$9.99 Reviews

There's no answer in the title's advertised book (doh!) ... rather its allowing the joy inherent in any moment to have its say, as some characters herein discover in this quirky and different stop-action animation feature. If you're in the mood, this'll do it.

Okay type.

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 absurdist edge. The claymation is really not very good; the characters show little in the way of facial expressions, making you wonder if it might have worked better as a live-action piece. The story is too weird for those looking for a straight drama, and too literary to become a cult item.

In "$9.99," Jim Peck has just had a horrible start to his day, first by not being able to hail a cab and then a disturbing encounter with a homeless man. His grown son Dave is unemployed and has just had a bad interview for a telemarketing job.(I agree with Camille that it is a lousy job, having personal experience in the field of telephone surveys.) So, Jim urges Dave to follow his brother into the lucrative repossessing business.

"$9.99" is an engagingly offbeat stop-motion animated film that is intended for more mature audiences. It is not only the sex and language that warrant this caution but also the themes centered around loneliness.(The movie reinforces my theory that people who talk the most turn out to be the loneliest.) The Pecks are not the only household in the film missing a woman, either through death or a vanishing act, leading to melancholy for all. To escape the loneliness, it sometimes comes down to the crazy things we do for love. Otherwise, the characters go through the motions of their lives until either something very good or very bad happens and then the pattern repeats.

Clay characters living in the same apartment block interact with each other. There's some unusual goings-on, especially between the repo man and his model girlfriends dislike of bodily hair, and between the immature boyfriend and his band of teeny tiny laddish friends, but somehow the whole thing fails to pull you in or make you engage with the characters. Maybe it would've worked better as a series of shorts which you could watch in turn and go "well, i never"

So I am sure that this movie has artsy stuff behind the scene, but too bad the story is not that great and needs a lot of work and more explanation cos the ending is kinda...not finished or something. There is something weird with the ending haha. 3 stars is for the clay animation art.

Another film adapting the work of Etgar Keret, this time told in stop motion animation. The denizens of a Sydney apartment building intersect with one another while our lead tries to learn the meaning of life from a book he purchased through the mail for a whopping $9.99.

It's a fun movie, worth a rental at the very least.

Worth seeing while it is still fresh. It takes a medium unconventional for an adult story like Waking Life did. The story is kind of meandering and boring at times, but even if you are bored the set pieces are cool to look at. Probally the first claymation nudity ever.

Well, it was fairly weird. The clay was both fairly effective and a bit distracting. There was a little bit of a carpe diem feel to the end, but it wasn't that convincing.

$9.99 is a wildly original, often surreal look at the different facets of love, both intimate and familial, and features both a singularly fresh animation style and an uncommonly intelligent script.

There are several short stories operating in parallel. None of them are engaging or interesting. It was interesting seeing the cool claymation animated figures, but that was not enough to make the movie interesting. Don't waste your time.

$9.99 is a series of unique short stories. However the tales are a bit uneven and get a little artsy at the end leaving you a bit confused.

$9.99 is a stop motion claymation film that centers around an apartment complex in Australia and follows the tale of about eight or so of its inhabitants. To give you a sample: there is a boy who loves soccer and is saving up for a soccer toy. There is a father who witnesses two deaths right before his eyes and has two son's who aren't exactly successful. There is an old man who everyone ignores because he yammers constantly about his dead wife. And there is a stoner/alcoholic who gets faded and hallucinates about three miniature druggie friends.

I have to say... the intro to this film is really enthralling. I won't give it away but it definitely grabbed my attention. It's quirky, sad and violent which definitely covers the multiple tones of this film.

The characters and stories are sporadically interspersed and no one story gets priority over another. And I think because of that indecision it sort of holds the movie back. Some of the stories aren't that interesting in the beginning but about 20 minutes into the film one of the characters turns out to be a living Angel, with wings! Now the Angel of course is the most intriguing of the stories, which is why he is on the cover of the movie poster and also probably why an Israeli funded commission helped fund this film. Now I think if the film didn't have the angel $9.99 wouldn't have kept my attention the way it did. I stayed attentive because I wanted to know the significance of the angel. However the Angel story doesn't come to a conclusion like some of the others which drove me crazy! All the other stories had a solid but not always satisfying ending. However the angel story just sort of "dropped off" (inside joke). I understand the angel changed these characters lives in some way and manner but why did he change their lives and why not all in the same manner either positive or negative?

Perhaps there is some biblical homage that I don't understand because I'm not that well read in religious texts but I find this to be the biggest detraction from the film. Also I don't mind the surreal hallucinations by the druggie but the story about the man who shaves himself to satisfy his lover - WTF happened at the end!? Is that real or not real? I can't tell you what happens because it ruins the surprise but lets just say some world mechanics were definitely broken.

All in all the film is quite idiosyncratic and moves at a very odd pace. I think if I were stoned this movie might have been too much to handle, but definitely check it out if you have an open mind and like seeing weird things.

In "$9.99," Jim Peck has just had a horrible start to his day, first by not being able to hail a cab and then a disturbing encounter with a homeless man. His grown son Dave is unemployed and has just had a bad interview for a telemarketing job.(I agree with Camille that it is a lousy job, having personal experience in the field of telephone surveys.) So, Jim urges Dave to follow his brother into the lucrative repossessing business.

"$9.99" is an engagingly offbeat stop-motion animated film that is intended for more mature audiences. It is not only the sex and language that warrant this caution but also the themes centered around loneliness.(The movie reinforces my theory that people who talk the most turn out to be the loneliest.) The Pecks are not the only household in the film missing a woman, either through death or a vanishing act, leading to melancholy for all. To escape the loneliness, it sometimes comes down to the crazy things we do for love. Otherwise, the characters go through the motions of their lives until either something very good or very bad happens and then the pattern repeats.

"9.99" seems to be quite the under-the-radar movie. I myself only discovered this Australian stop-motion animated film in a session of aimlessly browsing through Netflix. I decided to watch it just because it's pretty short and I didn't really have anything else to do. But I'm really glad I watched this movie. Sure it's not the best thing ever made, and I did only rate it a 60%, but it is one of the most unique, inventive, and charming movies I've ever seen.

"$9.99" is about the residents of one Sydney apartment building, all of whom have some major issues. The movie, without travelling more than several blocks away from the central building, explores how they all solve, or in some cases fail to solve, these problems. The plot itself is pretty unoriginal, but the way it's presented is really nice.

All of the characters in this movie are clay figures. These clay figures don't really look anything like actual people, and they're even less realistic than things such as "Wallace & Gromit" and "Fantastic Mr. Fox". But the style works. The attention to detail in sculpting the figures is phenomenal, and they manage to tell the story really well. Actually, all of the aesthetics of the movie are great. There are some great shots of the buildings and people that make the whole world look tiny, which is the feeling that the film tries to put out. The score is also excellent, so everything sounds great as well as looks great. And perhaps most importantly, the voice talents, headlined by Geoffrey Rush, do a great job as well.

My biggest issue with "$9.99" is, ironically, the length. I have ADD, so I often complain about movies being too long (cough cough, Zodiac, cough cough), but this one was too short. Despite the shortness being the original reason I watched the movie, I felt that some of the characters were not explored deeply enough, and some of the conflicts never got resolved. I know that last issue is largely intentional, and I grant them that, but it still felt rushed to me.

I guess writing this review was a big waste of time on my part, as most of you will never see this movie you've probably never heard of, but I had something to say about it. And I urge you to go out on a limb and see this unique and frankly weird little movie. Although the plot isn't perfect, I promise that you'll find some great affection for "$9.99".

It's a complex movie but is good in the background.

A unreal travel for discover the life, with a good utilization of stop-motion, any more, the begginig is the best part with the voice of Geoffrey Rush like a Angel.

Un irreal viaje por descubrir la vida, con una buena utilización del stop-motion, nada más, el principio es la mejor parte con la voz de Geoffrey Rush.

Anyone who watched this movie and expected it to actually tell them the meaning of life is truly ignorant. I feel as though the director and writer did an excellent job of showing in a round about way that there really isn't one concrete meaning to life. The whole reason the movie skirts around the issue is because why try and explain the meaning of life when showing it is so much easier.

(***): Thumbs Up

It is a smart and intriguing animated movie.

I've seen a lot of really weird shit in my life; the ending of this film is a notch in that column.