‘Shapeless’ Review
Stars: Kelly Murtagh, Bobby Gilchrist, Jamie Neumann, Erika Ashley, Gralen Bryant Banks, Marco Dapper, Craig Leydecker, Deneen Tyler | Written by Kelly Murtagh, Bryce Parsons-Twesten | Directed by Samantha Aldana
Horror movies about food disorders are few and far between, or at least I haven’t seen many at all. But that is the subject that Shapeless tackles and it goes to some extreme places with it.
The film follows Ivy (Kelly Murtagh, who also co-writes the movie but more on that later), a jazz singer who isn’t quite struggling but dreams of something bigger and better, while also suffering from an eating disorder that risks ruining not only her career but her whole life.
Visually, Shapeless is phenomenal. Her first feature film, director Samantha Aldana can obviously take plenty of credit for this but cinematographer Natalie Kingston deserves plenty of praise also. It is no surprise at all that she has a couple of noteworthy titles on her C.V. such as a couple of Billie Eilish videos and The Wolf of Snow Hollow. In Shapeless it feels like every single camera shot has been thought over and made precisely how they both wanted. Whether it be close-ups of people’s faces where we don’t see their eyes or shots where the characters are only in a very small part of the screen or adding a kind of dream-like effect to the camera, it is all there for a reason and it feels like it. Even when shots are particularly ‘arty’, it never feels pretentious – such as when Ivy roles herself up in her bed sheet to create this perfect shape from above.
Apart from how the movie looks, the score is perfect too. It’s not an obvious horror movie necessarily but this is a very modern horror score with those scathing, harsh string sound. I absolutely loved the haunting effect the music had on what might be almost inconsequential scenes without it. It also works extremely well with the body horror elements of Shapeless. Unfortunately, the body horror is few and far between and the director doesn’t seem to want to fully commit to it. That said, one scene, without showing any blood or gore, is one of the most extreme and creepy moments of body horror I have ever seen. It’s something that actually made me a bit queasy and something I won’t be forgetting any time soon!
The one major thing that might put some people off of Shapeless is that it does have an extremely slow pace. This is purposeful and a fast pace to proceedings is not needed at all but this is not the type of slow burn with a big pay-off at the end. Instead, it is there to focus on the life of Ivy and how things are falling apart around her.
The food disorder featured in Shapeless is not something I have any experience or real knowledge of and I suspect that if you have or do, the movie will be even more effective than it already is. It very much feels like a personal story, so it comes as no surprise to learn that writer and star of Shapeless Kelly Murtagh has spoken in interviews about her struggles with bulimia. It makes the film even more impressive, and everyone involved will be worth keeping a close eye on for future work.
**** 4/5
Shapeless will be available to Own or Rent from 19th September, courtesy of Lightbulb Film Distribution.
