Personally I dig stop-motion animation, for the simple conscious factthat there's a lot of blood and sweat going on behind the scenes justto get an object to move. You can imagine what it takes to get acharacter to move an arm, and you extrapolate that effort into afeature length film with a lot more things happening concurrently onscreen, and you're likely to appreciate this artform a lot more, withnew found respect for it.

$9.99 is an amazing piece of stop-motion animation coupled with atremendously engaging story made up of multiple narrative threads, anda myriad of characters attempting to tackle their respective problemsin life. It begins with a bang literally, where a homeless man(Geoffrey Rush) with a gun in hand, asks Jim Peck (Anthony LaPaglia)for a cigarette and a light, before launching into some really clevermoments about manipulation. It's an excellent start to jolt you intorealizing that this film isn't just another walk in the park, and as itplays on, you'd discover its brilliance in its commentary about life,as seen from the experiences of the residents in an apartment block.

We have a family of three, with Jim who might just need his karmachecked for encountering really antagonizing moments involving death,and his two sons Dave (Samuel Johnson) and Lenny (Ben Mendelsohn), theformer being unemployed and is found to be central to the narrative,and the latter being a Repo-man finding himself falling, and obsessingover the love by new neighbour and supermodel Tanita (Leeanna Walsman),who has a fetish for a hairless body. Then there's a lonely old man whofinds the world contents passing him by with nobody interested inhearing him talk a bit (well, because he's long-winded as well),finding a companion in an angel, whom he asks incessantly about Heaven.Then there's a boy who has a friend in his piggy bank, and a couple onthe verge of being married having to fall out because one of themrefuses to grow up.

The "$9.99" comes from the price of a catalog of books, one of whichtouts to hold The Meaning of Life which Dave buys. Unfortunately, thecharacters here seem to be caught up in living their own lives andfalling victim to respective challenges life presents itself, and soevery effort that Dave wants to share gets spurned, and we theaudience, unfortunately, don't get to hear if there are any insights tothat. But of course we all know that there's no silver bullet, and thecharacters here, though the course of this emotionally moving film,learn of that meaning as it applies in their own, with the old mandetermined to take a more proactive approach, to a connection between afather and a son, to love found and running parallel to that, a lovebroken because of sacrifices that one has to make, or the lack thereof,and the maturing of a young child.

I guess nobody scoffs at animation, especially one that targets themature audience – check out that Dr Manhatten moment. I've new foundrespect for stop-motion animation, and for the filmmakers involved inproducing this fine piece of work. The attention to detail isincredible, never at any moment hinting that they had cut some cornersand compromised quality. Definitely highly recommended, and easily oneof the few films I thoroughly enjoyed in the festival lineup.

$9.99 came and went from theaters, but it sticks out very nicely on OnDemand, which is where I ultimately saw the little 70-minute claymationmovie (I could say stop-motion animated, which it is, but it is verymuch in the clay tradition of practically being able to see thefingerprints on the characters' bodies and faces). It's about... Isuppose how to live a life, I suppose, and that's emphasized by thebook that keeps popping up periodically in the film- which you can buyfor $9.99 (in the movie, not in real life, I think anyway)- that tellswhat the Meaning of Life is... that is, it gives a lot of other offersfor books on how to deal with this or that in life. It almost lookslike a coupon book, which is a shame since the character who is most inlove with it, a nice kid, seems very much engrossed by it.

But the title of Tatia Rosenthal's film is more like rounding offreality, perhaps. It's not a full $10, but the characters do try tomake that price in their lives. To put it another way, no one characterin this film is quite happy, but they keep trying, and maybe life willhave some meaning when they can attain some happiness - or not, as casemight be. Rosenthal's film, based on short stories Etgar Keret, focuson a group of people who have some, um, quirks to them, or are justpainfully normal. The film begins with a middle-aged businessmanturning down a homeless man a dollar for a coffee, and the homeless guypulls out a gun and shoots himself. He later returns as an Angel andhangs out with an old guy on his porch, smoking cigarettes andwondering what Heaven is like. The businessman's sons: one is theMeaning of Life book-reader, and the other is a repo man who falls hardfor a sexy (as sexy as claymation can be) model, and proceeds to shavehis whole body with hair - and then takes a cue from the organ-less menwho removed their body parts until they were heads and blobs. All forlove, I guess.

Other stories are a little more ordinary, more or less. More: a littleboy is told by his father to put away fifty cents in his piggy bank sohe can save up to buy a toy, but he finds that he grows attached to thepiggy bank, who he names, and finds the piggy's smile very comforting("I put money in, he smiles, I don't put money in... he smiles!").Less: a guy whose girl really wants to settle down and marry and havekids and all of that, but finds that he would rather spend time in hisroom, listening to records with his three little "friends", little menala Gulliver's Travels, and getting wasted on beer and pot. So thestories are mostly by themselves, but intertwine by certain events(such as the Angel doing a test "fly" off of the patio and witheveryone else looking out the window), or by thematic context.

The stories have a lot of humor to them, with one-liners that zing ("Ifound that there's not one meaning to life, there's six!"), and thelook of the film feels similar but is original in its own right ofcharacter design and approach (and, for once, we get a rated-Rclaymation movie, including full frontal nudity!), but it also goes fordeep moments and resonance, and Rosenthal strikes some good groundhere. She doesn't try and over-do the messages, but lets them speak forthemselves through the stories. It's genuinely odd, but it also givesheart-felt scenes and passages, such as the little boy with the piggybank (the end of his story with the bank is quite touching), and itvalues the power of human responsibility with fantasy in equal measure.If it were a little longer it might really be something great, but asit stands it's a curious little find.

An Australian-Israel independent animation clay movie that tells thestory of a group of lonely people living in the same block ofapartments. The story is told, mainly through 28y.o. unemployed DavePeck, who buys books by post for only $9.99, one of them about themeaning of life. But we also see his depressive father, hisdisconnected brother, a commercial sexy model, an elderly widower, afather living with his only child, a young couple in crisis, an"angel", and a former magician.

This is a film for adults that examines adult themes (loneliness,immaturity, lack of love and purpose in life, lack of communication insociety), with drug use, nudity and explicit sex scenes included. Italso has some surrealist touches in between, that I found delightful.

The clay animation is very cartoonish in a way, odd-looking at first,but very original, with great movement and good facial expressions,realistic clothing and body language. I loved all the decoration of theflats, all the little details inside them, which help to draw visuallythe character of the people living in them. The city landscapes andcity spots are also lovely. The colours and mood of the movie areexcellent, and also the music.

The individual stories are great - fresh, believable, and poignant.They depict well the sins and deficiencies of modern society, and thesocial distress in which many people live. They also show realAustralian characters and attitudes, those that you'd find in realworld, in your own block of apartments. Raw Australia withoutsweetener.

The main problem of the movie is the lack of a real plot. In most caseswe are just witnesses of the lives of those people, but we do notunderstand why are in a certain state or why they act in a certain way,what troubles them inside and moves them to act in a certain way - Lackof depth. Only after watching the movie, I learnt that the story isbased in different short stories by Etgar Keret, which explains in partthe lack of harmony of the film, and the disconnection of some of theindividual stories. The scriptwriter is to blame for not finding anelement that gives consistency to the whole film and not blending wellthe individual stories.

In fact, the aim of the movie might not be clear to the viewer. All thepart about the purchase of books is unnecessary. Many people will thinkthat the meaning of life is what the movie is all about, when in factthe movie shows that life does not have any meaning, at least for thecharacters of the story, and that life is what it is. So, why confusingthe viewer with elements that don't add anything to the characters orthe story line? I think it is a very interesting and original film withgreat characters that deserves to be watched despite its flaws.