This could be just about the strangest – and best – use of claymation in a movie. Written and directed by Adam Elliott, it’s the story of a lonely young Australian girl who randomly picks a name out of a New York phone book to be her pen pal. The recipient of her plea is a sad middle aged Jewish guy who spends his life stuffing his face during the day (chocolate hot dogs are his favorite) then going to his over-eaters meetings at night. The unlikely pair soon starts corresponding about everything and anything they can think of from taxidermy to sex. Nothing is out of bonds, but there is never a salacious moment in their long distance relationship. It’s more a conversation about the oddities of life than anything else, brought to live by the weird and wonderful clay figures, as well as the excellent voice work by Toni Collette as Mary and Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Max. It’s an astonishing film.
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