave that way in general online? Especially with people who disagree with us? The internet provides us with roads to meet others, but that’s all it can do. It’s up to us to actually connect with others. To paraphrase Marcel, we mistake having an audience with having a genuine audience at our own peril.
FINAL COMMENTS:
Marcel will make you laugh. He’ll make you cry. He’ll make you think about the ways we do things and question the way we do them. It’s a lot of lifting for a small-scale snail. But Marcel, Slate, and Fleischer-Camp are jacked enough to do the task. If you want to spend 90 minutes laughing and crying (and then many days afterward thinking about the way we move through our modern world), please make plans to hang out with Marcel.