A One Mann’s Movies review of “Memoir of a Snail” (2024) (From the 2024 London Film Festival).
Regular readers of this blog will know that I am NOT a big fan of Stop-Motion animation movies. When everyone had quiet orgasms over Guillermo del Toro’s “Pinnochio” in 2022, I was much more lukewarm about it. Yes, I could obviously see how clever it was. But as a movie entertainment experience, it just didn’t do it for me. So then, it is with great pleasure that I can announce that I found the Australian stop-motion animation “Memoir of a Snail” to be an utterly hilarious: a hoot from beginning to end.
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
Plot Summary:
Grace Pudel (Sarah Snook) is not a snail. But the little girl is as dangerously obsessed with snails as her twin brother Gilbert (Kodi Smit-McPhee) is with fire. Their mother died in childbirth. But when their father also dies, the twins are taken into care and sent to opposite sides of Australia to live very different lives.
Certification:
UK: NR; US: R. (This has not yet been rated by the BBFC. I would expect it to be a ’15’ based on sexual content and language.)
Talent:
Starring: Sarah Snook, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Jacki Weaver, Eric Bana, Dominique Pinon, Magda Szubanski, Nick Cave.
Directed by: Adam Elliot.
Written by: Adam Elliot.
Running Time: 1h 34m.
“Memoir of a Snail” Summary:
Positives:
- Hilarious, sometimes extremely black, Aussie humour.
- Superb stop-motion animation full of quirky detail.
- A genuinely moving story.
Negatives:
- Even 94 minutes of stop-motion is a lot for me to cope with! A few bits of the film dragged for me. 10 minutes tighter would have been better (but appreciate that’s a very personal view.)
Review of “Memoir of a Snail”:
Humour that is black but hilarious.
There are so many dark characters in this film.
- Grace is a frustrated virgin, mocked and belittled by everyone for her hare-lip;
- her brother Roland is obsessed with fire and fireworks, constantly burning himself and singeing his hair. He wants to be an art-performer and glues Monopoly pieces to his face as an artwork!;
- their dad is a paraplegic ex-juggler with sleep apnea;
- Grace’s friend Pinky (Jacki Weaver) has had a colourful life as a sex-dancer and ‘friend’ of Fidel Castro before getting through two husbands in entertaining ways;
- the homeless man outside (Eric Bana) turns out to be a former judge disgraced for masturbating in court!
During the film we cover not only masturbation but swinging parties, nude cruises, religious nut-cases, homophobia, fat fetishism, kleptomania and Alzheimers! Much of this is delivered in dead-pan and hilarious fashion by “Succession”‘s Sarah Snook (voicing Grace). I saw this in a packed out screening and some of these topics generated hoots of laughter.
There are some fine running jokes in there too. The family are constantly reading classic books from John Steinbeck to Kafka. But later in the film, as Grace descends into her own personal hell, she starts reading trashy books. These including “The Ginger-Chested Pirate” and “The Fiddling Scotsman”! There are also in-jokes for Aussies. After moving to Canberra, Grace dryly comments “Canberra wasn’t the exciting place it is now”! (LOL) Canberra is portrayed as being a boring but safe place to live. A sign announcing this has in the corner a separate notice saying “Careful… the corners of this sign are sharp!”
Top-notch animation
The stop-motion is just terrific. The opening titles alone are impressive as the camera zooms around an incredibly cluttered room, highlighting the titles written on some of the objects that will become relevant as the film progresses. It all gets very meta when Grace goes to the Canberra Film School and starts making stop-motion films within the stop-motion film!
A Genuinely moving story
A long series of blah-blah gags wouldn’t sustain the film. But there is a really good story running through it that at time becomes tragic and touching. While some of the sequences outstayed their welcome just a tad for me, there were many memorable words of wisdom from Pinky. These are a couple of my favourites:
“Life is not about looking backwards. It’s about living forwards”
“What’s important is breaking out of the cages we create for ourselves”
Summary Thoughts on “Memoir of a Snail”
As a stop/motion film, I nearly skipped this one. But I’m so glad I didn’t. It was truly great and I think it will get a BIG fan club when it is on general release. I loved it. For the first time at this LFF, the film got a round of applause from the ‘press/industry’ attendees at the end. So a lot of people agreed with me.
Where to Watch it (Powered by Justwatch)
Trailer for “Memoir of a Snail”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ehc8cc7g31I .
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