--- title: "Memoir of a Snail" year: 2024 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/memoir-of-a-snail" fi1m_id: "memoir-of-a-snail" imdb_id: "tt23770030" tmdb_id: 1064486 wikidata_id: "Q124656179" fi1m_score: 72 critics_score: 73 critics_reviews: 19 published: "2026-09-30T22:40:34.520499+00:00" updated: "2026-09-30T22:40:35.156255+00:00" region: "CA" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Memoir of a Snail (2024) Directed by Adam Elliot · 1h 34m · Animation, Comedy, Drama ## Identity Memoir of a Snail - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/memoir-of-a-snail - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** memoir-of-a-snail - **IMDb ID:** tt23770030 - **TMDB ID:** 1064486 - **Wikidata ID:** Q124656179 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt23770030/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1064486, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q124656179 **Fi1m score: 72** · Critics 73 from 19 reviews *In a sentence:* Everything that can go wrong for a lump of clay does, and then Jacki Weaver arrives > Adam Elliot’s stop-motion memoir is handmade down to the thumbprints and it is close to unbearably sad, sometimes on purpose and sometimes not. See it for Jacki Weaver’s Pinky, who walks in partway through and cheers the whole thing up. ## Synopsis Grace Pudel (Sarah Snook) tells the story of her life. She grows up with her twin brother Gilbert (Kodi Smit-McPhee) and their father Percy Pudel (Dominique Pinon), who raises them on stories and not much money. The twins are separated: Grace goes to Ian and Narelle (both voiced by Paul Capsis), Gilbert to the Applebys, headed by Ruth (Magda Szubanski). They write to each other and wait to be reunited. Grace grows up, fills her rooms with snail ornaments and waits, until she meets Pinky (Jacki Weaver), who gives her someone to talk to. ## Review Adam Elliot wrote, directed, designed and co-produced *Memoir of a Snail*, and it looks it: every set and every face has been pressed into shape by hand, and the fingerprints are still on them. It is a film about a woman telling the story of her life, and the life is a catalogue of misfortune played for laughs and then, increasingly, for tears. It is the best-looking thing Elliot has made and the one that most tests our patience, because it does not know when to stop hurting its heroine. It is worth an evening; line up something cheerful for afterwards. Grace Pudel (Sarah Snook) grows up with a twin brother, Gilbert (Kodi Smit-McPhee), and a father, Percy (Dominique Pinon), to whom Pinon gives a warmth the film misses once he is gone. The twins are separated: Grace to Ian and Narelle, both voiced by Paul Capsis; Gilbert to the Applebys, headed by Magda Szubanski’s Ruth. They write letters. The first act is the film’s strongest stretch, brisk and cruel and funny, and Snook’s narration has a flatness that suits a woman who has learned not to expect much. Elliot’s design is the reason to go. Grace’s house fills up with snail lamps, snail salt cellars, snail cushions, until the rooms are more collection than home and she is a small brown shape in the middle of it. Gerald Thompson shoots all this close and with almost no depth, so that a room is three objects and a blur, and the palette is brown, beige and the green of old kitchen lino. The clay is left lumpy on purpose. Teeth are crooked, eyes are too large, and every character looks as though a thumb has been pushed into them, which for most of them is true. Then Pinky. Jacki Weaver gives her a past full of travel and near misses she describes as though they were bus journeys. Weaver plays her at full volume with no fear of the material, and we laughed for the first time in half an hour, then kept laughing, because the film had finally found someone who was not a victim of it. When the film cuts away from her to check on Grace’s latest disaster, we found ourselves waiting for her to come back. The trouble is the misery. The film leans heavily on Snook’s narration, and Bill Murphy cuts the picture to the rhythm of her sentences, so that a scene ends when the line does rather than when the image has finished with us. Elliot shows us a thing, then tells us the thing, and sometimes has a character say it as well. And the things keep coming: a death, a betrayal, a humiliation, another death. Around the hour mark we noticed we had started to brace before each new scene, and bracing is not the same as feeling. Elena Kats-Chernin’s score is lovely in its small early cues and by the last third is swelling to tell us to cry at moments when we had already decided. Elliot’s [*Mary and Max*](https://film.one/film/mary-and-max) (2009) had the same clay, the same pen-friend letters and the same tenderness for people nobody else wanted, and it kept to two lives and let them breathe. This has one life and crams in more than any one life should carry, so the compassion that is plainly there gets buried under the next blow. The second half takes a turn we will not describe. Having taken it, the film relaxes, and the last twenty minutes are the warmest since Percy left. It carries a 15 certificate and earns it; the clay will draw children to the poster and the film is not for them. *Fi1m score 72, published 30 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics like Memoir of a Snail, and nearly all of them, including the ones who do not, admire the way it is made. The praise gathers around Elliot’s handcrafted clay animation: tactile, imperfect and dense with detail. Reviewers also credit the writing for holding comedy and tragedy in the same frame, and for its compassion towards downtrodden characters. Among the voice cast, Sarah Snook’s Grace and Jacki Weaver’s Pinky are the performances most often singled out. The reservations are about misery. Several critics find the run of tragedy visited on Grace relentless; Film Stories and Sight and Sound think the bleakness excessive, and The AV Club says it overwhelms the humour. Little White Lies calls the cruelty tiresome and the ending too convenient, and a few reviewers, Slant among them, find the heavy narration overexplains and flattens the emotional contrasts. The spread is wide, from outright raves to one negative notice, but the dissent is about tone, not craft. ## Straight answers **Is Memoir of a Snail worth watching?** *Memoir of a Snail* is worth watching for anyone who can sit through ninety minutes of handmade misery for the sake of Jacki Weaver, and we scored it 72. Adam Elliot's stop-motion is the best-looking work he has done, but the film keeps hurting its heroine long after the point has been made. Line up something cheerful for afterwards. **How long is Memoir of a Snail, and what is it rated?** *Memoir of a Snail* runs 1h 34m. It is an animation and comedy film. **Where can I watch Memoir of a Snail in Canada?** *Memoir of a Snail* is streaming on AMC+ and Apple TV in Canada, and it is also available to rent from Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV from CA$4.99. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service. **How violent or frightening is Memoir of a Snail, and is it suitable for children?** *Memoir of a Snail* carries a UK 15 certificate and earns it; it is not a film for children, whatever the clay figures on the poster suggest. It is not violent or frightening in the horror sense, but it deals in death, betrayal and humiliation, piled on one lonely woman. Teenagers and adults who can take sustained sadness will cope; younger viewers should not be brought. **What should I watch after Memoir of a Snail?** After *Memoir of a Snail*, try [*Mary and Max*](https://film.one/film/mary-and-max) (2009, Fi1m 80): Elliot’s earlier clay pen-friendship, sadder in fewer places and better paced for it. Then [*My Life as a Courgette*](https://film.one/film/my-life-as-a-zucchini) (2016, Fi1m 84): Orphans in stop-motion, seventy minutes long, and it knows exactly when to stop; and [*Anomalisa*](https://film.one/film/anomalisa) (2015, Fi1m 82): Puppets in a hotel, one lonely man, and the seams on their faces left showing. ### Reviews we read (19) - **Los Angeles Times**, Manuel Betancourt (90/100, inferred): Betancourt calls the film a triumph and one of the year’s best, praising its humanist blend of comedy and tragedy. He singles out the tactile stop-motion animation and its lovingly handcrafted characters. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2024-10-25/memoir-of-a-snail-review-animation-sarah-snook-adam-elliot) - **Empire**, Beth Webb (85/100, inferred): The review finds the film haunting, eccentric, and full of heart, with its joys feeling earned. It especially praises the expressive, entirely handcrafted stop-motion animation and the care given to the characters. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/memoir-of-a-snail/) - **Variety**, Peter Debruge (Critics Pick): Debruge finds the film a droll, darkly moving heart-tugger that celebrates people’s differences. He praises Elliot’s thoughtful, emotionally rewarding writing and its vivid stop-motion details. [Read](https://variety.com/2024/film/reviews/memoir-of-a-snail-review-1236033503/) - **IndieWire**, David Ehrlich (B+): Ehrlich calls the film a droll, poignant delight and one of the year’s best animated movies. He especially praises its hand-crafted clay animation and Pinky’s irrepressible joie de vivre. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/memoir-of-a-snail-review-1235050944/) - **Evening Standard**, Nick Howells (4/5): Howells calls the film an almost-as-good, darkly funny delight, though he finds its storytelling unsophisticated. He praises its heart and inventive oddness, especially the charmingly eccentric characters and situations. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/memoir-of-a-snail-review-sarah-snook-oscars-b1210287.html) - **Time Out**, Kambole Campbell (4/5): Campbell gives the film a positive verdict, describing it as a bittersweet story about coming out of one’s shell. The review highlights its handcrafted stop-motion animation as a gem. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/memoir-of-a-snail-review-2025) - **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (78/100, inferred): Bradshaw finds the film charming, beguiling and thoroughly enjoyable, with poignant emotional depth. He singles out its personal, autobiographical touches and the way its animation blends comedy with pathos. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/jun/10/memoir-of-a-snail-review-sarah-snook-kodi-smit-mcphee-adam-elliott) - **Slant Magazine**, Steven Scaife (3/4): Scaife finds the film’s bleak story buoyed by small triumphs and perseverance. He praises its meticulous, evocative stop-motion world, while criticizing the narration-heavy structure for flattening emotional contrasts. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/memoir-of-a-snail-review-sarah-snook-adam-elliot/) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, David Rooney (70/100, inferred): Rooney finds the film an acquired taste, but ultimately an undeniably creative and charming curio. He praises its vivid handcrafted world and abundant artisanal detail, while noting that it takes too long to uncover the pathos beneath its eccentricities. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/memoir-of-a-snail-review-sarah-snook-kodi-smit-mcphee-jacki-weaver-australian-animation-1235917931/) - **Screen Daily**, Wendy Ide (64/100, inferred): The visible text does not reveal the critic’s verdict. It describes the film as tragi-comic claymation and highlights its Australian voice cast, including Sarah Snook. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/memoir-of-a-snail-annecy-review/5194378.article) - **The New York Times** (64/100, inferred): The URL identifies this as a review of the film, but the article text is inaccessible. The critic’s verdict and any specific praise or complaint cannot be verified. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/24/movies/memoir-of-a-snail-review.html) - **Little White Lies**, David Jenkins (4/3/3): Jenkins finds the film original and memorable, but says its relentless cruelty toward Grace grows tiresome. He praises its distinctive stop-motion style and eccentric tone, while criticizing the emotional manipulation and overly convenient ending. [Read](https://lwlies.com/reviews/memoir-of-a-snail) - **The AV Club**, Jacob Oller (C): Oller finds the film’s relentless misery overwhelms its attempts at humor and sentiment. He praises its painstaking, evocative clay animation and singles out Jacki Weaver’s lively performance as Pinky. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/memoir-of-a-snail-review) - **Sight and Sound**, Ivie Uzebu (45/100, inferred): Uzebu finds the film lovingly crafted but weighed down by relentless tragedy, with its bleakness sometimes feeling excessive. The final act’s release and Elena Kats Chernin’s soaring score bring welcome warmth to Grace’s bonds with Pinky and her twin. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/memoir-snail-life-bittersweet-adam-elliots-stop-motion-tragicomedy) - **Collider**, Nate Richard (9/10): Richard gives the film a strongly positive verdict, calling it one of the year’s most human and beautiful films. He particularly praises Sarah Snook’s emotionally rich voice performance and Elliot’s stop-motion animation, while noting that the bleakness can sometimes feel overwhelming. [Read](https://collider.com/memoir-of-a-snail-review/) - **Deadline**, Stephanie Bunbury (85/100, inferred): Bunbury finds the film a life-affirming pleasure despite its bleak subject matter, praising its quirky, handmade stop-motion style and generous treatment of flawed characters. She notes that repeated dialogue and narration sometimes overexplain the story, but says those imperfections ultimately fit the film. [Read](https://deadline.com/2024/06/memoir-of-a-snail-review-australian-claymation-master-adam-elliot-sarah-snook-kodi-smit-mcphee-annecy-1235973390/) - **Eye for Film**, Amber Wilkinson (80/100, inferred): The critic finds the film a satisfying blend of darkness and light, laughter and tears. She praises Elliot’s intricate world-building and his ability to make the characters’ tragicomic stories both poignant and absurd. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/memoir-of-a-snail-2024-film-review-by-amber-wilkinson) - **The Skinny**, Ben Nicholson (★★★★): Nicholson finds the film charming, poignant and playful despite its tragic subject matter. He particularly praises the tactile, imperfect claymation and its compassion for downtrodden characters. [Read](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/new-releases/memoir-of-a-snail) - **Film Stories**, James Harvey (35/100, inferred): The review finds the film authentic but relentlessly bleak, and says its misery may be difficult for some viewers to bear. It praises the specificity of Grace’s portrait of depression and the film’s distinctive rough-edged stop-motion style. [Read](https://filmstories.co.uk/reviews/memoir-of-a-snail-review-the-most-depressing-stop-motion-youll-ever-see/) ## Details - **Director:** Adam Elliot - **Director:** Adam Elliot - **Writer:** Adam Elliot - **Cinematography:** Gerald Thompson - **Editor:** Bill Murphy - **Music:** Elena Kats-Chernin - **Production design:** Adam Elliot - **Producer:** Adam Elliot, Liz Kearney - **Cast:** Sarah Snook as Grace (voice); Kodi Smit-McPhee as Gilbert (voice); Jacki Weaver as Pinky (voice); Magda Szubanski as Ruth Appleby (voice); Dominique Pinon as Percy Pudel (voice); Tony Armstrong as Ken (voice); Paul Capsis as Ian / Narelle (voice); Eric Bana as James the Magistrate (voice) - **Runtime:** 1h 34m - **Release (Canada):** 15 November 2024 - **Genres:** Animation, Comedy, Drama - **Budget:** $4 million - **Box office:** $7 - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q47QUYb0hjc ## Where to watch in Canada - AMC+: streaming - Apple TV: add-on, hd - Amazon Prime Video: rent CA$4.99, hd - Apple TV: rent CA$4.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy CA$7.99, sd - Apple TV: buy CA$7.99, sd *Checked 2026-09-30.* Also available in: AT, AU, BE, BR, CA, CL, CO, ES, FR, GB, IN, MX, NL, NZ, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 2024: Best Animated Feature (nominated) - Annecy Cristal for a Feature Film 2024: Annecy Cristal for a Feature Film (won) - Critics' Choice Awards 2024: Best Animated Feature (nominated) ## If you liked this - *Mary and Max* (2009), Fi1m 80: Elliot’s earlier clay pen-friendship, sadder in fewer places and better paced for it — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/mary-and-max.md) - *My Life as a Courgette* (2016), Fi1m 84: Orphans in stop-motion, seventy minutes long, and it knows exactly when to stop — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/my-life-as-a-zucchini.md) - *Anomalisa* (2015), Fi1m 82: Puppets in a hotel, one lonely man, and the seams on their faces left showing — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/anomalisa.md) - *Muriel's Wedding* (1994), Fi1m 81: Another Australian misfit, live action this time, and Abba does the crying for her — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/muriels-wedding.md) - *Persepolis* (2007), Fi1m 87: A girlhood told backwards in black and white, funny about things that were not — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/persepolis.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/memoir-of-a-snail