by Eternality Tan

Memoir of a Snail (2024)

An orphaned brother and sister are separated by child social services in Adam Elliot’s life-affirming if darkly amusing stop-motion animated Australia, where misfits, weirdos and religious fanatics reside. 

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Review #2,922

Dir. Adam Elliot
2024 | Australia | Animation, Drama, Comedy | 95min | 1.85:1 | English & French
M18 (passed clean) for sexual content, nudity and some violent content

Cast: Sarah Snook, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Jacki Weaver
Plot: Forcibly separated from her twin brother when they are orphaned, a melancholic misfit learns how to find confidence within herself amid the clutter of misfortunes and everyday life.
Awards: Won Cristal – Best Feature (Annecy); Nom. for Best Animated Feature (Oscars)
International Sales: Charades

Accessibility Index
Subject Matter: Slightly Mature – Siblings Separation; Marginalisation & Social Misfits; Loneliness & Companionship
Narrative Style: Slightly Complex
Pace: Normal
Audience Type: Slightly Mainstream

Viewed: Screener (as part of Singapore Film Society Showcase)
Spoilers: No

Can you believe it’s already more than 15 years since Mary & Max (2009)?  Adam Elliot is back with his sophomore feature, Memoir of a Snail, and if you are a fan of that earlier work, you will love this. 

It is in a similar visual style, painstakingly rendered in stop-motion, and features the striking, offbeat tone that made him a household name, well, at least in the upper echelons of the world animation circle. 

Grace Pudel (Sarah Snook) is a young orphaned girl torn apart from her beloved brother, Gilbert, after child social services place them in separate foster homes at opposite ends of the country, where a huge desert separates them. 

“Life can only be understood backwards but we have to live it forwards.”

We are in Elliot’s Australia, a place of misfits, weirdos and religious fanatics.  We are also in the comforting hands of Elliot’s craft, as he gives us expressive characters who are either affable or detestable. There is no in-between unless you count the aloof-looking snails that Grace is obsessed with keeping.  

As she recounts the ups and downs of her childhood, including her relationship with Pinky (Jacki Weaver), an old but indefatigable woman who lives life on the edge, we begin to see how every individual is shaped by what he or she is surrounded with, by choice or otherwise. 

Frequently amusing, with bouts of sharp humour, though it can get quite dark, Memoir of a Snail is ultimately life-affirming insofar as it asks us to recognise and accept that our existence is always meaningful to someone, even though we may hate ourselves from time to time. 

Grade: B+

Trailer:

Music:

7 Comments

  3. Unknown's avatar

    Long story short, and I feel like you are making me explain again and again. So once and for all, I would like to reframe it – I don’t go in with the mentality that there’s something wanting. And if there is, and I don’t find it significant, I don’t need to explain it. Every film starts with a B+, and if it ends with a B+, it’s a decent work. That’s all. I think it can be Zen like that.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  4. Unknown's avatar

    Sorry if you find my inquiries annoying, and thank you very much for having typed a longer reply, which I’m sorry I missed, but it is much appreciated!

    I now understand your process when you evaluate films better, thanks. I used not to want to watch films you rated a B+ (or 7 stars, if I understand your system correctly), and when I did, I found them less than satisfactory, not “decent” as you say. Hence my confusion, and my question.

    But I find that when you go to 8 stars I can always depend upon your judgment, and I watch such films with pleasure, even if they’re not perfect, as very few are.

    Funny enough, I also follow your approach, which you characterise as, “I don’t go in with the mentality that there’s something lacking”: I start with an A+ expectation – i.e. open-minded – and go from there, so by the time I get to B+ there is some lacking, for me.

    So when I discuss a film with someone else and I tell them I rate it a 7 I usually try to justify why I didn’t give it a 10. Maybe an uneven script, or excessively broad humour, unconvincing performances, a confusing plot line, etc.

    But all that being said, I must accept your way. It’s your Zen, after all.😊
    ✌️

    Like

    Reply

    1. Unknown's avatar

      I’m sorry for giving the impression of being curt. Interesting way of putting it i.e. starting from A+, and downgrading if things don’t work out. For me, I start with a B+ (why this grade, it’s probably due to my work as an educator, as based on the bell curve, most students in most classes will fall in the B+ range), and then if the film is able to maintain a B+, I’d say it’s a decent film. Some films go down to a B, B-, or even C+, but somehow salvages itself and consolidates at a B- or B. Very rarely, it will go back to B+ if it had sagged. Then, there are films, that go up to A-, A, but somehow doesn’t land well, and goes back to a B+ or B. Then there are films where within the first 5-10 mins, it just sags and operates at the level of B- or C and doesn’t recover. These are probably films to give a miss. Then there are films that within the first few minutes, you know it operates at an A- or A level, and consistently maintains that level. These are amazing and time well spent. I’m also a programmer, so normally if I have the power to decide, I would usually bring films to my country that are at least a B+. Though I have programmed films that I didn’t quite like before, out of interest that audiences may feel or think otherwise.

      Like

      Reply

      1. Unknown's avatar

        I rather like your approach: start at B+, with somewhat average expectations, and see what happens. Mine is a negative approach whereas yours allows for being pleasantly surprised. I must try yours; it’s more neutral.

        Thanks for an interesting discussion.

        Liked by 1 person

Leave a comment