Documentary Review: 'Adrienne' is a Cathartic and Heartfelt tribute to Adrienne Shelly

One of the darkest days of my career happened on November 1st, 2006 and I didn’t even know it at the time. That was the day that actress turned director Adrienne Shelly was murdered in her office in New York City. I was aware of Adrienne Shelly but I had not yet seen her masterpiece, Waitress. Once I saw Shelly’s extraordinary film, and named it among my favorite movies of 2007, I was both deeply moved and desperately distraught over her loss and the loss of the incredible works of art she undoubtedly would have created in the future. The new documentary, Adrienne, was a cathartic experience for me as an admirer of Adrienne Shelly the artist and the human being.

Adrienne Shelly bubbled under mainstream success for several years from the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s. She got her start with visionary weirdo Hal Hartley and eventually graduated to more mainstream roles in Hollywood features. But, Shelly's greatest successes came in independent film where her status as an It-Girl of the future helped her work get noticed while allowing Shelly to continue to flex her artistic muscles outside of the shackles of mainstream Hollywood feature films.

Throughout the nineties while she avoided the slings and arrows of Hollywood, Shelly kept developing and writing whether in short films or features, and slowly discovered a voice all her own. Taking what she learned from Hal Hartley and several other talented directors she worked with over the years, Shelly eventually pushed acting and Hollywood stardom aside in order to write Waitress, the story of a young woman in an abusive relationship that becomes even more complicated by an unexpected pregnancy.

The script attracted the attention of rising star Keri Russell, recent of the teen television hit Felicity, and several of Hollywood’s best working supporting players including Emmy nominee Cheryl Hines, Jeremy Sisto, cult icon Nathan Fillion, Eddie Jemison and the legendary Andy Griffith in one of his final roles. This mix of a director with impeccable vision and empathy and this cast of astonishingly talented pros proved to be downright perfect and Waitress would go on to earn accolades everywhere it played, including several Independent Spirit awards nominations and festival accolades.

But, before Adrienne Shelly could see the fruits of her labor, before she would know how beloved she would become, her life was taken. The documentary Adrienne, directed by Shelly’s husband Andy Ostroy, employs the death of his wife as a framing device to help us remember her and why her loss was so devastating for so many people. Ostroy bravely combines a very real and personal true crime story with a biographical story that becomes a cathartic exploration of grief and loss.

In my review of Waitress in 2007 I called Adrienne Shelly an auteur and compared her remarkable eye for detail in her visual storytelling to masters like Kubrick. I meant it then and I mean it today. Watch Waitress now and look at the crisp, colorful cinematography and the way Shelly uses light and color, it’s glorious. A true master director understands that the visual language of their work is just as important as what is being said or left unsaid and Shelly had an immaculate eye for those little details.

Watch the way Shelly shoots the performance of Jeremy Sisto specifically, few actors and their director are in sync as much as Shelly and Sisto are in Waitress. With the aid of Shelly’s visuals Sisto’s emotionally abusive man-child of a husband becomes a figure terror and sympathy. Shelly shows this character to be monstrous and wrong but has the empathy to show us how his problems stem from a depth of insecurity that he can’t begin to understand or express through anything other than violence or frustration. By empathizing with the monster, Shelly takes his power away from him and renders a pathetic figure whom you may never want to be in a room with, but whom you can feel bad for to a point.

Watch the way Shelly takes the legend of Andy Griffith and uses it to continuously surprise and delight. Andy Griffith should have won Best Supporting Actor for Waitress because his graceful yet cantankerous performance is a complete winner. Shelly's brilliant script and pitch perfect direction craft several indelible, unforgettable moments for one of the most beloved faces in entertainment history while never losing sight of the story being told. Griffith's Joe acts mean and tough but that exterior, that Andy Griffith face and manner betray that curmudgeon's demeanor. It’s a perfect marriage of actor and role and when he reaches the end of his performance, the grace note is just lovely as are Shelly's gorgeous twilight visuals.

As a director, Adrienne Shelly seemed to think of everything. Her work is so detailed and yet so inviting that it never becomes intimidating. The combination of artful direction and homespun warmth, supreme wit and welcoming beauty, still takes my breath away today just thinking about it. Waitress, in my mind, is a perfect movie. I thought that even before I remembered that Adrienne Shelly had been taken from us and I think of it to this day. I think about the death of Adrienne Shelly and I think of all the incredible work she would have created and my heart hurts. And yet, my heart can't help but soar with joy when I watch Waitress.

And now, thanks to the documentary, Adrienne, I can think about the private Adrienne Shelly, the wife and mother who also happened to be an artist of top form. Adrienne is a powerhouse of a documentary in that it gives us Adrienne Shelly in full, her art, her family and even her death. The documentary builds to a crescendo in which Andy Ostroy, Shelly's beloved husband and partner, goes to speak to the man who murdered Adrienne. I won’t say anymore about that, you must see this documentary for that revelation. I will only say that it is incredibly emotional.

Adrienne debuts on HBO Max on December 1st, 2021.