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Marcel the Shell with Shoes On Review

By Matthew Passantino

Before going viral became the new social currency, there was a tiny shell that captured the collective heart of the internet. In 2010, filmmaker Dean Fleischer-Camp and actress/comedian Jenny Slate released a short film called "Marcel the Shell with Shoes On," with two subsequent videos thereafter. The three YouTube videos, as of today, have amassed just under 48 million views, which has allowed the unsuspecting popularity of Marcel to receive the full-length movie treatment. Fleischer-Camp makes his feature film debut as the movie's director.

"Marcel the Shell With Shoes On" is an expansion of its YouTube predecessors, which finds Dean (played mostly off-screen by Fleischer-Camp) playing a recently divorced filmmaker who is renting an AirBnb in Los Angeles. He is making a documentary about Marcel (voiced by Slate), a one-inch high mollusk who lives in the house with his Nana Connie (voiced by Isabella Rossellini). Once the video is uploaded to YouTube, Marcel becomes an instant celebrity, which causes people to seek out the home and try and get a glimpse of the famed shell.

The movie captures how instantaneously something can catch fire on the internet, but "Marcel the Shell with Shoes On" is deeper than a profile in viral fame. Marcel's entire family used to live in the home with him, but they disappeared when the previous tenants moved out, and Marcel's life hasn't felt the same since. One of Marcel's great pastimes is watching "60 Minutes" with Nana Connie, because anchor Lesley Stahl is an icon to them. Once Marcel's fame takes off, "60 Minutes" is interested in interviewing him and Marcel uses the interview to try and find his parents.

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The Marcel character has an advantage of built-in popularity, thanks to the YouTube shorts, but those who go to see the new film without being as familiar with the character's origin could find themselves not as attached. It's easy to watch "Marcel the Shell with Shoes On" and write it off as twee, but Fleischer-Camp and Slate, who co-wrote the screenplay with Nick Paley, never let the movie rest on previous popularity or surface-level cuteness. "Marcel the Shell with Shoes On" is not afraid to explore deeper themes of community, loneliness, and longing. It all might seem like garden variety existentialism, but with Marcel as the messenger, the melancholy feels bittersweet and comforting.

It's summertime at the movies, so bombast and spectacle reign supreme. It was like that in the Before Times, and 2022 is the first summer movie season that feels like a minor shift back to normalcy (at the movies, to be clear). "Top Gun: Maverick," "Jurassic World: Dominion," "Thor: Love and Thunder" and even "Elvis" have attracted a wide-range of audiences and have shown promising numbers for the current state of theatrical exhibition. It's been easy to be disheartened by the mediocre offerings of franchise filmmaking, but movies have a way of presenting themselves to you at the right time. The sweet, funny, sad, and creative "Marcel the Shell with Shoes On" does just that.

What did you think?

Movie title Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
Release year 2022
MPAA Rating PG
Our rating
Summary During a summer movie season filled with typical spectacle and bombast, this sweet, funny, and creative release presents itself at just the right time.
View all articles by Matthew Passantino
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