MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON is an endearingly strange and melancholic live-action/stop-motion animation hybrid mockumentary. An anthropomorphic shell called Marcel (Jenny Slate) lives with his grandma Connie (Isabella Rossellini) in the corner of an Air BnB and wonders where the rest of his family has disappeared to. When a depressed documentarian (Dean Fleischer Camp) moves in he films and assists with Marcel’s search, prompting the tiny crustacean to go viral on YouTube. How much joy or otherwise you get out of Marcel will depend a lot on if you find Slate’s vocal delivery cute or annoying, but there’s very little else even remotely like this out there; a hand-crafted tribute to outcasts and family told in a way only outcasts would think to tell it. SSP
Review in Brief: Rye Lane (2023)
Rom-coms have an established grammar and beats everyone expects you to hit, but RYE LANE follows its own rules. A chance meeting in a club bathroom sees two lost souls find each other following all-time bad breakups. Dom (David Jonsson) and Yas (Vivian Oparah) of course take a while to realise it’s each other they’re looking for as they spend a day trekking over South London trying to salvage something from their respective romantic traumas, but they make for charming company. A few of these encounters like Dom’s disastrous Spotify shuffle game at a cool barbecue and Yas’s “people who don’t wave at boats” rule are destined for iconic status. Raine Allen-Miller’s feature debut marks her as one to watch, highlighting the stories of distinct British communities and subcultures with wit, warmth and a really distinct visual flair. SSP
