- Starring
- Kelly Murtagh, Bobby Gilchrist, Jamie Neumann
- Writers
- Kelly Murtagh, Bryce Parsons-Twesten
- Director
- Samantha Aldana
- Rating
- n/a
- Running Time
- 88 minutes
- Release Date
- n/a
Overall Score
Rating Summary
This will be one of several reviews from this year’s Tribeca film Festival. To follow our coverage, click here.
Eating disorders are a real condition affecting countless people but have often been the brunt of the joke across popular media. This is because they often fail to see it as the nuanced and complex condition that it is as it can affect anyone and it could be a scary thing to deal with. Hoping to shed some light on the condition is Shapeless, a very sad though compelling character study that depicts the issue of eating disorders in a nuanced and empathetic way that was not always easy to watch. Meanwhile, the typical downward spiral story is a trope that has appeared countless times in countless films, the film is lifted by both a strong script and a strong lead performance from Kelly Murtagh who just happened to write that script. Developing this project for the past decade after having personally suffered from and recovered from an eating disorder, that care from Murtagh clearly shows.
Shapeless tells the story of a woman named Ivy (Murtagh), a struggling singer in New Orleans who was also struggling with a crippling eating disorder. Trying to climb the ladder while also suffering with her condition, she would have to face it before it threatened to ruin her career before it had the chance to finally get off the ground. However, in order for her to face her condition, she would have to admit to herself that she had a problem though whether her ambition would allow for it remained to be seen. Putting on a public face as she dealt with her struggles behind the scenes, it was often tough to watch as the film put viewers in Ivy’s frame of mind in a very visceral and disorientating way just like what she must have been feeling. As the film went on, it became increasingly harder to keep both of these sides separate as they began to bleed into the other as Ivy continued to spiral. In the end, regardless of all the great atmospheric work, the film would not have worked if not for Murtagh’s performance as Ivy which only pulled audiences further in.
Overall, Shapeless may not be an easy watch but it is an important one.
still courtesy of Tribeca
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The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.
