Saw Mary and Max, a claymation film from Adam Elliot whom you may know from the short Harvie Krumpet. His films are all set in a comically miserable universe, where pets ceaselessly die, everyone has a chronic medical condition, everyone dies unpredictably and tragically and often humorously. At one point we see the Statue of Liberty who in this universe looks like a dumpy, frowning, lunchlady. We are invited to laugh at the grotesqueries of suffering and then we are made to feel the human emotions behind it. The whole opus is summed up in this film as "You are not perfect. You are imperfect. And so am I. All humans are imperfect." Behind the lantern jaws and grey clay, there's a secret beautiful heart beating.
The film is a delight. Funny and absurd for a while, becoming more and more touching as we get to know the people behind the quirks and tics. At one point, a man retires to a life of metal-detecting on the beach. He never finds anything and is swept out to sea by a tidal wave. His metal detector lays on the ground, its red light indicating that there's something metal beneath it. It's pathetic and darkly comic and sort of sweet. He did find something in the end, even at the cost of his life. There's a weird, neat almost-optical-illusion of cruel mockery that is somehow also gentle acceptance, like an old woman who becomes a young lady. It also finishes with an emotional lunge at the jugular that's all but guaranteed to make you cry. A wonderful, touching movie.
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