He may not be a household name, but Melbourne-born Adam Elliot has earned his chapter in the annals of Australian film history.  In 2004, his took to the stage of the then Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles and accepted an Academy Award from presenters Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson.  He had been honoured in the best animated short film category for Harvie Krumpet – a 22-minute stop motion flick which, helped the Oscar win, was watched by many across the country.

Sticking with the stop motion theme, Elliot followed it with the feature length Mary and Max in 2009 and the short Ernie Biscuit in 2015.  He now returns to cinemas with the likeable Memoir of a Snail, a dark comedy about a young girl enduring a troubled life.  You’ll notice I’ve underlined the word “dark” for emphasis.  An animated movie with a snail on the poster might sound perfect for kids but this is heavy going and the M-rating in Australia (for mature themes, coarse language, and sexual references) is justified.  A heightened level of maturity is required.

Using a lot of narration, Grace Pudel (Snook) is the central figure.  She explains her rocky upbringing in the 1970s through to her predicaments of today.  I don’t want to spoil too much but her mother died in childbirth, her father was a paraplegic with an addiction to scratch-it tickets, and her twin brother (Smit-McPhee) was a pyromaniac.  Orphaned at a young age and separated from her brother, she was sent to Canberra and placed in the hands of two foster parents who had a love for swinger’s parties and nudism.  Standard stuff, right?

Whether it’s a product of her upbringing or just her inherent nature, the Grace we get to know is a reclusive, softly spoken individual who struggles to make friends.  She becomes a hoarder (collecting snail memorabilia) and moving in with a chatty, elderly woman named Pinky (Szubanski) who has seemingly done it all in life – from playing ping-pong with Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro through to having sex in a helicopter with American singer John Denver.  The interactions between these two are the heart of the movie with Grace trying to find a sense of peace and happiness she has long wished for.

For those with an offbeat sense of humour, Memoir of a Snail is to be admired for its nuttiness and randomness.  There are so many unexpected laughs – exemplified by an early gag involving a “retired” judge.  The dramatic layers are also impressive as Elliot covers topics including dementia, addiction, mental health, religion, sexual fetishes, hoarding, and suicide.  To include all of that inside of 94 minutes is a testament to Elliot’s talents.  The voice cast, headlined by recent Emmy winner Sarah Snook (Succession), add to the great material and bring these quirky characters to life.

It may not be for everyone but when picking out my favourite Aussie movies of 2024, Memoir of a Snail sits on top.