Jacki Weaver – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

Adam Elliot on MEMOIR OF A SNAIL and Stop Motion Animation – Pam Grady interviews

November 4, 2024November 10, 2024 Pam Grady Adam Elliot, australian films, ifc, Jacki Weaver, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Memoir of a Snail, Mill Valley Film Festival, Sarah Snook, stop motion

Adam Elliot, whose latest animation, Memoir of a Snail, is currently in theaters, can’t imagine spending his days attached to a computer. That distaste for a life spent perpetually engaged with technology altered the course of his life when he became interested in animation while in film school in his native Australia. Instead of pursuing computer graphics like so many of his classmates, he forged his own path with stop-motion animation, joining a select group that embraces the retro form that includes Tim Burton, Henry Sellick, Guillermo Del Toro, and the folks at England’s Aardman Animation and Oregon’s LAIKA Studios.

Reviews

MEMOIR OF A SNAIL – Review by Leslie Combemale

October 21, 2024October 20, 2024 Leslie Combemale Adam Elliot, clayography, Jacki Weaver, Jodi Smit-McPhee, Memoir of a Snail, Sara Snook, stop-motion animation, Trilogy of Trilogies

The first thing you should know about Memoir of a Snail is that while it IS stop motion animation, it’s for grownups. This is of a piece with the other entries in animation auteur Adam Elliot’s Trilogy of Trilogies, the seventh in his series, or clayography, as he calls it, and second feature after the highly acclaimed Mary and Max. He won an Oscar for his animated short Harvey Krumpet. Elliot’s adult world is full of dark humor and even darker life experiences, often including sexual situations, mental illness, and complicated, sometimes abusive relationships. Memoir of a Snail is no different in that respect, but is also at least as charming, winning, and off kilter as his other films. It’s deliciously dark and delightful, creating hope where you’d never expect it to be, like in some tenacious weed.

Festivals Reviews

MEMOIR OF A SNAIL (Melbourne IFF 2024) – Review by Nadine Whitney

August 20, 2024August 19, 2024 Nadine Whitney Adam Elliot, Dominique Pinon, Jacki Weaver, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Melbourne IFF 2024, Memoir of a Snail, Sarah Snook

Anyone familiar with the work of stop motion animator Adam Elliot (Harvey Krumpet, Mary & Max) knows the Australian storyteller creates expansive emotional universes within his carefully handcrafted worlds. Memoir of a Snail is a beautifully melancholy tale of broken hearts and learning to heal them. Memoir of a Snail is a miracle of compassion.

Reviews

AMERICAN MURDERER – Review by Diane Carson

January 1, 2023January 7, 2023 Diane Carson american murder, Jacki Weaver, Jason Derek Brown, matthew gentile, Tom Pelphrey, truth-based

American Murderer profiles real-life con man Jason Derek Brown. Villains, especially fascinating con artists, often dominate a film’s dramatic focus. They’re the dynamic, mesmerizing characters with charisma, or how else would they succeed? The iconic Alfred Hitchcock used this often, commenting that the most successful criminals presented a disconcertingly engaging façade. These ideas govern writer/director Matthew Gentile’s American Murderer, based on the true story of conman Jason Derek Brown.

Reviews

NEVER TOO LATE – Review by Sarah Ward

July 6, 2020July 11, 2020 Sarah Ward 0 Comments australian films, Jacki Weaver, James Cromwell, Mark Lamprell, Never Too Late

Never Too Late arrives on screens with a sense of deja vu. That isn’t intentional. But unfurling an ensemble-led tale of ageing Vietnam veterans engaged in a caper linking back to their war service after Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods has already done the same, leads to inevitable comparisons.

Reviews

NEVER TOO LATE – Review by Lana Wilson-Combs

July 6, 2020July 11, 2020 Lana Wilson-Combs 0 Comments Jacki Weaver, James Cromwell, Mark Lamprell, Never Too Late

The funny and heartwarming comedy Never too Late from director Mark Lamprell tackles aging, friendship and living life to the fullest. Vietnam vets famous for escaping from a Vietnamese POW camp, wind up in a nursing home – and they want to escape. Things don’t go smoothly as even their backup plans fail spectacularly. Watching their every misstep is what makes “Never too Late” a funny and endearing romp.