“Shell” is Ridiculous and Fun
When Max Minghella’s Shell premiered at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, it did so in the shadow of the powerhouse that was Coralie Fageat’s The Substance. Both center on aging actresses willing to try extreme means to reclaim their youth, but now that Shell has finally been released it’s clear that the similarities end there. Where The Substance ultimately has a prestigious sheen to it, Shell is campiness by way of a creature feature from the 1950s.
Once upon a time, Samantha Lake (Elisabeth Moss) was on a hit TV show. It’s the sort of show everyone remembers but no one really liked. That’s evidenced by the people who come into Samantha’s life, recognize her, and say her show was goofy. It’s a bit of a sting to Samantha, who fondly recalls her time working on that project. She has since been in a dry spell, and her confidence is shaken when a girl she used to babysit (Kaia Gerber) is trying out for the same acting job as Samantha. Her agents recommend she pay a visit to SHELL, a wellness company run by enigmatic CEO Zoe Shannon (Kate Hudson). Samantha feels the immediate effects of SHELL’s treatment, but as she becomes more enmeshed in the company, she realizes there’s a dark underbelly to wellness.
courtesy of Paramount
Shell never feels like it wants to make a grand statement about the realities of being an aging actress. That’s not its goal. It wants to be a little silly, plenty weird, and surface-level angry about the beauty standards imposed on women. That’s why the similarities between it and The Substance disappear after the initial premise. They’re cut from the same cloth, but Shell has a voice of its own. The set design has a futuristic look and the SHELL headquarters look like something out of Silicon Valley — if the tech experts suddenly got some style.
Hudson perfectly understands Minghella’s wavelength. Her Zoe is the film’s lifeblood, breathing a deliciously evil air into every scene. The role of a definitely wicked wellness guru is something that Hudson was born to play. While Moss is usually a strong addition to most projects, she comes across as slightly miscast here, taking things a little too seriously in a film that ultimately culminates in a lobster fight. No, I will not elaborate, but know that it’s weirder than you expect. Other casting choices, like Ziwe as a PR agent and Este Haim as Samantha’s goofy best friend, are quite inspired. Where The Substance limited itself to its two leads, Shell uses a web of secondary characters to create a more vibrant world. One that feels a little more like our own, even though the ultimate events wouldn’t be possible.
Zoe tells Samantha that she loves the word “pulchritude.” It’s a mouthful of a word that means beauty, but Zoe likes to use it because it sounds so ugly. Such is the theme of Shell, a film about beauty that loves the ugliness that goes into the pursuit of something unattainable. It’s not a cautionary tale or an angry rebuttal to the societal expectations put on women. Shell is a lot tamer than The Substance, but certainly has its own share of blood, guts, and gore to offer those who want to embrace its campiness.
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