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$9.99 (2008)

tomatometer

75

Average Rating: 6.6/10
Reviews Counted: 55
Fresh: 41 | Rotten: 14

Its storyline isn't as wondrous as its visuals, but $9.99 has a sophistication and handmade charm that sets it apart from the animated pack.

78

Average Rating: 7.1/10
Critic Reviews: 18
Fresh: 14 | Rotten: 4

Its storyline isn't as wondrous as its visuals, but $9.99 has a sophistication and handmade charm that sets it apart from the animated pack.

audience

55

liked it
Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 5,024

My Rating

Movie Info

A jobless 28-year-old residing in an apartment with his single father discovers the meaning of life for a bargain-basement price in this stop-motion animation film featuring the voices of Ben Mendelsohn, Barry Otto, Anthony LaPaglia, and Geoffrey Rush. Dave has made it his mission to discover the meaning of life, so when he stumbles across a book claiming to answer just that question for the low, low price of just $9.99, he can't help but make an impulse purchase. Much to his surprise, the book

Feb 23, 2010

Regent Releasing

Cast

All Critics (55) | Top Critics (18) | Fresh (41) | Rotten (14) | DVD (1)

A deliberately coarse character style that's more Gumby than Gromit.

December 16, 2009 Full Review Source: Variety | Comment
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A small gem of an animated film, $9.99 manages to be rich in whimsy and fantastical turns while still rooted in human ground.

December 11, 2009 Full Review Source: Detroit News | Comment
Detroit News
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It has been a good year for animation that pushes thematic and visual boundaries.

August 7, 2009 Comment
Dallas Morning News
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The conclusion is cheerful -- rather than strain for answers, we should just experience the joy of the moment -- but the road to that resolution is jarring.

July 31, 2009 Full Review Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune | Comment
Minneapolis Star Tribune
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Using the medium of Wallace and Gromit and Gumby, Israeli filmmaker Tatia Rosenthal turns her clay figures into real people in $9.99, a wise, wistful study of hope and dread.

July 30, 2009 Full Review Source: Philadelphia Inquirer | Comment
Philadelphia Inquirer
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It isn't always clear if the animation is integral to the movie or merely a way of sprucing up its more familiar tales of melancholy and yearning.

July 24, 2009 Full Review Source: Denver Post | Comment
Denver Post
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After the smooth finish of Mary and Max earlier this year, $9.99 can't match up with its similar dark themes.

October 29, 2010 Full Review Source: Cut Print Review | Comment
Cut Print Review

There is so much to admire about the skill involved in the stop-motion craft, but all films, regardless of their devices, rise or fall on their story, which is abstract and unengaging in $9.99.

August 9, 2010 Full Review Source: sbs.com.au | Comment
sbs.com.au

Director Tatia Rosenthal's inspiration was to populate the proceedings with animated 3-D figures; her cerebral, darkly funny film is a feat of stop-motion rumination.

December 16, 2009 Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | Comment
Boston Phoenix

Like most episode pieces, Rosenthal and Keret seem to have chosen the easy way out by not taking the trouble to develop any of the ideas beyond the basic anecdote.

December 16, 2009 Full Review Source: Screen International | Comment
Screen International

The film is more than picturesque whimsy, though: at times it reaches for some really quite weird imagery - and some raw honesty.

September 17, 2009 Full Review Source: MovieTime, ABC Radio National | Comment
MovieTime, ABC Radio National

Set in a grim, grimy, often bleak world, a hybrid, densely detailed environment of interwoven stories and chance encounters, with occasional flights of fantasy and rare glimmers of hope.

September 17, 2009 Full Review Source: The Age (Australia) | Comment
The Age (Australia)

The whole never quite comes together, in fact -- but even without that unity, the film has an oddball charm and intelligence.

September 16, 2009 Full Review Source: Sydney Morning Herald | Comment
Sydney Morning Herald

Think Robert Altman's Short Cuts with clay characters as engaging as human actors, and you might get a sense of what you'll experience.

September 16, 2009 Full Review Source: Courier Mail (Australia) | Comment
Courier Mail (Australia)

Not for all tastes due to its arthouse nature, this animation transcends into beautiful magical realism with a spectacular Australian voice cast.

September 15, 2009 Full Review Source: FILMINK (Australia) | Comment
FILMINK (Australia)

Playful, light-hearted and fun, with an impressive cast of Aussie stars and some fine stop-motion animation. As it stands, at 74 minutes, it's not quite as smart (or rewarding) as one would hope.

September 13, 2009 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine Australasia | Comment
Empire Magazine Australasia

The Jewish melancholy and downbeat humour that oozes from the original writing is overlaid with an Australian idiom, thanks ironically to the great cast, in a transplant that doesn't really take

September 10, 2009 Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | Comment
Urban Cinefile

It's a challenging film with plenty of merit as a handful of unrelated stories criss-cross and involve us in a mountainous thought provoking journey in which we ponder the meaning of happiness

September 10, 2009 Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | Comment
Urban Cinefile

The creation of this world is amazingly detailed; it's magic, really. But maybe the film doesn't quite reach the heights of everyman experience to which it aspires.

September 9, 2009 Full Review Source: At the Movies (Australia) | Comment
At the Movies (Australia)

$9.99 is consistently amusing but rarely laugh-out-loud funny.

August 30, 2009 Full Review Source: Washington Times | Comment

I'm kind of getting tired of these "grown up" cartoons like WALTZ WITH BASHIR and PERSEPOLIS. To me, they kind of seem more focused on the gimmicks than the actual story.

August 16, 2009 Full Review Source: Sin Magazine | Comments (2)
Sin Magazine

$9.99 may not be entirely successful from a dramatic perspective, and it certainly offers little enlightenment about the meaning of life. But the film is so intriguing in other ways that it's definitely worth a look.

August 6, 2009 Full Review Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch | Comment
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for $9.99

Okay type.

January 3, 2012
3niR
Dead Angel

Super Reviewer

The lives of the residents of a Sydney apartment---including a surly angel, three miniature surfer dudes looking for a constant party, and an aimless young man who buys a book promising to give him the meaning of life for the bargain price of $9.99---are explored in a series of interlinked stories, most with an

September 18, 2009
366weirdmovies
Greg S

Super Reviewer

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Foreign Titles

  • Le Sens de la vie pour 9.99$ (FR)
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