Tales from the heart

Movie Reviews
Memoir of a Snail
Directed by Adam Elliot
I’m Still Here
Directed by Walter Salles

BusinessWorld caught Adam Elliot’s Memoir of a Snail, the opening film for the I Animate: Animation Film Festival, which is also one of the films in the upcoming A Curation of World Cinema festival, which kicks off on April 30. Both film festivals are presented by the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP).

The Australian claymation tragic comedy is one of the two films to be shown in A Curation of World Cinema along with Walter Salles’ I’m Still Here, a Brazilian historical drama (which we had already watched a few weeks before).

While the two films could not be more different, they are both teeming with anguish and filled with heart.

Memoir of a Snail is centered on the story of a young orphan named Grace Pudel, who withdraws into a prison of her own making, outright likened to a snail that curls into its heavy, burdensome, all-encompassing shell. Meanwhile, I’m Still Here follows Eunice Paiva, a woman thrust into a more literal prison after her husband is suddenly taken at the height of a military dictatorship in Brazil in the 1970s.

Be it stop motion clay animation or a live-action historical narrative, films concerning the despairing interiority of a central character have the potential to shed light on the complex realities of the world around us. While often depressing due to the repeated abuses suffered by Grace, Memoir of a Snail is a joy to watch due to the little bits of meticulous detail and morbid humor that elevate the film.

It may seem unlikely, but animators could be inspired by the attention to ugliness onscreen — the gruesome yet affectionately molded plethora of lines on an old woman’s face, or the shockingly bright red blood of a severed finger splashing some color onto the dull surroundings.

Those who have watched director Adam Elliot’s previous offbeat masterpiece, Mary and Max, may find this film not as dynamic, with the well-crafted misery often outweighing the snippets of dark comedy. But for those who have been (or are often still) a self-pitying, reclusive Grace in their lives, the back half of the film brings the bleakness home to a cathartic, tear-filled conclusion.

As for I’m Still Here, the revelation is Fernanda Torres’ phenomenal Oscar-nominated performance as a woman who displays strength within the domestic space and later publicly in her fight for the truth. The film will surely resonate with Filipino audiences given the similarities of the Philippine historical context to Brazil’s. Ms. Torres’ performance, blending moments of restraint with moments of shattering grief, speaks to the human ability to remember.

It may not be as celebrated, but voice work in animation is a form of acting, too. And Sarah Snook, who lends her voice to Grace in Memoir of a Snail, deserves her flowers. She conveys all the emotional beats of insecurity, lonely despair, and tentative attempts to hope for the better. Those who relate to her timid, oft-ignored, yet quietly optimistic temperament may find tears in their eyes.

Notably, the creators of the film emphasized at the end of the credits that it was made entirely by humans. Of all animated films I’ve seen in the past year, this one proves most obviously that attention to detail and vulnerability through creativity ultimately make the beating heart of any work of art — something that artificial intelligence tools could help out with but never replicate.

Memoir of a Snail and I’m Still Here will screen at TriNoma, Ayala Terraces Fairview, Market! Market!, Robinsons Galleria, SM Mall of Asia, and SM North EDSA starting April 30. — Brontë H. Lacsamana