$9.99 2009

A.O. Scott, New York Times: $9.99 uses an extraordinary technique to bring the Israeli writer Etgar Keret's world to life. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: Animation is so often used for frivolous flights of fancy that it's something of a shock to see it employed in the service of a tale that emphasizes human foible and mortality. Read more

Jeff Shannon, Seattle Times: The stop-motion animated world of $9.99 is a marvel to behold. Read more

Tasha Robinson, AV Club: It's a sleepy film, both in its consciously low-key execution and in its startling flashes of dreamlike whimsy. Read more

Janice Page, Boston Globe: A movie that entertains and enlightens without being preachy. Read more

Sheri Linden, Los Angeles Times: Like most films that crisscross among a handful of city dwellers to mull contemporary ennui, $9.99 is less than the sum of its parts. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: With all the hoo-ha over Up, the latest Pixar extravaganza, it would be a loss if the highly worthy little animated feature $9.99 got buried in the avalanche. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: It isn't always clear if the animation is integral to the movie or merely a way of sprucing up its more familiar tales of melancholy and yearning. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: A small gem of an animated film, $9.99 manages to be rich in whimsy and fantastical turns while still rooted in human ground. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Using the droll, wise stories of Etgar Keret as her guide, Israeli filmmaker Tatia Rosenthal concocts an artful film that 
 expresses deep thoughts, lightly. Read more

Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: The stop-motion animated puppets in Tatia Rosenthal's beguiling first feature look like clay-mated slabs of glazed meat, at once unreal and hyper-real. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: [Director] Rosenthal gives the entire production a lovely, fine-art look, and a real feeling that we're looking at life as it's lived -- even if there are angels involved, and everyone is made of modeling clay. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: This often haunting stop-motion Claymation movie ultimately suffers from what bedevils many live-action movies culled from short stories: a herky-jerky plot. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Fans of deadpan comic fantasy writers like Douglas Adams and Kurt Vonnegut are likely to be intrigued by this lively little packet of weird -- then dive like a dolphin into Keret's loopy story volumes. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Using the medium of Wallace and Gromit and Gumby, Israeli filmmaker Tatia Rosenthal turns her clay figures into real people in $9.99, a wise, wistful study of hope and dread. Read more

Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle: It's an entertaining, depressing and ultimately hopeful movie about the times we live in. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: The conclusion is cheerful -- rather than strain for answers, we should just experience the joy of the moment -- but the road to that resolution is jarring. Read more

Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: $9.99 may not be entirely successful from a dramatic perspective, and it certainly offers little enlightenment about the meaning of life. But the film is so intriguing in other ways that it's definitely worth a look. Read more

Eddie Cockrell, Variety: A deliberately coarse character style that's more Gumby than Gromit. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Etgar Keret is sometimes described as Israel's Woody Allen, but this hugely popular humorist is more fanciful and morbid in his evocation of cultural schlemielery. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: A charming, poetic and at times surreal stop-motion animation co-written with Etgar Keret and based on the Israeli writer's short stories. Read more