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Shirley
Directed by
Josephine Decker
R
2020
1h 47m
Biography
,
Drama
,
and more
6.1
88%
54%
Add to Watchlist
A famous horror writer finds inspiration for her next book after she and her husband take in a young couple.
More
Where to Watch Shirley
Kanopy
Free
Tubi TV
Free
Amazon Video
Rent $2.99
Buy $12.99
+4 more
Cast of Shirley
Elisabeth Moss
Shirley Jackson / Producer
Odessa Young
Rose Nemser / Paula
Michael Stuhlbarg
Stanley Hyman
Logan Lerman
Fred Nemser
Victoria Pedretti
Katherine
Robert Wuhl
Randy Fisher
Paul O'Brien
Dean
Orlagh Cassidy
Caroline
Bisserat Tseggai
Peggy
Allen McCullough
Norman
Tony Manna
Drunken Fellow
Molly Fahey
Faculty Wife
Edward O'Blenis
Ralph Ellison
Ryan Spahn
Drunk Cad
Emily Decker
Prissy College Girl
Alex Sherman
Paula
Ava Langford
Rose's Friend
Thomas Racek
Party Guest
Lexa Hayes
Party Goer
Adelind Horan
Paula Double (uncredited)
Steve Vinovich
Henry (uncredited)
Josephine Decker
Director
Sarah Gubbins
Writer / Producer
Susan Scarf Merrell
Writer
David Hinojosa
Producer
Simon Horsman
Producer
Sue Naegle
Producer
Jeffrey Soros
Producer
Christine Vachon
Producer
Shirley Ratings & Reviews
jackmeat
April 22, 2025
My quick rating - 6.3/10. This goes without saying. Elisabeth Moss carries this movie. Such a great actress and everyone around her seems that much better in reaction to her. In this flick, she plays Shirley Jackson whom I knew really nothing about. I also can't say I know much more about her after watching this. But if this story is to be believed, she has an evil sense of humor. A nice little thriller in this as the horror author uses inspiration from young couples she meets and allows them to stay with her family. I can't say much more than that without spoiling the mystery in this one so check it out if you are interested.
Inside Hook
Charles Bramesco
Shirley Jackson's life is adapted to a movie that's as complicated and interesting as the author's writing.
Esquire Magazine
Nick Schager
Despair, desire, and madness are all entangled in Josephine Decker's Shirley...
Chicago Reader
Becca James
A look at the very morose Shirley Jackson (Elisabeth Moss), presented in a way that mimics the famed fiction author's horror writing...
ChrisStuckmann.com
Chris Stuckmann
It's the performances that save this movie for me. It has a very unique style of cinematography that sometimes grated on my nerves, but I think that was the intended outcome.
MovieFreak.com
Sara Michelle Fetters
There's something magical watching Moss weave her incisively ferocious spell.
Vox
Alissa Wilkinson
The details are smudged and fudged, but Shirley unpacks the crux of one of the 20th century's great writers, evoking not just her life but the existential terror that she and women like her were always facing, and still do.
The Atlantic
David Sims
Decker's filmmaking is often dreamlike, but her storytelling has a cruel bite of reality to it-just as Jackson's writing did decades before.
CNN.com
Brian Lowry
It's easy to admire the performances without feeling like the journey adds up to much. While Moss captures the complexity of Shirley's personality, the movie sheds scant light on the underlying why of it all.
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
The movie feels not a little like "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" with a literary George and Martha tormenting each other for fun.
AV Club
Katie Rife
The deeper the author plunges into the project, the more subjective the movie becomes, revealing the dark visions that descend on Shirley in ghastly, expressive bursts.
FilmWeek (LAist)
Tim Cogshell
What's great about this movie is the pace of it and the acting. Particularly that of Elisabeth Moss, who is just wonderful in everything she does.
Associated Press
Jake Coyle
There are few more daring actors around right now than Moss, and "Shirley" may be her best performance yet. She's brutally cutting but the pain of every slight ripples across her face.
Austin Chronicle
Kimberley Jones
Shirley is probably too niche to attract the Academy's interest in Moss - how has she never been nominated? - but it's a big, messy, masterfully itchy performance and yet another notch in her belt.
Observer
Oliver Jones
By the time Shirley draws to a close, you end up feeling pleasingly spent, like you just stayed up all night drinking a bottle of Canadian Club while discussing literary theory with a dear old confidant you hadn't seen in years.
New York Magazine/Vulture
Alison Willmore
With the support of Moss, who's become a specialist in deconstructing the idea of feminine hysteria, and Young, who plays Rose like the flushed heroine of a grim fairy tale, Decker ends up in a place that's strange and satisfying.
Crooked Marquee
Roxana Hadadi
Moss is a whirlwind; the trio of Stuhlbarg, Young, and Lerman is quite strong; and Decker and Gubbins build an illuminating, if factually inventive, version of Jackson.
The New Yorker
Richard Brody
Moss's facial expressions have a virtually musical complexity and offer surprises, with fiery glares and subtly tormented distortions that shift very slowly and infinitesimally but register onscreen with great dramatic power.
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
Earns an A for ambition but a grade average lowered by prolixity, pomposity, murky complexity and an excess of perversity.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Chris Hewitt
[The] twisted dynamic is thrilling, all the more so because Moss' performance as Shirley is so ferocious.
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