I was kind of surprised to find that Stopmotion was playing major theater chains in Chicago. I’d seen the trailer and thought for sure the film would have either a very small run (maybe at Alamo or Music Box) or go straight to streaming. It’s certainly a niche film. I don’t see it gaining any real traction with mainstream audiences. In fact, now that it has been out for a while (yes – i slacked on writing this review), I can confirm that by citing its meager first week box office returns – ~$500k. Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t really care about box office numbers. I’m just giving context to my surprise. Anyway – I went and saw it. Now I’ll tell you what I thought of it! (lucky you!) Let’s get into it, shall we?
Ella is a tortured artist. But not in the way you might be thinking (at least not yet). She works on stop motion films for her mother, who is something of a legend within stop motion film circles. Ella dutifully moves tiny model creatures imperceptibly under her mother’s stern direction. Mother’s arthritis has gotten bad enough to prevent her working her own films. Ella floats the idea of working on her original stories but chokes when mom asks to hear them. Her frustration doesn’t last long though, as mother is hospitalized and comatose after a stroke. She ceases her work on mom’s film, moves into an empty apartment her boyfriend finds in a semi-abandoned building, and begins her own film. The girl who plays in the stairwell is curious about the new tenant and soon wheedles her way into Ella’s business. The kid comes at an opportune time though because Ella is realizing that she might not have a good story idea after all. So, she asks the girl what kind of story she would make and sets to making that instead. The girl metes out the story in bits and Ella becomes increasingly beholden to her to provide direction on the project. As frustration, artistic failure, and a bit of intellectual property theft drive Ella over the brink, reality and grim fantasy bleed together in violent and terrifying ways.
Stopmotion is full of goopy, gory, creepy visuals. It’s nightmare fuel for anyone creeped out by misshapen puppets made with bloody roadkill (or worse). But that’s all of us, right? I was right to assume, based on the trailer, that the film is niche though. It is. But what is that niche? Who is the target audience? We’ll, I guess we are. As horror fans, we’re the ones that will give a film like this a shot. And it certainly has horror appeal. The story within a story unfolding in the film within a film, about a man (or maybe not) slowly stalking a girl in the woods over the course of a few days, is genuinely unsettling. And Ella’s descent into madness is harrowing. Aisling Franciosi turns in a beautifully nuanced portrayal of the tortured soul. So, why am I not full-throatedly singing Stopmotion’s praises? Well, the quiet (until it’s not), slow burn story focuses heavily on Ella’s failure to create art with her own ideas and with her own voice. That’s fine to be sure. But the way she overcomes her artistic block is clichéd. I am avoiding spoilers, but I will say that I literally rolled my eyes at one point toward the end of the film. It’s certainly not a dealbreaker though. The film entertains, the performances are solid, and the visuals are pretty amazing. Definitely worth a watch for horror fans and weird indie movies fans with strong constitutions.
The Final Cut: Stopmotion is a decent descent (alliteration!) into madness story with some gloriously disturbing images. It is worth a watch despite an unfortunate slip into cliché.
No Real Danger 