Movie Thoughts: Marcel the Shell With Shoes On

The trailer made this look pretty pedestrian, like Spike Jonze but even less self-aware of its own hipster sanctimoniousness. I’d never heard of the viral video back in 2010.

My impressions were, once again, wrong. This is a good movie. Surprisingly emotionally arresting. I teared up several times, not expecting to. It seems silly given the subject matter — all these swallowed tears over the fate of a one-inch seashell with a googly eye. There is a death scene involving a beam of sunlight that’s among the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. The film…