Memoir of a Snail

Australian stop-motion animator Adam Elliot returns with his sophomore feature film Memoir of a Snail, a distinctive, heart-rending, charming – and now Oscar-nominated – tragicomedy. 

At once idiosyncratic and universal, the film is as notable for its poignant care for the downtrodden and marginalised as it is for its meticulously crafted and instantly recognisable claymation. Every dimple and fingerprint that remain visible In Elliot’s animation are as necessary as the imperfections and foibles that make his characters and story so uniquely compelling. It’s a style infused with pallid skin tones and hues of browns and greys that echo a cruel world, but one in which love and connection can shine all the more brightly.

The story revolves around Grace (voiced as an adult by Sarah Snook), who's separated from her brother, Gilbert (Kodi Smit-McPhee), when they're orphaned as children. Dispatched to opposite ends of the country by a callous state, they are forced to grow up in their own forms of isolation, both outsiders who struggle to conform to the very different worlds around them. Grace’s life is one beset by impediments; positive twists in her tale tend to be fleeting. But Elliot’s ode to the downtrodden is never miserable.

Instead, Memoir of a Snail feels freewheeling and playful even in its darker moments. Its harshly grotesque world is crammed full of odd asides, deft observations, and moments of genuine warmth. It gives Elliot’s filmmaking a piercing pathos that isn’t easy to come by and is difficult to shake.