Tribeca Film Festival movie review: 'Shapeless'
An all-consuming vicious cycle of binging and purging threatens to transform a woman into something nightmarish in the body-horror flick 'Shapeless' (screening during the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival).
In short: Struggling singer Ivy (Kelly Murtagh) scrapes by on meager paychecks as she performs to largely empty New Orleans nightclubs - but in private, a debilitating eating disorder begins to consume her life.
Virtually every TV show depicting eating disorders has an after-school special vibe. They approach the subject from the outsider perspective - highlighting the symptoms to look out for and dramatically illustrating the worst possible consequences, like passing out in gym class. 'Shapeless' doesn't try to explain the psychology behind eating disorders and refrains from passing judgement on its protagonist. This observant film just tries to share the experience of day-to-day life with an eating disorder - how the disorder redefines the mundane trip to the grocery store and makes a communal bowl of French fries into something sinister.
For a body-horror midnight movie drama, 'Shapeless' is peppered with a number of scenes of Ivy just living her life - planning song set lists and chatting with friends. In these moments, nothing seems amiss - Ivy seems very "normal." These moments feel like non sequiturs from a completely different film. And this is one of the film's most disarming and smartest choices: forcing the audience to reconcile that the "normal" Ivy is the very same person tormented by food and body dysmorphia. These moments give Ivy dimension and complexity, effectively breaking the pre-conceived notion of what someone suffering with an eating disorder has to look or act like.
'Shapeless' compels in its fly-on-the-wall moments, as if a camera was accidentally left turned on, capturing Ivy in intimate moments meant only for her to know about. Moments she would be mortified if anyone else witnessed. For all the gruesome visuals that Ivy sees when she looks at her own body - how she perceives her own body - it's actually hardest to watch Ivy suffer in her disorder. Yes the way Ivy sees her body is troubling and difficult to endure, but 'Shapeless' finds psychological anxiety and horror in the simple act of ... eating a snack. Anyone else might eat a snack without a thought or care - but witnessing Ivy go through what looks like a grueling process of self denial is heartbreaking and emotionally wracking. This empathetic character study disturbs in how it conveys the exhausting and overwhelming isolation of battling a disorder in secret.
Final verdict: 'Shapeless' is an experiential and penetrating insight in the insidious, destructive and all-consuming scourge of eating disorders.
Score: 4/5
'Shapeless' screens during the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival. This drama is not yet rated and has a runtime of 88 minutes.
