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Memoir of a Snail Movie Review

Memoir of a Snail is a 2024 Australian stop-motion animated tragicomedy film directed by Adam Elliot and starring Sarah Snook. It’s one of the best animated films of the year.

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“Life can only be understood backwards,

but we have to live it forwards“

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After a series of misfortunes, a snail-collecting, melancholic misfit learns how to find confidence within herself amid the clutter of everyday life. This is only the second feature film from writer-director Adam Elliot after his incredible ‘Mary and Max’, which remains one of my favorite animated movies of all time. He has made more short than feature films, but I hope he makes more of these as he certainly is adept at doing both. This isn’t quite as strong as his previous masterpiece, but it still came awfully close.

Elliot definitely has a style that is very much his own. All of his movies share that distinct style and approach to storytelling that is initially dark, but eventually quite optimistic. I appreciate the level of artistry and detail that he puts into every production and sure enough this is another meticulously crafted project from him. The score is absolutely beautiful, classical in feel and quite eclectic. It accompanied all moods in the story so deftly. The movie is also exceptionally well edited and wonderfully paced, never at all feeling rushed or prolonged.

The animation is naturally one of the highlights. As a huge fan of stop-motion, I loved experiencing this gorgeously crafted movie. This is a claymation movie and this filmmaker is so adept at tackling this medium, delivering in both character designs and background work. The characters look just as odd and ugly as we’d come to appreciate from the guy and there is a level of grotesquery to the movie that I found to be quite interesting. It’s certainly not a story for kids. The snails were super cute, the house was meticulously detailed and the fact that lube was used for tears cracked me up.

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There is a level of familiarity between this movie and his last effort in the overall tone, messaging and an older person/younger protagonist dynamic. But this one was different enough that it didn’t feel like a retread for the filmmaker. Grace Pudel is a wonderfully realized main character as this depressed girl who definitely did not have it easy in life, but who eventually starts to appreciate the small moments of happiness and beauty that life throws at her. Sarah Snook was wonderful in the main role and another standout is Jackie Weaver, who was so well cast as Pinky, but more on her in a moment.

Gilbert as her protective gay brother got a pretty dark storyline for himself, but thankfully it ended eventually in a positive way. His foster family being so evil was caricaturist, but it worked in the context of the story and it was also personal for Elliot who himself is gay. And of course Pinky is the other standout character as this wrinkled older woman who turned out to be a true well of knowledge for our troubled protagonist. Their friendship was the heart and soul of the movie for sure.

Memoir of a Snail teaches us valuable lessons about life and death. There is this beautiful quote that befits the snail theme – life, just like snails’ movements, is about going forwards and not backwards. We learn from our pasts, but we shouldn’t dwell on it, but live in the present moment constantly. While at first the movie was a bit too dark and depressing for me, its eventual conclusion was anything but that. It is in that ending where the message about hope and perseverance was included and it made for such an inspirational conclusion.

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