A Shell with Shoes On

The Oscars always inspire us to take in the new batch of movies. For the most part, we like them, with some exceptions. We thought Parasite was disturbing but I liked it more than not while my better half didn’t care for it at all. And Maestro was, well, in a word horrible. But who are we to know? Certainly, we are not the Academy.

When we met, Melissa told me how much she loved award shows but I wasn’t quite prepared for how much. To watch the joy on her face as she watches them makes me love her all the more. Kind of like watching her watch the hummingbirds of Vail Colorado.

This weekend, we queued up Oppenheimer and/or Killers of the Flower Moon (we’d already seen Barbie so we couldn’t go all Barbenheimer) but both are epically long 3 and a half hour sagas, so on Friday we dug back into a shorter, past nominee: Marcel the Shell with Shoes On.

Oh my god. I was not ready for it. It is genius. Creative, funny, sad. A story of love and friendship, of kindness and compassion, of hope and despair, of a quest, of reunion and saying goodbye, of the goodness of the human spirit. There’s so much to like, like how an eraser holder is Marcel’s quiver when he and Dean go on their quest, or how a hot dog roll is transformed into a couch, or how the shells retreat to the sock drawer for safety, or how much they all love 60 Minutes’ Leslie Stahl.

The movie scored 98% on Rotten Tomatoes which begs the question: who are the 2%? To each his own I guess but it must be pretty sad to dislike this movie. And as it didn’t win the Oscar, I guess this is, yet another, way we and the Academy disagree on their awards. It’s currently streaming on Netflix.

You may not have heard of it before, or maybe you have, but if you’ve not watched it take a chance and prepare to want Marcel to be your friend.