Shelf Life (1993) User Reviews

Great, but not cinematic

[lars-63669 · 7/10 · 15 June 2015]

This is a charming and sometimes uncomfortable play with great and convincing performances, but it cannot overcome being a stage play, and it is not cinematic. Most of Bartel's work is fairly cerebral chaos, and this is no exception. The story goes somewhere, but the camera does not. Lots of angles and the cutting cannot set the camera free of the confines of the fallout shelter.

Think of this as the prequel to "Blast from the Past." Most of the script is the shelter occupants replaying scripts they have written for themselves with snippets of misinterpreted stuff they have got from the outside world. This leaves many fill-in-the-blanks-for-yourself holes in the storyline, which is the source of much of the humor.

If you really like Bartel, you will like this. But if you need everything spoon-fed and all the bundles tied up, this won't be your cup of tea.

Disclaimer: this review is based on a VHR copy of the director's cut which was a gift from the director before it was released on video.

stagy but altogether original dark comedy oddity

[EyeAskance · 3 August 2003]

On the day of the assassination of JFK, a paranoid father moves his family into their bomb shelter. Thirty years pass, and the 3 siblings have become adults(the parents have since died). Their world is a single room, and they spend their days engaging in song-and-dance rituals and psychodramatizing television broadcasts. "Shelf Life" might have made a better short film, as it's premise has little to build upon...but if your in the mood for something REALLY strange, give this a look- if you can find it.

A Sad Swansong

[akoaytao1234 · 3/10 · 29 January 2023]

Paul Bartel draws me into this film. Apparently his last directed film before his death in 2000, Shelf Life tells the story of three siblings stuck in a bomb shelter home for a 'nuclear' fallout. Now 30 plus years ahead, they are left into their last crumb and had their final elegy as they glimpse into their final breath, or do they?

Apparently based from a play, which is a big tell, the film is too overdrawn yet almost going to nowhere and sadly, felt incomplete. There is no third act or the film failed to create an enticing one. You could see why it was left into the chest for so long. Its just felt like there is more to this film than what is there.

Bartel film is like watching a tamer version of Water films. Though his other films at least works in a narrative level, this film is just feels too empty AND still in the drawing board rather than a complete film.

Not recommended.

An unusual busrt of (mostly) pure joy

[jackrchang · 10/10 · 24 May 2020]

My 10 star rating is about enjoyment of this, not its cinematic quality.

This is a stage play that's been filmed on the budget of a stage play - it's barely a movie. The 3 actors in the film wrote the play, fyi.

The story is 3 kids (roughly 6 yrs old each) and their parents go into a bomb shelter in 1963...the parents die soon after...the kids raise each other in the bomb shelter. This is NOT about them getting out and seeing the world as fish out of water. It's the world and mythology and culture that they've created within their tiny fish bowl. Microcosm of our reality, and all that.

Shelf Life is commentary upon religion, ritual, entertainment, society, and all the Things. And it comments with a deft and endlessly charming hand. O to be a child forever! One would become quite mad.

It's really dang funny and loveable - provided you're up for watching a silly theatrical production with zero budget.

Director Paul Bartel's added ending is Freudian, literally 4th wall breaking, and cute - but does undercut the actual, rather dark yet meaningful ending of the play. Oh well. It's still cute and lovable!

(Most everyone I've shown this to didn't like it, fyi. Bunch of Scrooges, imao.)

Fun Claustrophobic Silliness

[jondunn · 17 July 1999]

3 Grown-up children act out scenes from television shows because this is all they know. Trapped in a bomb-shelter, they act out one hilarious and surreal snippet of melodrama after another, their daily cultural rituals based upon childhood and television.