‘Shell’ director Max Minghella unwraps his dark comedy about society’s obsession with looks

Aging, beauty and the pressure to look young — those are some of the themes explored in the movie Shell, which just had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Shell stars Elisabeth Moss as an actress pressured into a radical medical treatment in order to stay good-looking enough to be relevant in Hollywood.

Moss’ The Handmaid’s Tale co-star Max Minghella directs the film, and tells ABC Audio the film explores our obsession with youth and good looks.

“Central to this film is sort of the concept of mortality and vanity, and beauty and all of these things that are so universal to everybody, but actually so hyper-relevant to this kind of moment in time when everybody is sort of on Ozempic and people being worked on, and filters and social media,” he says.

The film is set in the near future, but has a kind of throwback ’80s vibe to it that pays homage to some of Minghella’s influences.

“Certainly Paul Verhoeven and Brian De Palma were filmmakers I thought about a huge amount making this. And if you look at the work of Paul Verhoeven, there’s a quite a lot of this tonality, especially around science fiction and futurism,” he shares. “So the movie Shell itself is a love letter to a kind of period of our films.”

Production is underway on The Handmaid’s Tale‘s sixth and final season, and Minghella shared his thoughts on the dystopian series ending.

“I’m very sentimental about it,” he says. “It’s been an almost 10-year journey making this show. It’s been a huge chapter in my life with an incredible group of people. And I feel very lucky that it came into my life. And I will be sad to see it go.”