Family values: Grace, dad and Gilbert enjoy a day out in ‘Memoir of a Snail’.
MEMOIR OF A SNAIL **1/2 (95 minutes) M
Beautiful as it is to behold – with all its labour-intensive, lovingly crafted, digital-defying stop-motion animation – Adam Elliot’s Memoir of a Snail is a darkly humourous, often mordant tale of sadness, abuse, loneliness and loss that valiantly struggles to blossom into a fable about the power of love and hope.
Eventually the film does come good, but only after the audience has been put through the mill a few times, with extended tracts about child neglect and layer upon layer of tragedy and misfortune.
There are some moments of delight and genuine uplift, but the film is heavy going. If Ken Loach was a stop-motion animation director, this is the kind of movie he would make.
Told in flashback, with overlong digressions into character backstory, the story is narrated by Grace Pudel (voiced by Sarah Snook), a singularly unfortunate and put-upon soul.
Nothing seems to work out for her: she is orphaned and fostered out to a well-meaning couple whose support offers some comfort in a cruel world. So, too, does her friendship with elderly darl Pinky (Jacki Weaver).
Above all, Grace is emotionally tethered to her twin brother Gilbert (Kodi Smit-McPhee) who has been fostered out to a family of religious zealots on the other side of the country. It is the tenuous hope of reuniting with Gilbert that sustains her through many trials, including marriage.
The film makes a good companion piece to Mary and Max, the amazing film Elliot made back in 2009. Yet that, however sincerely intended, might be something of a back-handed compliment. Perhaps Memoir of a Snail could have benefited from being less similar.
We love and admire Adam Elliot for his unwavering commitment to his cinematic vision and to the art of stop motion animation, which he championed with his Oscar-winning 2003 short Harvie Krumpet.
Yet the exacting attention he has put into the gorgeous, detailed visuals of Memoir of a Snail – and it’s hard to understate what a treat the film is to watch – isn’t always matched by the narrative.
The lengthy detours into some of the backstories often feel like excuses for visual gags, certain story points are hammered a few too many times and Grace’s husband is dealt with too summarily. Possibly a case here of biting off too much; the hidden complexity of their relationship could easily fill another film.
As with Mary and Max, stress need be made that this is a film for adults, not kids. The content gets pretty intense, especially in the final reel.
FROM HILDE, WITH LOVE ** (124 minutes; subtitled) MA
It’s quite remarkable how a film with such a rich basis could turn out to be such a dreary slog.
Set in 1942 Germany and based on a real story, From Hilde, With Love tells of how a young woman called Hilde Coppi (Liv Lisa Fries) got caught up in the anti-Nazi resistance movement snd ended up having a baby after being imprisoned by the Gestapo.
Worthy to a fault, the lax direction by Andreas Dresen makes that common presumption that just because a subject is important or based on real events it’s automatically interesting, especially if it involves anything to do with Nazis or the Holocaust. The film’s non-linear structure and lengthy dialogue scenes can’t keep the film from dragging.
Despite widespread acclaim for the central performance of Liv Lisa Fries, the only genuinely interesting acting turn is by Lisa Wagner who plays the deceptively icy Nazi prison guard. She’s by far the most interesting character in an otherwise overlong, snail-paced piece.
The film has some merit in that it joins the short list of films that shows how the Nazis did meet some resistance from German citizens, such as Sophie Scholl (2005), Valkyrie (2008) and the long forgotten Swing Kids, starring a young Christian Bale. (1993; available on YouTube).
Other than that, From Hilde, With Love is best left until it pops up for free on SBS On Demand.
CATVIDEOFEST **1/2 (73 minutes) G
This amusing showreel of cat videos, allegedly culled by director Will Braden from a shortlist of 15,000, contains the usual suspects: cats jumping, cats falling, cats sleeping, cats with funny faces, cats reacting to the sound of a fridge door opening, cats meowing funny, cats curled up in odd places and so on.
Most of the clips run for a few seconds, though there are longer ones, including one telling of a stray kitty being rescued.
This sixth CatFest showing runs from 17-20 October, with a portion of ticket takings being donated to animal welfare.
Hardcore cat video lovers please note: this selection is rated G and strictly family-friendly, so there are no videos of cats fighting with other cats, cats attacking people, cats facing off with small angry dogs or cats doing that creepy thing where they walk on two legs.
Pity, that.
HE AIN’T HEAVY 1/2 (103 minutes) MA
With the advent of the Australian drama He Ain’t Heavy comes the increasingly sorry need to again wonder how it is possible, in 2024, for such woefully bad films to get made in this country.
Worried about her violent, drug-addled brother Max (Sam Corlett), Jade (Leila George) locks him in a room hoping a spell of home detention will do him some good.
Nothing amiss with the premise, apparently drawn from real life. The trouble is with the execution.
The film, written and directed by David Vincent Smith, is riddled with so many plausibility issues it quickly become both agonising and infuriating. It’s an especially egregious matter given the film is supposed to trade in gritty realism.
The poor quality of the storytelling in He Ain’t Heavy again raises the question: where are the people in the creative process whose job it is to stand up and say: “this does not make sense”?
And the lapses in believability are not minor, they are glaring. Here’s a list.
But first, for those intending to pay good money to see this movie a Spoiler Alert.
Duly cautioned, here we go.
* Jade locks Max in an empty room. He is not physically constrained. There’s no rope or chain. He is free to move. A rope or chain might have been a good idea.
* A bucket is provided for a toilet. No mention is subsequently made of the bucket, of how or if it is ever emptied, or of the fetid stench that would quickly fill the place. You’re watching the film constantly distracted by the thought about what is happening with the accumulation of all that faecal matter.
*At one point Max is given a birthday cupcake with a lit candle. Not a wise idea, if for no other reason than it might ignite all the methane.
* Max is clearly stronger than Jade and has a recklessly violent temper. Yet there are too many occasions when the door is open and he doesn’t seize the opportunity to escape. Example: Jade tentatively enters the room thinking Max is unconscious. It’s a ruse, but it fails. The camera conveniently remains outside the room, so we don’t see how he is unable to overpower her and run out.
* In his violent rage to escape, Max kicks a sizeable hole through a wall to the adjacent bathroom. Jade hurriedly covers the hole with a security door. She jams one end into a safety rail and secures the other end by frantically drilling two holes and inserting two small screws. Having smashed through the wall with his foot, Max suddenly ceases his assault, mysteriously unable to deal with this flimsy measure. (In Old Hollywood, such a scene would be identified as the moment the film “just lost its audience”.)
* The film is graced by police who apparently don’t know what the internet is. The cops keep calling in search of Max, who is wanted for questioning over the brutal bashing of a young father. Jade is on Facebook where friends are asking about Max and how she is faring. She attends a friend’s party, has an argument, then returns home. So, why aren’t the police all over her? Apparently, nobody bothered typing her name into a search engine or talking to her friends.
* Max is loathsome character with whom it is impossible to empathize. Jade might care about him but there is nothing in the story that engenders any understanding or insight into why we should care. He never even denies the crime. He is just a thug who bashed a father. What a worthless person.
* When the cops finally arrive, it is because of a tip-off from Jade’s mum (Greta Scacchi), not because of any investigative diligence.
* The cops point tasers at Max who manages to hold them off by pressing a jagged shard of glass to his throat. If TikTok has taught us anything it’s that a police taser discharged at point blank range will immobilize a person instantly. In Max’s case he’d be convulsing on the ground before he could do himself any further harm.
At this point in the film the possibility of Max getting shot feels like it would be a helpful step in his rehabilitation journey.
At the end of the closing credits for He Ain’t Heavy the usual government funding logos appear. Idea: make it mandatory for any movie accessing public money to declare the dollar amount alongside the logo. It should be a condition of funding.
He Ain’t Heavy is the latest in a long line of local productions that are so bad the only reason you have to keep watching is to see if it can possibly get any worse. On that score the film doesn’t disappoint.
Here’s hoping 2025 turns out to be a better year for Australian film.
Movie God, please hear our prayer.
Note: The film is in very limited release. In Victoria it is screening at The Sun Theatre; In New South Wales at the Dendy Newtown and Dendy Canberra; in WA, it’s on in Perth at the Luna Leederville and Luna Palace cinemas.