By Glenn Dunks
The latest in the very short list of Australian feature animations is called $9.99. Is it worth its title in a movie ticket? Probably not, but those who are willing to go along for this incredibly bizarre piece of stop-motion filmmaking will surely find something within it to tickle your fancy. A co-production between Australia and Israel, $9.99 is the second animated feature to come out of this country this year after Adam Elliot’s superb Mary and Max, and while that title is by far the superior one, it is encouraging to see such a medium being embraced by filmmakers, even if there’s no chance of them ever reaching the box office heights of even the most C-grade American animation.
Set in an apartment complex that looks like it belongs in a parallel universe version of Victoria’s hip St Kilda suburb, $9.99 follows a group of characters whose paths overlap and whose stories intertwine. Each is trying to find meaning within their rather empty lives. The meaning of life, as it so happens, is discovered by Dave (the voice of Samuel Johnson) in a book being sold via mail catalogue for a mere – you guessed it – nine dollars and ninety-nine cents.
Other inhabitants of this twilight zone are Dave’s father Jim (Anthony LaPaglia), who recently witnessed the death of a homeless man (Geoffrey Rush), who has come back to life as an angel that stays in the apartment owned by elderly Albert (Barry Otto). Dave’s elder brother is Lenny (Ben Mendelsohn), who is dating new tenant Tanita (Leeanna Walsman), who has a fetish for all things smooth. Down the hall from Dave lives Ron (Joel Edgerton) ,whose fiancé is Michelle (Claudia Karvan) and she objects to the pot smoking that results in Ron seeing tiny, imaginary mates in his living room and then there’s the lonely, little boy, Zach (Jamie Katsamatsas), who forms a unique bond with his piggy bank.
As you can probably already tell, Tatia Rosenthal’s debut feature-length film is a bit all over the place. Adapted from the short stories of Israeli author Etgar Keret, the film has a distinct lack of warmth. It suffers, as so many multi-narrative films do, from having too many characters. The tales voiced by Otto, Rush, Karvan and Katsamatsas are, at times, delightful, touching and moving, filled with wonderful observations on life and its many trials. Otto and Rush, especially, share a lovely rapport with each other, even though they are only voices recorded in a box. However, the stories of Samuel Johnson, Joel Edgerton and the increasingly freakish Ben Mendelsohn are intrude and bring the film down with it.
Adding to that feeling of unease is the style of animation. While it is nice to see stop-motion animation characters actually modelled on real humans, as opposed to the grotesque exaggerations of other titles within the genre, there’s something incredibly off-putting about them here. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but it may lie in the fact that the stories these characters are living out are strange and bizarre and perhaps a more playful style of animation would have helped bridge the gap between the universe of the audience and the universe of the film.
However, if you like your animation on the more deranged side and aimed at adults exclusively, then you may find something in $9.99 that’s worth the price of a ticket.
$9.99 is on limited release from September 17.