‘Shirley’ is as haunting as its subject | review

Shirley follows a young couple staying with famed novelist Shirley Jackson and her husband as she tries to break through writer’s block

Quick cut: Shirley is a haunting and devilishly entertaining look at the famed writer anchored by an electrifying performance by Elizabeth Moss.

★★★★

In the opening scene of Josephine Decker’s Shirley, Rose (Odessa Young), a spirited young woman on a train accompanying her husband Fred (Logan Lerman) to the college he’s assisting at, is just finishing the eponymous Shirley Jackson’s (Elizabeth Moss) infamous short story “The Lottery.” After she reads the final scene—a horrifying spectacle—she looks up at her husband and says, “it’s terrific,” like she’s fascinated at the horror. Then she goads him into the train bathroom for rough sex, which is shocking considering the movie takes place in the 1950s. 

The film’s overwhelming and somewhat chaotic opening prepares you for its penchant for tension—sexual, suspenseful, and otherwise. On the other hand, the in…