Written By Hillary Block

Alice is in her 20s, a graduate with a shitty job. She’s saving to head overseas, but family problems are holding her back. While she’s waiting to leave, Alice acts as our guide as we travel into the lives of her flatmates, her boyfriend’s band, her family, and a few complete strangers who have nothing to do with anything (probably).

The Last Great Snail Chase is a film from writer and director Edward Lynden-Bell. Michael Wesley-Smith, Caleb Ross and Sally Martin (who played Kandy in The Tribe and also appeared in Atlantis High) all make an appearance, Michael playing love interest and co- worker to Josie, Caleb as a band mate to Julian, and Sally who plays Josie. I should also mention Sam Shore, who played a Demon Dog extra in a few episodes of The Tribe, is The Narrator; basically there are a lot of Cloud 9 alumni hiding out.

And that is where I end being 100% positive about what I am going to say about this movie.

The film is set around a group of 20 somethings, all bored with life and their jobs, while the world seems to be ending around them. This is a strange little film. Combining stop-motion, animation and a few bits of CGI that don’t hold up very well. Divided into chapters, you get a Clerks type feeling, just without all the cussing and Star Wars references. I have a hard time saying that this was an awful film, because there are some great moments, and I think there’s a lesson in there somewhere about not wasting your life, but it gets lost among long drawn out banter about anarchism.

Yes apparently these normal 20 somethings are also very into anarchism and fighting ‘The Man.’

The storyline that is the most interesting, and there are a lot of them, comes from Julian who sells his soul for a cigarette early on. And thus goes through much of the movie being followed by his shadow. But like the other storylines it is never fully explained and we just check in and out of his life as well as the other characters.  There is also a poem that is read over various shots of landscape and everyday objects, though while a beautiful poem, it slows the movie down.

There really isn’t a lot of information about the film and the official site has long since been gone, but Edward Lynden-Bell has made it available on Vimeo. At just under an hour and a half you aren’t really wasting a ton of time, but be warned Michael doesn’t show up until nearly 30 minutes into the film, Caleb much sooner but with only a tiny role that spans a few scenes.

As for Sally, she’s the only Tribe actor who I’d say is a main character of the movie, she’s in a fair bit of the film, but I only checked her out on IMDB because the name looked familiar and she appeared in another film I had seen for Beth Allen also from around 2007, curiosity got the best of me. Otherwise her character is just the soft-spoken one in the group kind of the cute friend who of them all seems to be the only normal one.

The Last Great Snail Chase
  • Score
2.5

Summary

I give THE LAST GREAT SNAIL CHASE a 2.5 out of 5, If you like strange movies this is one for you and honestly as a free to watch online you aren’t losing a lot by taking a peek. Also if you have any clue what this film is about or even just to discuss some of the stranger elements, (Was the whale or the turtles real or hallucinations?) Drop a comment down below.