--- title: Elisabeth Moss Is a Strange and Brilliant Author in Shirley description: Playing a fictionalized version of the eccentric author Shirley Jackson, Moss melts into her disguise like a poisonous but dazzling color-changing salamander. canonical: https://time.com/5847292/shirley-elisabeth-moss-review/ author: Stephanie Zacharek article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-06-03T15:30:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T08:50:08.331Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Elisabeth Moss Is a Strange and Brilliant Author in 'Shirley' og:description: Playing a fictionalized version of the eccentric author Shirley Jackson, Moss melts into her disguise og:url: https://time.com/5847292/shirley-elisabeth-moss-review/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9e5f6e749d1e7293/698a0edd457a524f9ad6409a/SHIRLEY-Michael-Stuhlbarg-Elisabeth-Moss_CourtesyNEON.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Michael Stuhlbarg and Elisabeth Moss in 'Shirley' og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Elisabeth Moss Is a Strange and Brilliant Author in 'Shirley' twitter:description: Playing a fictionalized version of the eccentric author Shirley Jackson, Moss melts into her disguise twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9e5f6e749d1e7293/698a0edd457a524f9ad6409a/SHIRLEY-Michael-Stuhlbarg-Elisabeth-Moss_CourtesyNEON.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Elisabeth Moss Channels a Strange and Brilliant Shirley Jackson in the Crackling _Shirley_  by [Stephanie Zacharek](https://time.com/author/stephanie-zacharek/)  ## Stephanie Zacharek Film Critic Jun 3, 2020 3:30 PM UTC  Michael Stuhlbarg and Elisabeth Moss in 'Shirley' Michael Stuhlbarg and Elisabeth Moss in 'Shirley'Thatcher Keats—© 2018 Thatcher Keats  by [Stephanie Zacharek](https://time.com/author/stephanie-zacharek/)  ## Stephanie Zacharek Film Critic Jun 3, 2020 3:30 PM UTC Elisabeth Moss, often drawn to portraying either vaguely or totally unlikable characters, has no vanity and no fear. In Josephine Decker’s _Shirley,_ she plays a fictionalized version of eccentric, reclusive novelist and short-story writer Shirley Jackson—perhaps best known for her chilly 1948 groupthink parable “The Lottery”—and once again her instincts prevail. Her Jackson is a tyrant with cold, inquisitive eyes, her skin dotted with age spots, her tummy thickened with padding. Moss melts into this disguise like a poisonous but dazzling color-changing salamander, beckoning us for a closer look, if we dare. Jackson died in 1965, at age 48, and _Shirley,_ based on a novel by Susan Scarf Merrell, takes place roughly within the last decade of her life. Eager, aspiring academic Fred (Logan Lerman) and his wife Rose (Odessa Young) show up at the Vermont home Jackson shares with her husband Stanley Hyman (Michael Stuhlbarg), a seemingly affable Bennington professor whose rumpled jocularity masks a cruel streak. Stanley has hired Fred as an assistant, also offering the newlyweds a place to stay until they can get settled. What he really wants, though, is a housekeeper. The job naturally falls to Rose, who clearly has more natural curiosity and intelligence than her husband does, though she’s put her own studies on hold. Rose also takes it upon herself to wrangle the increasingly impossible Shirley, an acid-tongued agoraphobe who can barely get out of bed. Shirley hasn’t written anything in ages. But after a rocky start, the two women, both hamstrung by their husbands’ thinly veiled condescension, forge a thorny friendship that jump-starts Shirley’s work at the typewriter. _Shirley_ leans a little too hard on its calculated “1950s housewife empowers herself” finale. Even so, Moss’ channeling of Jackson keeps the movie crackling. During her lifetime, Jackson never got the acclaim she deserved for extraordinary, unsettling novels like _The Haunting of Hill House._ Moss invites us, now, to take stock of this strange and brilliant woman. Rarely is a withering gaze this seductive. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5847292/shirley-elisabeth-moss-review/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5847292/shirley-elisabeth-moss-review/"},"headline":"Elisabeth Moss Channels a Strange and Brilliant Shirley Jackson in the Crackling Shirley","datePublished":"2020-06-03T15:30:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T08:50:08.331Z","description":"Playing a fictionalized version of the eccentric author Shirley Jackson, Moss melts into her disguise like a poisonous but dazzling color-changing salamander","url":"https://time.com/5847292/shirley-elisabeth-moss-review/","keywords":["movies","review"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9e5f6e749d1e7293/698a0edd457a524f9ad6409a/SHIRLEY-Michael-Stuhlbarg-Elisabeth-Moss_CourtesyNEON.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Stephanie Zacharek","jobTitle":"Film Critic","url":"https://time.com/author/stephanie-zacharek/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9e5f6e749d1e7293/698a0edd457a524f9ad6409a/SHIRLEY-Michael-Stuhlbarg-Elisabeth-Moss_CourtesyNEON.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Michael Stuhlbarg and Elisabeth Moss in 'Shirley'","caption":"Michael Stuhlbarg and Elisabeth Moss in 'Shirley'","creditText":"Thatcher Keats—© 2018 Thatcher Keats","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5847292/shirley-elisabeth-moss-review/","name":"Elisabeth Moss Channels a Strange and Brilliant Shirley Jackson in the Crackling Shirley"}}]}] ```