There’s nothing worse than coming up with what is undoubtedly a pretty good, innovative way to present an issue everyone understands and relates to, and finding that you’re not the first to the finish line. In many ways, that’s the biggest problem with Shell, a black comedy body horror film that also focuses on an actress trying to fight against the unforgiving beauty standards of Hollywood.
If this already sounds like The Substance, it gets worse. Both movies focus on their protagonists choosing to undergo a procedure that seems to provide instant rewards, but that ends up having horrible side effects. In fact, other than the actress and the vibe, there isn’t that much to differentiate the two movies. This ends up playing against Shell, because we’re unconsciously comparing it to another movie from the get-go.
What the movie does manage to do, pretty well, is hit on the absurdity that actor-turned-director Max Minghella is clearly looking for. There’s the cold open, with Elizabeth Berkley hacking off shells that have seemingly grown on her skin, all before being murdered by a masked killer. There’s a moment where Kate Hudson’s wellness CEO makes Elisabeth Moss masturbate with a giant vibrator, all while making her stare at the mirror. Kaia Gerber turns into a giant lobster. And Hudson also serves a dinner of discarded skin, at one point.
It sounds campy! It sounds fun! And though it is, at times, the movie suffers from not really knowing what it wants to be outside of that. Perhaps, Shell could have differentiated itself from The Substance by really leaning into the camp it clearly knows how to deliver. I would have enjoyed a movie with that tone throughout a lot more than one that seemed to use the moments of absurdity to send a message. Instead, Shell gets stuck somewhere in the middle, and it’s just very hard to be a little bit of everything.
The commentary remains what it is, and it’s no less true because the movie doesn’t seem to be saying anything new about it. Beauty standards, in Hollywood and honestly everywhere, are ruining women and are responsible for harming young girls directly. There’s just no incentive to do something about it, because the beauty industry is also incredibly lucrative. It’s better to sell women the idea that they don’t look well, so they can then be sold ways they can actually look better.
But no one is likely to come out of it with any deep thoughts. And though there might be some fun to be had in watching it, even the fun feels a little hollow in the middle of a movie that never really quite figures out what it wants to be and why it exists. Interesting performances aside, there’s really no way to save that.
Shell is now available in select theaters and on Digital.
