Get the latest gossip
‘Memoir of a Snail’ Review: Adam Elliot Spins a Series of Unfortunate Events Into a Stop-Motion Heart-Tugger
Oscar winner Adam Elliot's delightful second feature 'Memoir of a Snail' gives voice to a lonely girl who retreats from a world she finds overwhelming.
Fitting squarely on the shelf of grownup films about misfit kids, Elliot’s latest — which comes 15 years after Sundance opener “Mary and Max” — finds the Australian auteur deeply committed to his dark and surprisingly moving brand of storytelling. Like Edward Gorey, his palette is nearly monochromatic; his characters tend to face the camera, à la Wes Anderson, as if posing for gloomy school photos; and his John Waters-esque humor is irreverent enough to encompass everything from disabilities to weird sexual kinks (including a homeless judge fired for masturbating in court and an adipophile who fattens up his bride with milkshakes and microwave sausages). When we meet Gracie, she’s wearing a dingy knit cap with ping pong-ball eyes on bendy stalks, and standing by the deathbed of her elderly friend Pinky (Jacki Weaver, whose raspy voice perfectly conveys the incorrigibly rebellious spirit of a woman who could never stay married for long).
Or read this on Variety
