By: Adrian Ruiz
Marcel The Shell With Shoes On Based on a series of shorts directed by the same director, follows Marcel one inch-tall shell and his grandmother Connie. Their lives begin to take a drastic change when documentary filmmaker starts documenting their day-to-day lives and posting it online. As Marcel’s popularity begins to grow, their lives begin to take an unexpected yet exciting turn.
Marcel The Shell With Shoes On is an extremely sweet and tender film. Perhaps a tad too sweet at times. Although Its sugary tone and morbidly cute dialogue can be a little too much at times, the film offers a very sentimental and warm feeling that’s just too good to resist. the film’s first act sort of plays like a Children’s book at times. That doesn’t necessarily make Marcel a children’s film but it does make Marcel The Shell With Shoes On A24’s most kid-friendly film to date. Its script and Mockumentary-style filmmaking does a very great job at putting us in Marcel’s shoes (Pun Intended), charmingly showcasing marcel’s childlike wonder in a very elegant way.
The one-inch shell’s observations on life and her daily routine are the highlights of the film. The way director Dean Fleischer-Camp shows the intimate and mundane moments of Marcel’s life is the reason why the film is ultimately so irresistible.
The film’s strength mostly relies on Jenny Slate’s Performance as Marcel. As far as voice acting performances go, Jenny delivers a surprisingly nuanced and emotional performance, one that’s always on the edge of becoming too syrupy for my taste but never does. On the other hand, there’s the great isabella Rosellini as Marcel’s frail grandmother, Connie. Who brings that tinch of bittersweetness that the film needs it’s the relationship and the banter between the two that’s the beating heart of the film.
A24’s streak of delivering interesting and thought-provoking cinema still remains intact, even with some of their failures (I’m looking at you ‘Men’), the distribution company continues to deliver, and Marcel The Shell With Shoes On is another win for them.