VALE LYNN SHELTON: HOLLYWOOD REACTS...

Writer/director Lynn Shelton, one of independent cinema's strongest auteur voices and a leading creative influence within the television sector, passed away from a blood disorder on Friday, at the age of 54.

The Ohio native, who became a prominent advocate for and beloved figure in the Seattle filmmaking scene, was recognised as an innovative storyteller, whose naturalistic dialogue and character-focussed drama made her a critical favourite and indie sector champion. From her introspective debut feature We Go Way Back (2006), which earned her the Slamdance Film Festival Best Director award, and 2008 sophomore effort My Effortless Brilliance (2008) Shelton was lauded as one of the strongest proponents of the ‘mumblecore’ film movement.

Her third feature, Humpday (2009), would prove her breakout festival hit. Labelled by the British Film Institute as, “a fiercely astute, frequently hilarious riff on the ‘bromantic’ comedy sub-genre”, it starred fellow mumblecore figurehead Mark Duplass and Joshua Leonard (pictured, right; with Shelton) as straight friends coerced into a ‘homosexual art project’. A Sundance Jury Prize winner and National Board of Review Top Independent Film honoree, Humpday paved the way for Shelton’s distinctive and adored feature film output, which included Your Sister’s Sister (2011), Touchy Feely (2013), Laggies (2014), Outside In (2017) and Sword of Trust (2019).

Posting a statement on Twitter, Duplass said…

The industry response to Duplass' tweet, from such peers as Olivia Wilde, Josh & Benny Safdie, Greg Mottola, Shawn Levy and Chris O’Dowd, was indicative of Shelton’s standing within the film community.

Between feature films, Lynn Shelton made some of the most critically acclaimed television hours of the last decade. Her unmistakable energy and honesty enlivened episodes of Mad Men, New Girl, The Mindy Project, The Good Place, Santa Clarita Diet, Shameless, Touchy Feely, Dickinson and Fresh Off the Boat. Most recently, she directed Reese Witherspoon (pictured, right; with her director) and Kerry Washington in four episodes of Little Fires Everywhere, streaming service Hulu’s acclaimed adaptation of Celeste Ng's 2017 bestselling book. Witherspoon, who also worked with Shelton on the Apple TV series The Morning Show, took to her social profile on Twitter to express her sadness…

In recent years, she entered into first a creative partnership, then a romantic one, with actor/comedian Marc Maron. Having directed episodes of his debut series Maron, the pair became close. She would direct him in her last feature, Sword of Trust as well as five episodes of his hit Netflix series GLOW, opposite Alison Brie, and two stand-up specials, ‘Too Real’ (2017) and his most recent, ‘End Times Fun’ (2020).

Maron addressed her shock passing in a public statement that read, in part, “I loved her very much as I know many of you did as well. It’s devastating. I am leveled, heartbroken and in complete shock and don’t really know how to move forward in this moment. She was a beautiful, kind, loving, charismatic artist. Her spirit was pure joy. She made me happy. I made her happy. We were happy. I made her laugh all the time. We laughed a lot. We were starting a life together. I really can’t believe what is happening. This is a horrendous, sad loss.”

Many entertainment industry figures who were touched by her talent have expressed their grief...

(Pictured, above; Brie and her GLOW director Shelton in a pic courtesy of the actress' Instagram page)