Directed By Dean Fleischer-Camp

Starring – Jenny Slate, Dean Fleischer-Camp, Isabella Rossellini

The Plot – Marcel (Slate) is an adorable one-inch-tall shell who ekes out a colorful existence with his grandmother Connie (Rossellini) 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 a new hope at finding his long-lost family. A beloved character gets his big-screen debut in this hilarious and heartwarming story about finding connection in the smallest corners.

Rated PG for some suggestive material and thematic elements

Marcel The Shell With Shoes On | Official Trailer HD | A24 – YouTube

POSITIVES

This is a sincerely sweet and sentimental experience that warms its way into your heart with one charming instance after the other. It starts with the depth of the storytelling and unraveling of the narrative, which not only permeates creativity and imagination inside of a small character experiencing the immensity of the world, with all of its profound knowledge and bittersweet reflections, but also in the framing device of a documentary inside of the film that simultaneously builds an arc of its own that is fleshed out as a result of what transpires surrounding the titular protagonist. This arc is what really transcends the film beyond just another small stakes adaptation making the jump to the big screen without much justification, as it’s not only illustrating a bigger picture that cohesively echoes much of the internal commentary from Marcel’s own experiences with the world, but also fleshes out a dynamic between real life director Fleischer-Camp (Slate’s real life ex) and Marcel that conjures up as much imagination as it does heart to the continuous evolution in tone that it leans so heavily on. Like life itself, there are moments of triumph and tragedy in the film, and with an unabashed honesty to emotions and relationships, these moments are capitalized upon with a transferrable connection to audience that makes their small and intimate stakes feel universally resonant because of such, creating a lingering inevitability that persists in the backdrop consistently, despite much of the atmospheric majority maintaining the whimsical innocence that exudes its warmth in charms. It’s cheerful and comforting without ever feeling cloying, refusing to oversell the attributes for gimmick, and instead emitting them in ways that naturally progress with the many beats of the narrative. This is equally carried out by the elements of technical components to the film’s production value, with a mesmerizing score from Disasterpiece, and an intimately engaging cinematography from Bianca Cline being among the most tangible benefits to the film’s alluring qualities. The former has such an eclectic range in instruments and tempos that keeps each of the compositions from maintaining repetition, with a level of originality that feels unique from anything else musically in cinematic capacities, and the latter’s commitment to authenticity in the form of the look and feel of a documentary cemented effortlessly in various abrupt close-ups and edits that feel intentionally amateur to obscure the cinematic quality in their appearances. But for my money, the biggest benefit is easily in the aspect of the animation, which not only transfers seamlessly from the origins of the Youtube page that it spawned from twelve years ago, but also begets a surprisingly detailed approach to registering emotions that should at the very least earn it a Best Animated Feature nomination at next year’s Oscars. This is mostly because of the stop motion splendor of its appearance casting an entrancing softness over character movements, but in particularly on the detailing of the eyes, or in this case “Eye”, that constructs a window to the soul of a shell with so much vulnerability in the engagement of their environment. Finally, while the laundry list of successes set this film on the right track, it’s the vocal work from Slate and Rossellini that have it firing on all cylinders. Slate is remarkably versatile, attaining the familiarity of her raspy delivery, but with a softness and inflection in tone that audibly transforms her before our very ears with a kid-like innocence, and Rossellini’s warmth exudes a gentle touch that enriches the experience with classy candor, made all the more impactful by the years of experience that wear palpably on the thickness of her distinguished deliveries. Together, the two flourish a family dynamic that not only emphasize the importance of one to the other, but also helps to illustrate the extensive abundance of the universe, but in the smallest of examples.

NEGATIVES

Though nothing terribly traumatic to the magnitude of the engagement, there are a couple of problems that materialize during the film’s second half that did momentarily break my concentration through the mostly swift pacing of an 84-minute engagement. For my money, the arc of Marcel’s family felt slightly rushed and underdeveloped when the film finally decides to explore it head on. This is with around 15 minutes left in the film, and because of such involves some clever conveniences to make up for a lack of exploration previously, which in turn undercuts a bit of the mounting tension and triumph of the pay-off because it often feels constricted to the limitations of its timely allowance. Beyond this, I felt the framing device of the mockumentary style is occasionally lacking in the logic department, with a few shots primarily during the second act breaking the established rules of two people at the most (Dean and Marcel) holding the camera. Some of this can easily be explained with a tripod during still shots, but my problem lends itself more to the in-car sequence or moving photography when Dean is in frame. This means that there’s either another person in the room documenting between them, which soils the unique connection of the movie’s framing device, or Marcel himself is carrying a camera that weighs at least twenty pounds more than he does, creating more problems the longer I found myself enveloped with the concepts of the device.

OVERALL
A24’s latest is a grand philosophical and sociological statement earned by walking a mile in the shoes of its smallest character, and one that maintains the whimsical warmth of its online origins despite the unpredictability’s of life that continuously steam his clams. Slate has never been better, stitching together a soft splendor to the air of her audible transformation that overflows her turn with irreplaceable heart and humbling humanity, granting us a cute but uniquely profound experience that will linger long after you’ve shed your last tear.

My Grade: 9/10 or A