Adam Elliot’s animated feature “Memoir of a Snail” from IFC Films shows off sibling love with a snail’s quirky, whimsical nature in the first trailer ahead of its North American premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, which was announced in today’s lineup.
The stop-motion adult drama took nearly a decade to create and follows the life of Grace Puddle, a lonely misfit with a passion for collecting ornamental snails and a deep love for romance novels. Her life takes a downward turn when she’s separated from her twin brother at a young age. Despite ongoing hardships, Grace perseveres and finds inspiration through a friendship with Pinky, an elderly eccentric woman, as she slowly learns to find confidence and love.
The sweet trailer follows the twins as they grow from babies to teenagers, encountering bullies, rollercoasters, and old ladies in bikinis. With a swell of dramatic music and a lot of tears being shed, it highlights the film’s heartfelt nature and meticulous detail in its stop-motion creations.
“Memoir of a Snail” is Elliot’s second stop-motion feature, following his critically acclaimed “Mary and Max” (2009), which opened at Sundance. An Oscar winner for best animated short for “Harvie Krumpet” (2003), Elliot writes and directs the animated film featuring the voice talents of Emmy winner Sarah Snook (“Succession”), Oscar nominees Kodi Smit-McPhee (“The Power of the Dog”) and Jacki Weaver (“Animal Kingdom”), as well as Eric Bana (“Munich”) and musician/composer Nick Cave.
The film premiered in June at the Annecy Film Festival, where it received rave reviews and won the top prize, the Cristal Award for best feature. Elliot became the first two-time winner of this prestigious award.
Peter Debruge, Variety’s chief film critic, praised the movie’s “dark and surprisingly moving brand of storytelling,” writing: “Like Edward Gorey’s, 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.”
The film will open in limited release on Oct. 25, with a wider expansion throughout November.
Source Agencies
