★★★★
“Josephine Decker’s stunning anti-biopic of author Shirley Jackson offers a treatise on female creativity and camaraderie”
Little White Lies

Elisabeth Moss gives a tour-de-force performance as Shirley Jackson, one of the greatest horror writers of the 20th Century, in this unconventional biopic from the brilliant mind of director Josephine Decker (Madeline’s Madeline), a powerful new voice in independent filmmaking.

Set in the early 1950s, the film charts an imagined chapter in the life of Jackson, who has recently become a literary sensation. When her philandering professor husband (Michael Stuhlbarg) invites a newlywed couple into their home, the reclusive writer is forced to change her routine, which heightens tensions in their already tempestuous household. This change acts as a catalyst, sparking inspiration for the anxiety-prone writer. As she becomes enamoured with Rose, her unsuspecting new muse, Shirley’s obsession plunges her into a quasi-delirium, awakening a repressed femininity that could inspire her next masterpiece.

From executive producer Martin Scorsese, and co-starring Odessa Young and Logan Lerman, this bewitching psychological drama is a portrait of an artist unravelling. Cleverly blending fiction and reality, Decker celebrates the rebelliousness of Jackson’s art, as well as the undying power of the female voice in the face of patriarchal, mid-century America.

The film is out in cinemas and Curzon Home Cinema from 30 October. HERE

Tune in on Wednesday 4 November at 6.00pm for our for a special panel SHIRLEY discussion with film critic Hannah Woodhead, Hayley Louise Charlesworth (PhD researcher in American Gothic and representations of bisexuality onscreen at Manchester Metropolitan University), Dr Joan Passey from the University of Bristol who specialises in Gothic literature and the works of Shirley Jackson and Tara Judah, writer & Watershed cinema producer.