PLOT: Desperate to reclaim her career, once-beloved actress Samantha Lake is drawn into the glamorous world of wellness mogul Zoe Shannon —only to uncover a monstrous truth beneath its flawless surface.
REVIEW: Beauty standards are always ripe for dissection, especially within Hollywood and even moreso within the thriller genre. The things that people are willing to do to stay young, or at least look young, seem endless. And Shell takes a look at the darker side of what people are willing to do to accomplish that youthfulness. Too bad it doesn’t really know what to do past its initial concept.
Set in the near future, Shell follows Samantha Lake (Moss) as, after many career setbacks as an actress, she succumbs to a wellness method that has darker means than initially lets on. Kate Hudson plays Zoe Shannon, the wellness mogul at the center of it all, and she’s clearly holding a twisted secret. And I expected her to be a bit more villainous and interesting, but she mostly just plays herself with a dark edge. In fact, that could be said of most of the film: intriguing at first, but it fails in its execution.
Elisabeth Moss is shot in an unflattering way in the first act, really accentuating how everyone in her life looks past her. She’s awkwardly framed in some shots, and it helps further belay the point. But the biggest issue with the film is that, despite her treatments, she doesn’t look all that different as the film goes on. There’s no “glow-up”, she’s simply treated better by society after we know she’s started taking the treatment. Kind of makes the point of the film feel missing. The supporting cast is great, giving this world a bit of life, but they seem to fall off once we leave the first act. Dustin Milligan is great as the vapid, shallow guy that Samantha goes on a date with, compounding her insecurities. It’s very against type for him, but he disappears from the narrative, despite feeling like they could do more with him. Randall Park, Kaia Gerber, and Elizabeth Berkley all appear in small roles and feel a bit underutilized.
Shell serves as Max Minghella’s second effort behind the camera, and he creates an appropriately vain dystopia. He’s clearly taken some notes from the many big directors he’s worked with, as he has a command of the camera, visually. But I found myself very annoyed at his staging, with too many characters just waiting around for something to happen. I’m also not sure if he was able to strike the tone that the story required, as it plays out a little too serious, especially once the absolutely absurd third act starts going. And there’s far too much determined by coincidence.
As a fan of the erotic thriller, this doesn’t quite get to the level of a Basic Instinct or Fatal Attraction, but there’s a definite uptick in sexuality throughout the narrative. If anything, it probably could have been increased to greater effect. Shell has its fair share of casual nudity, which I’m happy to see making a return to bigger films. But this clearly wants to be The Substance, without really realizing what made that film work so well. The monster element here is so silly and misguided, completely missing any messaging that it could have pulled off.
I won’t deny that, like it’s many characters, Shell can be quite shallow in its execution. The setup is quite intriguing, but it never goes far enough. And the longer the film goes on, the more ridiculous it is. The comedy doesn’t really work and it mostly just makes the world more offbeat versus genuinely more humorous. And the ending completely falls flat. While featuring good performances, this one feels like it’s merely a shell of what it could have been.
Shell is In Select Theatres & On Digital October 3, 2025
