Shirley follows "a young couple that moves in with Jackson and her Bennington College professor-husband, Stanley Hyman, in the hopes of starting a new life. Instead, they find themselves fodder for a psycho-drama that inspires Jackson's next major novel."
On May 16, 2018, it was announced that Josephine Decker was set to direct an adaptation of Susan Scarf Merrell's novel Shirley, based on a screenplay by Sarah Gubbins. Producers were set to include Jeffrey Soros, Simon Horsman, Christine Vachon, David Hinojosa, Elisabeth Moss, Sue Naegle, and Gubbins. Production companies involved with the film were slated to consist of Los Angeles Media Fund and Killer Films. Martin Scorsese serves as an executive producer. Alongside the initial production announcement, it was confirmed that Elisabeth Moss and Michael Stuhlbarg had been cast as Shirley Jackson and Stanley Hyman, respectively. On September 6, 2018, it was announced that Odessa Young and Logan Lerman had joined the cast of the film. Principal photography for the film began in late July 2018 in Jefferson Heights, New York. Scenes were also filmed at Vassar College, which stood in for Bennington College.
Release
It had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2020. Decker won a U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Auteur Filmmaking. Shortly after, Neon acquired distribution rights to the film. It was released on June 5, 2020.
Reception
On review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 88% based on 188 reviews, with an average rating of 7.49/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Elevated by outstanding work from Elisabeth Moss, Shirley pays tribute to its subject's pioneering legacy with a biopic that ignores the commonly accepted boundaries of the form." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 76 out of 100, based on 39 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Laurence Jackson Hyman, Jackson's son, criticized the movie's portrayal of his parents, noting that “If someone comes to the movie not knowing anything about my parents, they will certainly leave thinking that my mother was a crazy alcoholic and my father was a mean critic.” He also expressed that, in his opinion, the movie failed to portray Jackson's sense of humor.
