Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

Leave it to A24 to produce yet another movie I didn’t know I wanted. And one about a talking shell, no less!

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On follows the exploits of Marcel (Jenny Slate), a lonely anthropomorphic shell that just wants to be reunited with his displaced family. Living in a house that no longer holds any people in it, Marcel and his grandmother, Nana Connie (Isabella Rossellini), do what they can to survive in a world that’s much harder to navigate now that they’re on their own. Skip to documentary filmmaker Dean (Dean Fleischer Camp) moving into the newly Airbnb-listed home, and suddenly Marcel and his grandmother now have a way to find their family, make some friends, and become an internet sensation of the likes people have never seen before. What follows is a wholesome story that will make you laugh just as much as make you shed a tear of joy, and for that, this movie is hands down one of the best films of the year.

Who knew a movie about a shell that just so happens to be wearing a pair of sweet kicks would become one of the most delightful and well-crafted movies I’ve ever seen in my long movie-watching career? Seriously, this movie not only runs audiences through the gamut of human emotions, but it also somehow finds a way to do something fresh in a way that you can’t help but become attached to and impressed by.

Bolstered by an endearing, sarcastic, and just plain lovable voice performance by Jenny Slate, Marcel pulls at your heartstrings and never lets us go as he sets out to find the family he hopes is still out there. Adding to this film’s delightfully engrossing charm is the documentary angle that brings audiences down to ground level with Marcel (or rather one inch off the ground level). Giving each frame a sense of scale and wonder that expertly depicts a hidden world formed and molded by the needs of Marcel and his ailing grandmother, the cinematography and general look of this film really help to sell the everyday life of Marcel, as well as the struggles he faces daily.

Full of laugh-out-loud moments, quieter and more intimate moments, and moments that you can’t help but smile and want to cheer at, this movie excels in more ways than I can describe. Yet all this rightfully assigned praise said, I did have a few issues with a third act that stopped me from giving this movie an even higher score. Not only did it feel like some scenes were cut down to keep a shorter runtime, but the ultimate way things ended seemed a bit contradictory to the entire message of the story being told. The good news is that no deal-breaking problems are going on here to ruin the experience, yet by the time the credits rolled, this one stuck a landing that was more wobbly than it should have been, especially considering the high quality of everything else that happened before the home stretch.

I really enjoyed Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, and despite an oddly truncated and rushed third act, it’s pretty damn perfect. I almost slept on this movie when it came out, so make sure to add it to the top of your queue when it releases on any number of streaming platforms in the future. And if you don’t feel something after watching this one, you might want to check your pulse, you Grinch!