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Animation, Comedy, Drama 94 min R
Rotten Tomatoes95%Metacritic81IMDb
Life can only be understood backwards, but we have to live it forwards.
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.
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Contemplative, prestige, meticulous and character-led.
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Written by TMDB members; each links to the original. Not part of Taste Buds's numbers.
When an elderly lady gives out her last breath, and yells something about potatoes, we realise that “Grace” is now on her own. She’s a middle aged woman wearing a knitted hat with two big eyes poking from stalks on the top. She’s what you might call a glass half empty sort of person, and as she releases her pet snail “Sylvia” from her jar into the vegetable garden she begins to regale us with the story of just how she, and her long-lost brother “Gilbert” grew up with their paraplegic dad; became orphaned, separated and then how she spent the rest of her life in increasing isolation making some rather unfortunate choices. Indeed, by an early age “Grace” is really only happy living in her room with her collection of gastropods. There’s a lovely melancholy to this story and the dialogue is riddled with typically Australian epithets, sarcasm and very dry wit as the tale of woes upon woes upon more woes is engagingly unfolded over the next ninety minutes, but it’s the astonishing detail of the animation that really stands out here. Right from the beginning, as we tour a home that looks more like an old curiosity shop we see not just great detail amongst the mechanics of the imagery, but
Read the whole review on TMDBAustralian animator and filmmaker Adam Elliot’s last full-length feature film was Mary and Max (2009). Memoir of a Snail is narrated and told from the point of view of Grace Pudel (Sarah Snook). Grace details her life story that finds humor and sentimentality in the face of depression, shortcomings, and letdowns. There are two people in the world that Grace feels comfortable with: her twin brother Gilbert (Kodi Smit-McPhee) and her best friend Pinky (Jacki Weaver). Their mother died during childbirth and their father is a drunk paraplegic who is a former street performer and animator from France. Grace developed the desire to be an animator while Gilbert wants to be a street performer. After their father passes away, the twins are separated and put into foster homes in two separate states. They spend the majority of the film writing letters to one another and dreaming of the day that they can reunite. As an adult, Grace meets Pinky. Pinky wears giant, red-rim glasses, is covered in wrinkles and liver spots, and habitually smokes cigars. She has traveled all over the world, met countless people, been with only a handful of memorable men, and has lived a crazy life full of no regrets
Read the whole review on TMDBIt’s been a long time since I’ve been moved by a piece of cinema as much as I was with “Memoir of a Snail,” a dark, profound, and highly personal stop-motion film from writer / director Adam Elliot . This work of animation confirms the power of the medium as a vessel for mature, deeply philosophical storytelling, and it’s just a beautiful film from start to finish. Crafted with painstaking detail, the film is a bittersweet memoir of Grace Pudel (voice of Sarah Snook), a woman overcome with melancholy in 1970s Australia. When she was younger, Grace and her twin brother Gilbert (voice of Kodi Smit-McPhee) were separated and sent to grow up in starkly contrasting home environments. He was abused in a cruel Evangelical household while she found herself slowly withdrawing from the world. Isolated and sad, Grace’s life journey is one that’s filled with repeated heartbreak, but she still has a few passions in life (including romance novels, guinea pigs, and snails). This film tells her story. The film exhibits the emotional resonance that animation can achieve when placed in the hands of a skilled storyteller. Intense and authentic, this is one for thoughtful adults rather than a throwawa
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