MEMOIR OF A SNAIL

February 14, 2025

Adam Elliot, Eric Bana, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Memoir of a Snail, Nick Cave, Sarah Snook

Words by JANE CROWTHER


Yes, it released last week, but chances are – amid the Captain America and Bridget Jones fanfare – you missed this Antipodean gem that lures with wide-eyed protagonists and sucker-punches with genuine feels. Though it looks on paper like a cutesy animation, this stop-motion labour of love is not designed purely for half term nippers (it’s a 15 certificate in the UK). The memoir at its core (based on writer-director Adam Elliot’s own childhood) is from Grace (Sarah Snook), who recalls her seventies upbringing as a snail-mad Aussie kid when she was orphaned and fostered, torn away from her adored brother Gilbert (Kodi Smit-McPhee). While Grace lives with louche swingers, Gilbert lives with creepy evangelists – will the duo ever be reunited?

Adam Elliot, Eric Bana, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Memoir of a Snail, Nick Cave, Sarah Snook
Madman Entertainment

As Grace tells her story to Sylvia, a pet snail, she covers heartbreaking experiences while in care that take in alcoholism, sexual abuse, bullying and cripping loneliness. Sounds grim? It could be without Elliot’s light touch – finding humour, moments of loveliness and claymation boobs (yep, did we mention it’s a 15?) amid the darkness. ‘Childhood was life’s best season,’ says Grace, ‘it never lasts, but everyone deserves one.’

Adam Elliot, Eric Bana, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Memoir of a Snail, Nick Cave, Sarah Snook
Madman Entertainment
Adam Elliot, Eric Bana, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Memoir of a Snail, Nick Cave, Sarah Snook
Madman Entertainment

A central light for Grace is her best friend, a quirky OAP called Pinky (voiced by Jackie Weaver) who smells of ginger and picks up the pieces that the self-absorbed foster parents don’t when they head off to a Swedish nudist colony. She’s a ray of sunshine – both in Grace’s life and in Weaver’s cheeky, delightful vocal work. Eric Bana also turns up in a small role that makes a mark.
Tragi-comic but also profound, Memoir Of A Snail is bursting with character and meaning. The ugly-lovely clay creatures that people it may be experiencing unique hardship but the themes of self-acceptance and fortitude are universal. As is the idea that we are all like snails: carrying around our baggage beneath a shell of our own making, and unable to re-track on the route we have already travelled. Bleak but beautiful, it’s an ode to all the ways humans are messy and broken. There’s a reason Nick Cave cameos…

Adam Elliot, Eric Bana, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Memoir of a Snail, Nick Cave, Sarah Snook
Madman Entertainment

Words by JANE CROWTHER
Pictures courtesy of Madman Entertainment
Memoir of a Snail is out now

TRENDING

Alicia Vikander, Andrei Zayats, Jude Law, Olivier Assayas, Paul Dano, The Wizard of the Kremlin

JUDE LAW

Jude Law arrived on the Venice Lido to premiere his latest role as Russian leader Vladimir Putin

A House of Dynamite, Idris Elba, Jared Harris, Kathryn Bigelow, Rebecca Ferguson

A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE

A House of Dynamite follows different US government workers during twenty life-changing minutes

BUY

You may also like…

Josh O'Connor, Oliver Hermanus, Paul Mescal, Peter Mark Kendall, The History of Sound

THE HISTORY OF SOUND

Ben Shattuck’s short story about two young men falling in love with each other and folk music is a thing of absolute beauty

lily-rose depp, the idol, cannes film festival, cannes dispatch, hollywood authentic

LILY-ROSE DEPP

CANNES DISPATCH 8 …Photographs by GREG WILLIAMS Lily-Rose Depp stars in new Sam Levinson-directed drama, The Idol, co-starring Abel Tesfaye, AKA The Weeknd. The HBO show premiered at the 76th Cannes Film Festival. Following a nervous breakdown that caused the cancellation of her last tour, Jocelyn (Depp) is determined to reclaim her rightful status as the

megalopolis, adam driver, francis ford coppola, cannes, hollywood authentic

MEGALOPOLIS

Words by JANE CROWTHER Megalon is a futurist building material developed by an architectural planning czar, Cesar (Adam Driver), in New Rome – New York with toga-esque clothes and a bacchanalian social scene – where a fight for power and ideology kicks off as Cesar defies the laws of physics and stops time, drops his ambitious