8.1 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 5.0 | |
Overall | 5.0 |
Feature adaptation of the animated short film interviewing a mollusk named Marcel.
Starring: Jenny Slate, Isabella Rossellini, Dean Fleischer-Camp, Thomas Mann (V), Rosa SalazarDrama | 100% |
Animation | 3% |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.56:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.55:1
English: Dolby Atmos
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 5.0 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 5.0 |
In the relatively recent annals of show business history, you'd probably be hard pressed to find an entertainment company which virtually defines "quirky" as consistently as A24 seems to be able to. Since its founding in 2012 by Daniel Katz, David Fenkel and John Hodges, this "little" independent that could has had at least some outsized zeitgeist defining productions on its slate, including such widely variant offerings as A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III, Spring Breakers, The Bling Ring, Enemy, Under the Skin, Obvious Child, Life After Beth, Tusk, Ex Machina, Room, The Witch, Remember, Green Room, The Lobster, Swiss Army Man, Into the Forest, The Sea of Trees, American Honey, Moonlight, The Monster, A Ghost Story, Woodshock, The Florida Project, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Lady Bird, The Disaster Artist, First Reformed, Hereditary, Under the Silver Lake, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Midsommar, The Lighthouse, Uncut Gems, First Cow, Saint Maud, Zola, The Green Knight, Lamb, X, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Men and Bodies Bodies Bodies. Now as even my reviews of some of these film should indicate, I frankly don't consider all of these to be unheralded masterpieces, and in fact there's a clinker or two in the above list (in my estimation, anyway), but for sheer audacity and gobmsacking variety of concepts, the list (which is far from a complete listing of A24 produced and/or distributed material) should hopefully suffice to help support my thesis. In that regard, one might imagine Dean Fleischer Camp and Jenny Slate (who not so coincidentally starred in the above mentioned Obvious Child) figuratively telling A24 "hold our beers" while they produced the utterly charming and completely gonzo feature Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, a film whose very title may at least hint at its more outré sensibilities.
Marcel the Shell With Shoes On is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of A24 with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.56:1. The IMDb only offers a 4K DI technical datapoint, but your intrepid reviewer found this interview with co-directors of photography Bianca Cline and Eric Adkins which offers quite a bit of interesting information, with a brief mention of "older" Alexa cameras and, kind of incredibly given the technical finesse of this presentation, GoPro cameras. This is a fascinating production from any number of angles, and the making of featurette at least briefly addresses the unbelievable precision which was necessary to combine stop action with peripatetic camera moves (and ostensibly "on the fly" focus pulling), but the result is so seamless and so consistently impressive in terms of detail levels that the effort behind it all is invisible, which is a good thing. Detail levels are consistently engaging throughout this presentation, even given the "soft enough" description the cinematographers mention with regard to the Alexa, and in fact fine detail in the extreme close-ups is often impressive. The "wandering" camera approach can lead to at least momentary perceptions of a lack of general detail, but in more stationary moments, things looks really precise. The palette is rather tamped down a lot of the time, despite some interstitial shots of the natural world, with an emphasis on more neutral tones like beiges, tans and yellows. That said, things pop surprisingly well, especially considering the lack of over the top hues which are employed.
Marcel the Shell With Shoes On features a nicely expressive Dolby Atmos track which admittedly may not offer a surplus of vertical activity but which still delivers some rather impressive surround activity, at least considering the fact that the film deals with miniscule shells often in the confines of a home environment. The score has some very low end heavy moments which thump and throb through the subwoofer, but a lot of the engagement of side and rear channels comes courtesy of subtle but still often very inventive sound effects and ambient environmental effects. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English and Spanish subtitles are available.
- Marcel the Shell With Shoes On, One (2010) (HD; 3:23)
- Marcel the Shell With Shoes On, Two (2011) (HD; 4:13)
- Marcel the Shell With Shoes On, Three (2022) (HD; 3:53)
I've actually written about the trauma of having "undiscovered family" out there in the big, wide world in my Oranges and Sunshine Blu-ray review from several years ago, and so the central plot point of Marcel and Connie yearning to find their relatives struck a decidedly powerful chord with me. The fact that a film about two shells can elicit such overwhelming emotion is testament to the filmmaking finesse of Fleischer Camp, Slate and Paley, along with a really fun set of supporting players who show up either as voice actors or on screen performers. A24 continues to set the bar pretty high for "quirkiness", and there's probably no better example than Marcel the Shell With Shoes On, at least until the next A24 production hits theaters and/or Blu-ray. Technical merits are solid and the supplements very engaging. Highly recommended.
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