magnuslhad Scotland is a beautiful country, a staggeringly dramatic landscape that easily lends itself to cinema. Unfortunately, a film requires more than scenery, a point that is lost on the makers of Shell. A young woman lives an isolated life in a stark, barren setting, alone with her taciturn father. The male customers who visit her petrol station desire her. Women are suspicious of her. Shell seems over-attached to her father. What it all means and adds up to is anyone's guess. Films which throw up more questions than answers can be rewarding - such as Under the Skin, which makes better thematic use of a similar landscape. However, there has to be a glimpse of narrative coherence, a hint that more rewards are waiting if we make the effort to see beyond the surface. Sadly, Shell's waters run shallow in the extreme. Chloe Pirrie creates an atmosphere as brooding Shell, but the character does not grow or change. Joseph Mawle as the father evokes no familial bond. Rather than a father battling mental demons, I saw a bewildered actor. And Michael Smiley, so sinister and captivating in Kill List, is badly served by a script that eschews any attempt at character development. This film fails on multiple levels.

Banshee24 I loved this film from the moment I read the Synopsis.I need to figure out where this was actually filmed as the roads are spectacular and look like they make for some nice driving. The petrol Station is very cute indeed.For me the weather and remoteness of the location made the whole film for me, it gave the impression of a great desperateness and struggle against the cold which seemed to parallel the emotions portrayed by all of the characters.A few nice cars on show too including a very tidy "Q" plated Series II Land Rover Pickup kitted out with Recover Gear, and a very tidy 1976 Fiesta XR2i which appears to have been borrowed from a member of highlandoldskoolfords.co.ukWatch out for an appearance from Michael Smiley (known more for his role as Benny in Luther) as Hugh a lonely regular who becomes a bit too close for comfort at times

philipfoxe Here is a perfect example of a movie that should never have got funding. We have a great, isolated, bleak landscape. A father and daughter deserted by a mother and wife. However we are given nothing to work with. No social or familial links explained. No feelings or thoughts ever discussed. All we get is silence, into which, I presume, we are expected to project our our own ideas. Why was Shell taken out of school? What's the relevance of the book 'The Heart is a Lonely Hunter' left behind by a client? Then Dad and her start kissing and Dad starts to think she is his wife? Then he ups and kills himself. Honestly...a real pile of crap.

Sindre Kaspersen Scottish screenwriter and director Scott Graham's feature film debut which he wrote, premiered in the New Directors section at the 60th San Sebastián International Film Festival in 2012, was shot on location in Scotland and is a UK production which was produced by producers David Smith and Margaret Matheson. It tells the story about a 17-year-old woman named Shell who lives with her father named Pete at a gas station in the Scottish countryside which he made years ago. Shell spends most of her days waiting for new customers and most of the time meets people who are just passing by. She has become friendly with a middle-aged man named Hugh who usually makes a stop at their place when he is on his way to see his children who lives with their mother and is sometimes visited by a man close to her age named Adam who works at a sawmill nearby and who seeks her company, but Shell's only constant is her father whom she has grown as attached to as any daughter could to her father.Distinctly and acutely directed by Scottish filmmaker Scott Graham, this quietly paced fictional tale which is narrated mostly from the main character's point of view, draws a silently reflective and consistently moving portrayal of a strangely though understandably affectionate relationship between a man whom is suffering both from illness and personal experiences and his daughter whose only communication with the outside world, which is an enigma to her, is through brief encounters with various passers-by. While notable for its naturalistic and prominent milieu depictions, evocative and masterful cinematography by cinematographer Yoliswa Gärtig, fine production design by production designer James Lapsley and use of sound and music, this narrative-driven story about blood ties and an increasingly isolating dependency that has kept two people inseparable, depicts two interrelated studies of character regarding two relatives who are becoming painfully aware of how chained they are to each other and how stuck they have become.This refined, situational and authentic coming-of-age drama which is set mostly at a remote roadside petrol station in the Scottish highlands during an autumn and where a single parent and his only child whom is in the transition between adolescence and adulthood is being internally changed and differently affected by the majestic landscape which surrounds and contrasts them and is a character in itself, is impelled and reinforced by its fleeting narrative structure, substantial character development, subtle continuity, graceful melancholy and psychological depth, poignant conversations, discreet humour, humane characters and the perceptive acting performances by Scottish actress Chloe Pirrie, English actor Joseph Mawle, Irish actor Michael Smiley, Scottish actress Kate Dickie and Scottish actor Iain De Caestecker. A mythical, cinematographic and mysteriously atmospheric character piece about the human condition and a timeless narrative feature which is one of the finest Scottish films in recent years.