'Marcel the Shell With Shoes On' Review: A24's Stop-Motion Mollusk Mockumentary Moves Your Soul
PG: Suggestive material and thematic elements
Runtime: 1 Hr and 29 Minutes
Production Companies: Cinereach, You Want I Should, Sunbeam TV & Films, Human Woman, Chiodo Bros. Production
Distributor: A24
Director: Dean Fleischer-Camp
Writers: Dean Fleischer-Camp, Jenny Slate, Nick Paley
Cast: Jenny Slate, Rosa Salazar, Thomas Mann, Isabella Rossellini, Dean Fleischer-Camp
Release Date: June 24, 2022
In Theaters Only
I was an internet-savvy kid during the 2010s. I spent hours on YouTube via my Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 3. I followed everything that went viral, yet somehow the creation of Jenny Slate and Dean Fleischer-Camp’s Marcel the Shell completely passed me by. Up until I returned from my trip to SXSW, I had no idea that this was an old Internet short. My friends asked me, “What was one of the best movies at SXSW?” and I said, “Marcel the Shell With Shoes On.” Like clockwork, everyone responded with, “They made a movie off of that?” and I looked at them with a blank stare. Marcel has had several internet shorts, two books, and now a full-fledged feature-length film to top it all off. How was this my blindspot?! I feel so uncultured. That being said, I love this fictitious minuscule mollusk mockumentary movie.
Marcel is an adorable one-inch-tall shell who ekes out a colorful existence with his grandmother Connie and their pet lint, Alan. Once part of a sprawling community of shells, they now live alone as the sole survivors of a mysterious tragedy. But when a documentary filmmaker discovers them amongst the clutter of his Airbnb, the short film he posts online brings Marcel millions of passionate fans, as well as unprecedented dangers and new hope at finding his long-lost family.
Needless to say, the best aspect of his movie is Marcel the Shell himself. From the moment you meet this anthropomorphic one-inch shell living in an Airbnb’ed house, your heart feels full. With his calming, sweet demeanor and the nurturing voice that Jenny Slate provides for him, it’s a challenge not to fall head over heels for this shell. As aforementioned, this was my introduction to Marcel, so when I heard that he was voiced by Slate, I was… shell-shocked. Corny jokes aside, Marcel’s wholesome and curious worldview blends with his childlike personality, tugging at your heartstrings as you’re swept up by his plight.
Though he’s established to be a tweenage shell, the film puts him through a mature situation. After an argument with his ex-homeowners reached its breaking point, his family and friends have disappeared. Now he’s left all alone with his ailing grandmother Nana Connie (voiced by Isabella Rossellini) and has difficulty holding out hope. I must commend screenwriters Dean Fleischer-Camp, Jenny Slate, and Nick Paley, who maintain the character’s childlike spirit while incorporating themes like emotional trauma and familial grief––something that hit far too close to home when I viewed this film––and delivering them in such a tender manner. Though she has nothing to do with this feature, the laid-back tone, and visual style reminded me of the works of Elizabeth Ito (creator of City of Ghosts and Welcome to My Life). It may be wholesome, but when it gets into real thematic material, it hits home earnestly, resulting in you shedding a few tears.
Marcel the Shell spends the first several moments of the film recreating some of the bits from the source material, but they’re expanded on a much larger scale in both style and visual presentation. Director/actor Dean Fleischer-Camp gets to evoke the mockumentary aspect of the shorts through a strong vérité style to make you feel as if you're walking in Marcel’s shoes. The funniest moments occur when Marcel takes playful shots at the documentary filmmaking while Dean is shooting on a handheld.
Similar to the shorts, most of the humor is buoyed by the chemistry between Marcel and Dean, who has more of a prominent presence on camera. The development of their budding friendship gives way to some of the most heartwarming moments and poignant commentary. The conversations they share hit complex areas about human society, togetherness, and taking a bold stance on how social media perpetuates faux emotions. For a character who became a viral sensation himself, it’s pretty bold for the writers to showcase how Marcel is somewhat against being viral. While the commentary for some of the subjects they share is brief (at times dropped for the sake of telling more jokes), when Marcel drops some insightful opinions to the camera, it hits.
Everyone involved in this project poured their soul into elaborating upon the world Marcel resides in. I’m talking about getting around the house by driving the inside of a tennis ball and having cute Rube Goldberg machines help him get chores done easily. The animation direction by Kirsten Lepore, who did that weird yet oddly funny Hello Stranger short, brings it to life. The stop motion animation on the shells, primarily their movement, is surprisingly expressive as it is breathtakingly fluid. The way Lepore integrates him into the scenery is so strong a child would believe that this sentient shell is a real being… and I wouldn’t blame ‘em.
I’m not trying to look too deep into this relatively sweet and wholesome family film, but it did get frustrating when this tweenage shell made a ton of dated pop culture references. I’m not talking about 60 Minutes, which takes a prominent role in the story, nor current hip references. I’m talking ‘90s cinema knowledge. He makes references to movies such as Sister Act and other references before his time and I’m just going, “How does he know these things?!” It’s a nitpick for sure, but the timeliness of his perspective on life mixed with the references he makes takes you out of the movie at times.
Marcel the Shell was one of the first films I saw during this year’s SXSW and it’s truly one of the best of 2022 thus far. It’s a thoughtful, inventive, and poignant family flick that made me shed many tears of both sadness and joy. This adorable mollusk’s journey to finding his happy place again is so sweet that I wanted to spend more time with him. Dean Fleischer-Camp and Jenny Slate’s Marcel the Shell is more human than most of us and inspires us to strive for more.
