Shirley

A psychological drama dipped in acid, this darkly funny fictional portrait of writer Shirley Jackson (“The Lottery”) soars on Elisabeth Moss’s fearless eponymous performance. Stricken with writer’s block and under the thumb of her controlling husband (Michael Stuhlbarg), Shirley unleashes her acerbic tongue on young houseguests Fred and Rose. In its dark wit and depiction of marital discord, Shirley bears a resemblance to Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? while also dishing up sharp observations of a half-mad woman rebelling against 1950s submissive womanhood.

“As willfully unconventional as a literary portrait could possibly be, Madeline’s Madeline director Josephine Decker’s take on Shirley Jackson is a thrillingly perverse example of what happens when the shackles of biopic formula are cast aside.” –Benjamin Lee, The Guardian