Shelf Life Movie Review

Shelf Life bears the surprising imprint of director Paul Bartel. Fans of Bartel's more outrageous works such as Eating Raoul, Lust in the Dust, and Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills may not know what to make of this modest stage-to-screen transfer of the play written by its three stars, the story of what would happen to the kids in a family that were whisked into a bomb shelter straight after the assassination of President Kennedy. Thirty years later, the parents are dead, but the grown-up children live on, entrenched in long-established rituals. It may not be life as you or I would know it, but it is life as they know it, take it or leave it. The idea of escape never seriously occurs to them, so the rituals are all they have, really. The three leads are excellent, especially O-Ian Jones, who would make a terrific onscreen vampire. Along with co-stars Jim Turner and Andrea Stein, the three have the comedic timing of a highly polished vaudeville team. If you can accept the reality that, like the participants, you're stuck in a hermetically sealed environment for the duration, Shelf Life ain't a bad little way to spend 83 minutes. But then, at the very end, The Great Bartel makes a brief appearance. The larger-than-life Bartel, who can generate a laugh without even trying, had the effect of making me wish that the movie had started with his entrance. Such mutinous thoughts aside, Shelf Life is best watched on its own quirky terms and may be more widely enjoyed as a cult video item.

1994 83m/C O-lan Jones, Jim Turner, Andrea Stein, Paul Bartel; D: Paul Bartel; W: O-lan Jones, Jim Turner, Andrea Stein.