I knew in advance about the universal acclaim piled on the feature-length Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, but the delightfulness of the movie still caught me off guard. I suppose in retrospect that the concept struck me as a cash grab. I thought: a bunch of silly YouTube shorts extended into a full movie? Please. Going viral is one thing; sustaining attention over 90 minutes is another.
Except…maybe it isn’t. After all, there’s no reason why a great character shouldn’t grab us, no matter what the media format. Remember that unlike other smash hits of the early YouTube era, the original “Marcel the Shell” shorts didn’t rely on zany or stupid behavior, and they weren’t real-world goofs a la “America’s Funniest Home Videos.” Instead, they functioned essentially as old fashioned dramatic monologues.
So then, skeptics of a Marcel-based feature film, I ask you: why not?
Watching Marcel the Shell (Jenny Slate) doesn’t get tiresome. His vacillations between exhibitionism and insecurity provide seemingly endless ironic entertainment. Like Michael Scott from “The Office,” Marcel is a contemporary presence: lonely, sensitive, and ridden with performance anxiety (which sometimes bubbles over into hapless frustration). Perhaps the reason the mockumentary format has birthed so many of our generation’s funniest characters is that it enables us to see them ham it up for the camera: the most relatable mode, these days, that a character can inhabit.
Critics have highlighted the movie’s warmth. And it is indeed warm, but coldness seeps in around the edges. A couple breaks up ferociously, and when they reunite years later, they immediately start arguing again. (One of the two has been in Guatemala doing charity work; even this has failed to teach her serenity.) The mostly unseen documentarist (Dean Fleischer Camp) has recently divorced and can’t even bring himself to discuss it. Marcel gets Internet famous, and annoying influencers swarm his house for clout, ignoring his plea for help.
Can’t anyone get along anymore?
Maybe, and maybe not. But the real lesson of Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is that we better not stop trying, because the alternative is even worse. If that seems like a dubious message to celebrate, I agree. But only from hard truths can we get real tenderness. And maybe because of this inclusion of the lows along with the highs, I’m among the many who found this one of the most moving films of the year.
–Jim Andersen
For more reviews, see my review of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Story