A little less than the cost of a movie ticket
URGA MOTW
$9.99
Isn't it somewhat ironic when the movie costs more than its title? In this case, only 1c more ($10 Tuesday at Palace).
$9.99 is a curious little film - it's an Australian/Israeli coproduction, and made with stop motion animation - the characters are something like lacquered plasticine, it looks like.
The movie is about a variety of different quirky characters who live in the same apartment building, and although somewhat based in reality in the beginning, it takes a very big turn
for the weird near the end. The characters and stories are quite varied. They include:
All of the stories have their charms (and I've not listed all of them) and they have a whimsical feel, despite being about loss, loneliness, death, love and finding meaning in life.
Most of them end rather depressingly (but not all), and as I mentioned, some just get very very weird. Weirder than what's mentioned above.
As we came out of the movie, we all thought "Whuh?"
Technically, the animation is great, and it's a nice style. The effects of the lacquer or whatever it is on the models make the people look like they're always sweating (so maybe it's Brisbane?) and there's nothing in the animation that distracts from the story - the world draws you in.
However, the lack of direction or consistency in the messages of the stories don't make for a satisfying conclusion. But perhaps that's what the filmmaker was going for. Maybe there is no encompassing message that this film was intending to portray. It's just a group of stories that are somewhat inter-related with a small slice of life and some weird stuff.
7/10
$9.99
Isn't it somewhat ironic when the movie costs more than its title? In this case, only 1c more ($10 Tuesday at Palace).
$9.99 is a curious little film - it's an Australian/Israeli coproduction, and made with stop motion animation - the characters are something like lacquered plasticine, it looks like.
The movie is about a variety of different quirky characters who live in the same apartment building, and although somewhat based in reality in the beginning, it takes a very big turn
for the weird near the end. The characters and stories are quite varied. They include:
- A young boy who saves up using a piggy bank to buy a soccer action figure, only to find that the piggy bank has become his favourite toy and he doesn't want to destroy it.
- An elderly man who loves to talk to people feels lonely because noone will listen. He finds a little bit of solace pairing up with a foul-mouthed-and-minded angel
- A man who's been arguing with his fiancee gets drunk and stoned and parties with three tiny imaginary friends
- and Dave, a young unemployed cheerful man who finds the meaning of life in a mail order book that costs $9.99
All of the stories have their charms (and I've not listed all of them) and they have a whimsical feel, despite being about loss, loneliness, death, love and finding meaning in life.
Most of them end rather depressingly (but not all), and as I mentioned, some just get very very weird. Weirder than what's mentioned above.
As we came out of the movie, we all thought "Whuh?"
Technically, the animation is great, and it's a nice style. The effects of the lacquer or whatever it is on the models make the people look like they're always sweating (so maybe it's Brisbane?) and there's nothing in the animation that distracts from the story - the world draws you in.
However, the lack of direction or consistency in the messages of the stories don't make for a satisfying conclusion. But perhaps that's what the filmmaker was going for. Maybe there is no encompassing message that this film was intending to portray. It's just a group of stories that are somewhat inter-related with a small slice of life and some weird stuff.
7/10