Customer Reviews

$9.99

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

$9.99 is a gorgeous film with amazing stop-motion animation and a thought-provoking story. Actually, multiple stories that wind together and apart and together again. You'll be talking about this film long after the credits roll. It's an experience worth considerably more than $9.99.

Um, it's okay....

I've watched this movie three times, and I still can't fully get into it. I loved the over all idea that every person's personallity will lead them down different paths, even people with similar lives. For example, one man refused to give up his beer and drugs for the woman he loved, yet another man turned himself into furniture for his girl. Also, there was no judgement concerning certain characters who had chossen less then desirable life paths. More often then not films will point out the good people from the bad. By doing this, the audience knows who to cheer/boo for. However, in this film it's up to the audience to judge, yet you really don't judge... It's hard to explain.

I think one reason I didn't love this film was due to the lack of physical expressions of the characters. Everything was made very nicely, but I felt that the physical ques were lacking something...not enough body/ facial expressions to suck the audience in. However, the characters were still interesting enough.

So if you want a refreshing story, yet it's a little blah, then you'll enjoy this film.

If you enjoy films similar to this, then buy "Mary and Max" (another stop frame animation film).

A vivid multi-threaded parable by Israeli short story author Etgar Keret that follows the lives of various individuals living in the same apartment building, their lives touching each other, if only peripherally. Not necessarily to everyone's taste and though done in stop action claymation style one should note there is one steamy R-rated sequence, so recommended for ages 14+ depending on your parental standards.

The movie begins with Jim Peck meeting a homeless man (Geoffrey Rush) who holds himself hostage for a handout. We then meet other the other members of Jim's family - his son Dave starting out who can't find work, and Lenny, his brother who works for a repo agency and falls in lust (or lust) with a somewhat demanding supermodel Tanita and ultimately winds up sublimating himself to her. Dave is looking for the meaning of life and sends away for a book (the titular $9.99 to tell him what to do. Upstairs stoner Ron is having difficulty committing to his long term girlfriend Michelle preferring to party on with 3 lilliputian sized companions, feeding them eyedroppers of booze. And widowed retiree Albert befriends the homeless man, now an angel, and asks him if there's a heaven and if he'll meet his wife when he gets there.

Its a watchable 80 minutes exploring adult themes of loneliness, a search for meaning and angst, featuring a time honoured lesson that life's true essence is most likely found where we are not looking for it.

Well, for one thing, it was beautifully put together. The sets came across as thoroughly convincing - they gave everything needed for suspension of disbelief. The claymation puppets, too, are some of the most expressive I've seen, among those that stay somewhat close to reality. (I found the skin tones unsettling, though, about like what I enjoy least in some of Egon Schiele's watercolors.)

The plot? Well, it wandered: the lonely old guy who'd chat up a telemarketer just to hear a human voice, the earnest little boy, the repo man, and (of course) the angel. The interactions all stay way in the low-key range - action lovers won't find much here, except maybe the wry humor at someone being a repeat offender at successful suicide.

I don't have any easy words for this flick. When the mood strikes, though, I'm sure I'll come back to it again.

-- wiredweird

9.99 is a beautiful, must-see film.

Read my review by googling,"9.99 Pegasus News."